The Beach Crowding Index: A Tool for Assessing Social Carrying Capacity of Vulnerable Beaches

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to introduce the Beach Crowding Index (BCI), a procedure to assess the social carrying capacity of vulnerable beaches. The study uses the PAOT (people at one time) approach and data gathered weekly throughout the bathing season regarding the number of beachgoers in 100m2cells of the beach to assess how many beachgoers it can comfortablyhold. The procedureis based on field work, interviewswith beachgoers and GIS analysis, andhas been tested on four beaches in protected areas on the Spanish Mediterranean coast. On a scale from 0 to 4, minimum scores throughout the bathing season are 0.7 and maximum 3.7, although results showed wide variationbetween the beaches, the section of the beach and the time of day. This study suggests that determining the location of beachgoers and collecting a long-term series of data is fundamental to assessing social carrying capacity, and thatthe BCI procedure can be used in a large number of applications