Indicators for the Assessment of Physical Carrying Capacity in Coastal Tourist Destinations

The socioeconomic importance of coastal tourism, combined with the general overcrowding of the spaces where tourist activities and associated infrastructures concentrate, are two realities that coastal area policy makers and managers have to face. Decision making should be backed up and strengthened taking into consideration the concept of carrying capacity. Various types of carrying capacity can be measured in the context of coastal tourist destinations (i.e. physical, economic, social, perceptive, etc). This study focuses on the concept of physical carrying capacity. The methodology used has been based in the development of a set of indicators of different nature, such as beach stability, coastal morphodynamics, land uses and land use changes, urban sprawl, beach quality, and landscape richness. The indicators were chosen carefully and built using spatial analysis techniques for the geomorphological and socio economic factors. The nature of such indicators strengthens the sustainability of the method allowing a repository data structure and its assimilation into a Geographical Information System for subsequent analyses. The methodology and analysis based on the set of indicators for the assessment of physical carrying capacity were tested in the Axarquía, on the andalusian eastern Costa del Sol, Spain. Tabulated and cartographic results are introduced in the present study.