Examples of class divisions and country synopsis for coastal scenic evaluations

In the last decade, the book authors classified by means of a Coastal Scenic Evaluation System (CSES) technique using a checklist of 18 physical and 8 anthropogenic parameters, 952 coastal sites located around the world. Each parameter was rated from 1 (absence/poor quality) to 5 (outstanding quality) and a “D” value obtained which allowed site categorization into five classes: Class I (extremely attractive natural sites) to Class V (very unattractive urban sites). Almost 50% of investigated sites belonged to Class III (n = 197) and IV (n = 248). Class V sites (n = 209) were also well represented, followed by Class I (n = 155) and II sites (n = 143). Examples of each class from different locations are presented to give the reader a solid idea of the characteristic and essence of each class. Classes I and II generally correspond to natural sites in (or close to) protected areas with low or little human impacts giving high scenic values. Classes III and IV usually correspond with sites of intermediate to low scenic value because of poor scores of both physical and anthropogenic parameters. Class V sites are usually greatly affected by human impact and at many places, are linked to emplacement of chaotic defence structures built to halt/slow down coastal erosion processes. At places, scenic evaluation covered large areas, e.g. the Caribbean coast of Colombia, the Mediterranean coast of Morocco, the Andalusia region of Spain, Mediterranean Turkey and the whole coast of a country, e.g. Bonaire, Cuba and Wales. These are presented as case studies: the main physical characteristics, management issues and class distributions are described, allowing a complete overview on these areas.