Coastal Scenic Beauty and Sensitivity at the Balearic Islands, Spain: Implication of Natural and Human Factors

Abstract

Coastal areas globally are facing a significant range of environmental stresses, enhanced by climate change-related processes and a continuous increase of human activities. The economic benefits of tourism are well-known for coastal regions, but, very often, conflicts arise between short-term benefits and long-term conservation goals. Among beach user preferences, five parameters of greater importance stand out from the rest, i.e., safety, facilities, water quality, litter and scenery; the latter is the main concern of this study. A coastal scenic evaluation was carried out in the Balearic Islands and focused on two major issues: coastal scenic beauty together with sensitivity to natural processes and human pressure. The archipelago is renowned as a top international coastal tourist destination that receives more than 13.5 million visitors (2019). Impressive landscape diversity makes the Balearics Islands an ideal field for this research. In total, 52 sites, respectively located in Ibiza (11), Formentera (5), Mallorca (18) and Menorca (18), were field-tested. In a first step, coastal scenic beauty was quantified using the coastal scenic evaluation system (CSES) method, based on the evaluation of 26 physical and human parameters, and using weighting matrices parameters and fuzzy logic mathematics. An evaluation index (“D”) was obtained for each site, allowing one to classify them in one of the five scenic classes established by the method. Twenty-nine sites were included in class I, corresponding to extremely attractive sites (CSES), which were mainly observed in Menorca. Several sound measures were proposed to maintain and/or enhance sites’ scenic value. In a second step, scenic sensitivity was evaluated using a novel methodological approach that makes possible the assessment of three different coastal scenic sensitivity indexes (CSSI), i.e., the natural sensitivity index NSI, the human sensitivity index HSI and the total sensitivity index TSI. Future climate change trends and projection of tourism development, studied at municipality scale, were considered as correction factors. All the islands showed places highly sensitive to environmental processes, while sensitivity to human pressure was essentially observed at Ibiza and Mallorca. Thereafter, sites were categorized into one of three sensitive groups established by the methodology. Results obtained are useful in pointing out very sensitive sceneries as well as limiting, preventing and/or anticipating future scenic degradation linked to natural and human issues.

Acceptance of Tourist Offers and Territory: Cluster Analysis of Ibiza Residents (Spain)

“…In recent decades, interest in the study of tourism in coastal areas has grown [76], and it is evident that the constant search for economic value generates conflict between tourism development and the landscape of these areas [77], as well as with the local community, caused, among other things, by the design of the tourist offer and the subsequent overwhelming visit of tourists. Thus, it has become imperative to understand the opinion on these aspects of one of the most important stakeholders in the tourism business-the residents.…”

Most Attractive Scenic Sites of the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast: Characterization and Sensitivity to Natural and Human Factors

“…Along the Black Sea Bulgarian coast, 16 of the most attractive coastal scenic sites were evaluated by using the Coastal Scenic Evaluation System (CSES) [39][40][41] and the Coastal Scenic Sensitivity Index (CSSI) [37,38], as sites can potentially be affected in future decades by climate-change-related processes and increased tourist pressure. The key aspects of both methods, as stated in Mooser et al [37,38], are presented in Figure 2. Scenic beauty assessment.…”

“…The focus of this paper is the research of Class I and II, sites and, secondary, Class III sites (Figure 2), that are accessible for beach users by a walk <1.5 hours from the nearest car parking. The selection process was realized according to the same standard applied in the Balearic Islands and Andalusia, Spain [38,53], as detailed in the following lines: (i)…”

“…In this paper, the most attractive scenic sites of the Black Sea Bulgarian coast have been characterized and their sensitivity to climate-change-related processes and human pressure analyzed according to the methodology proposed by Mooser et al [37,38]. The Coastal Scenery Evaluation System (CSES) [39][40][41] was used to characterize the most attractive coastal scenic sites along the investigated area, together with the Coastal Scenic Sensitivity Index (CSSI) [37] to determine present and future coastal scenic sites' sensitivity to both natural processes and human interventions.…”

Important Factors Affecting Rural Tourists’ Aesthetic Experience: A Case Study of Zoumatang Village in Ningbo

“…This leads to a four-domain model for aesthetic judgment: land cover types (i.e., grassland, forest types, wood, lawn); informational variables (i.e., variety, mystery, coherence, legibility); perception-based variables (i.e., openness, smoothness), and physical attributes (i.e., compatibility, naturalness, variety) [47]. Naturality [48], openness [49], vegetation [50], and variation [51] are identified as factors predicting aesthetic judgments. Vegetation, the degree of human influence and the typicality of the environment are important predictors of aesthetic judgment [52].…”