The importance of user's perception for beach management

Many beach typologies exist. In this paper, beaches are differentiated into four main classes: urban, semi-urban, rural and remote. One hundred and forty beach user surveys were carried out in Portugal and 142 in Wales for the four different beach types; respectively four in SW Portugal (Vasco da Gama, São Torpes, Grande de Porto Covo and Ilha do Pessegueiro) and four (Coney beach, Newton, Southerndown, and Llangennith) in South Wales, UK during June and September 2007. For all eight beaches, results suggested that beach users give particular importance to three aspects: litter (97% in Portugal, 74% in Wales), water quality (95% in Portugal and 60% in Wales) and safety (81% in Portugal and 59% in Wales). On remote beaches, users considered the scenic aspect to be most important whilst in urban beaches, facilities and car parking aspects were deemed to be the prime factors, suggesting that correct and effective beach management planning should always take cognisance of beach typology.