Perception of environmental quality in a beach of high social segregation in northern Chile: Importance of social studies for beach conservation
June 15, 2021 - Gonzalez, Sergio A.; Loyola, Dayana; Yanez-Navea, Katherine
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EmailJournal or Book Title: OCEAN & COASTAL MANAGEMENT
DOI:10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2021.105619
Abstract: Sandy beaches are of interest to various sectors of society, so it is urgent to move to integrated and participatory models that facilitate the management of these socioecological systems. Currently, there is a growing appreciation of the perception of the social and natural environment as a valuable tool for the management of tourist beaches, as the opinions of users are essential to evaluate beach management proposals and policies. Chile has one of the longest coastlines in the world, where sandy beaches are one of the most interesting coastal habitats for the tourism industry. Based on traditional knowledge of a socioeconomic stratification of users along Playa La Herradura (Coquimbo), we studied the perception of the level of quality of different indicators and the degree of satisfaction of beach users in three different sectors through semistructured interviews. The analysis showed a not good enough evaluation by all users, a higher demand at the highest socioeconomic levels and a series of factors that require urgent attention from the municipality, such as litter in the sand, the growing accumulation of stranded algae and the presence of stray dogs. To advance beach management, we propose the development of a management ecosystem for sandy tourist beaches, including a central government that promotes decentralization of management, a municipality with high governance power, academic institutions with high public involvement and a civil society that mobilizes bottom-up processes.
Type of Publication: Article