Marambio Castillo, Alejandro Esteban

Roca Cladera, Josep

Romano Grullón, Ramona Yraida

UPCommons

Spain's coastline land cover changes: urban growth and Natura2000 sites network impact in the spanish coastline

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC

Romano et al. Spain's coastline land cover/use changes  Proceedings of 7VCT, Lisbon, Portugal, 11-13 October 2011 | 789 Spain's coastline land cover changes Urban growth and Natura2000 sites network impact in the Spanish coastline Y. ROMANO1; A. MARAMBIO2; J.ROCA3 1PhD candidate Diagonal 649 -1, 08028, Spain +34 934011933, yraida.romano@upc.edu 2PhD candidate Diagonal 649 -1, 08028, Spain +34 934011933, alejandro.marambio@upc.edu 3PhD, Director CPSV Diagonal 649 4, 08028, Spain +34 934011933, josep.roca@upc.edu Keywords: coastline, CLC, natura2000, land cover, urban growth Introduction Coastal areas are considered as the most valuable parts of many countries’ territories, either with respect to their natural and environmental qualities or with regard to the their potential for national socio-economic development. Therefore, it is not surprising that population has always been attracted to these areas. Trends in the European coastal zone showed that the growth rate of artificial surfaces was about 1/3 faster than inland.  For this reason one of Europe´s main concerns is the changes in land cover and population in the coastal areas. According to the EEA 2006 Coastal Report at European level more than 2 720 km² of agricultural land and semi-natural and natural land were lost predominantly to artificial surfaces, spreading 190 km² per year between the 1990-2000 periods. One of the highest increases in artificial surfaces (20-35%) has been observed in the coastal zones of Spain [1]. Due to the irreversible nature of land cover change from natural to urban and infrastructure development, these changes are seen as one of the main threats to the sustainability of coastal zones. On the other hand the 2009 Spanish Environmental Profile shows that 22,6% of the 1 km coastline represent artificial surfaces, 10 times more than inland. Artificial land consumption has double from 1956 to 1990 period from 6,3 Ha to 12,5 Ha, and triple from 1990 to 2006 period to up to 35,37Ha every 1 000 inhabitants 0. This contribution focuses on measuring and evaluating the main changes in land cover in the coastal area of Spain between 1990-2000 and 2000-2006 period using CORINE Land Cover (CLC) database and the relation between artificial surface growth and Natura2000 coastline sites network for the preservation of the coastline habitats. The indicators presented in the work include land cover changes, population changes and protected areas in coastal zones to understand the potential pressure and the land cover repartition of the Natura2000 sites. As development pressure continues to be very significant on the coast despite the fact that the degree Romano et al. Spain's coastline land cover/use changes  790 | Proceedings of 7VCT, Lisbon, Portugal, 11-13 October 2011  of occupation is already very high and the intensification of built up areas occurs especially in the first kilometre inland from the shoreline. Results indicate that the Spanish landscape is very rich and dynamic, diversity and fragmentation of land cover have generally increased, and that urban pressure is heavy along the coast and keeps rising. Methodology Using CLC from EEA database for 1990, 2000 and 2006, data was grouped according to PRUREL0 data set into the following categories: a) Urban Fabric, b) Industrial, commercial and transport units, c) Urban green area, d) Agricultural Area, f) Forest and semi-natural area, and g) Water bodies and wetland.  Database was prepared by municipalities level (NUTS4) using GIS in order to add population data and the Natura2000 database. Municipalities cover changes were studied into three different scales: first and second coastline municipalities, province coastline, and Spain (Figure 1).   Figure 1: Studied Areas for Spain The following indicators will be compared and analyzed, focussing on artificial surfaces (AS) and Natura2000 database; density, fragmentation and compactness metrics 0.  Density: by the built-up area density and city footprint density Fragmentation: calculated according to the following metrics; openness index, city footprint ratio, infill,  extension and leapfrog. Compactness metrics: by the proximity and the cohesion index.    Romano et al. Spain's coastline land cover/use changes  Proceedings of 7VCT, Lisbon, Portugal, 11-13 October 2011 | 791 Results The following table shows some results for the analyzed areas. It clearly shows that even if 46% of the 1,2 coastline is protected is the area which supports more pressure and a continues decline in its urban densities thus consuming more land as more than 40% of the population lives in the 1,2 coastline.    Total Area   Natura00   Difference Spain 498.827 100% 133.713 27% 365.114 73% Coast Province 141.051 28% 35.043 25% 106.008 75% 1,2º coastline 28.618 6% 13.057 46% 15.561 54%   AS 00   AS 06   Growth Spain 7.988 2% 9.599 1,9% 1.611 20% Coast Province 4.455 3% 5.116 3,6% 661 15% 1,2º coastline 3.069 11% 3.531 12,3% 462 15%   Pop 00   Pop 06   Growth Spain 39.190.993 100% 42.569.143 100% 3.378.150 9% Coast Province 22.120.341 56% 24.297.157 57% 2.176.816 10% 1,2º coastline 15.550.710 40% 17.215.728 40% 1.665.018 11%   Dens00   Dens06   Growth Spain 79 85 7 9% Coast Province 157 172 15 10% 1,2º coastline 543   602   58 11%   UrbDens00   UrbDens06   Growth Spain 4.906 4.435 -471 -10% Coast Province 4.965 4.749 -216 -4% 1,2º coastline 5.067   4.876   -191 -4% Table 2: General data References [1] EEA Report No/6 (2006), The changing faces of Europe's coastal areas. ISSN 1725-9177 [2] Arellano, B. et al. (2010) El urban sprawl, ¿un fenómeno de alcance planetario? Los ejemplos de México y España, ACE: Architecture, City and Environment, Año IV, núm. 12 Febrero. P. 115-147 ISSN: 1886-4805 [3] PRUREL (2009) Peri-urban land use relationships – strategies and sustainability assessment tools for urban-rural linkages, integrated project, Module 4 D4.3.1 Romano et al. Spain's coastline land cover/use changes  792 | Proceedings of 7VCT, Lisbon, Portugal, 11-13 October 2011  [4] Shlomo, A. et al. (2010) Persistent Decline in Urban Densities Global and Historical Evidence of ‘Sprawl’. Inventory ID WP10SA1 

Spain's coastline land cover changes: urban growth and Natura2000 sites network impact in the spanish coastline

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