Assessment of scenic, natural and cultural heritage for sustainable management of tourist beaches. A case study of Gran Canaria island (Spain)

Carolina Peña-Alonso, Emma Pérez-Chacón, Luis Hernández-Calvento and Eduard Ariza

Land Use Policy, 2018, vol. 72, issue C, 35-45

Abstract: In the last few decades, the recreational use of beaches and their surrounding areas has increased substantially, influencing the alteration and the loss of heritage elements. For beaches with year-round tourist activity, such as those located in the Canary Islands (Spain), it is especially important to evaluate heritage-based values and in this way contribute to their preservation and integration in local management policies. In this work, an indicator system (comprised of three partial indices: scenic, natural and cultural value) is developed, integrating scientific-technical procedures with narratives of different stakeholders (users, managers, academics, etc.) to assess the value of heritage-based assets in urban, semi-urban and natural beaches. The results obtained reflect a low cultural value and moderate-high scenic value for the three beach types and a high natural value for urban beaches, which is by contrast low in semi-urban beaches. Special importance is given to the need to integrate the heritage values that were identified in the management and planning of each beach.

Keywords: Heritage; Indicator system; Island environments; User perceptions; Environmental conservation; Beach management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837717306233
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:72:y:2018:i:c:p:35-45

DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2017.12.030

Access Statistics for this article

Land Use Policy is currently edited by Jaap Zevenbergen

More articles in Land Use Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Joice Jiang ().