The Advisory Board for Sustainable Development of Catalonia (CADS) published a report in 2021 which was already planned before the Gloria storm two years ago and which the state of the Catalan coast, with its weaknesses and its tremendous fragility. The ecological disaster of January 2020 only highlighted a situation for which the report was responsible for specifying. “A coastline to the extreme” was the title of the technicians’ analysis, which also suggested the need to “change the problems of the coastline into opportunities for an ecological transition from the Catalan coast. The problem comes from afar and includes both the loss of natural assets (especially sand and dune systems, the regression of beaches and river deltas), caused by the channeling of rivers and streams, by the construction of marinas and by the effects of climate change, such as, and in a special and dramatic way, for a intensive urbanization for many decades. There is a fact, in this sense, quite convincing. Excluding the natural parks of Cap de Creus and Delta de l’Ebre, the built-up area in the first 100 meters of the Catalan coastline reaches 81%.
In the dynamics of dealing with a new avalanche of construction (which already began in 2005 with master plans for the coastal system and with subsequent revisions and moratoriums, which were already controversial), the approval of the Master Plan for Unsustainable Grounds on the Girona Coast (PDU) and the forecast of a similar plan in the area extending from Malgrat de Mar to Alcanar. This is the largest declassification of land exported in Spain, with the express intention of reduce pressure on the coastline and to place order in a chaotic order due to the multitude of municipal regulations and exceptions, and with the aim not only of avoiding new urban disasters, but also of contributing to better environmental conservation.
These plans provide the brake on the construction of about 85 000 houses along the coast, but the measure is observed as inadequate by environmental entities, while also not satisfying those who are already investing in investments that are already underway. This is precisely the crux of the matter, the government intervention in a space of conflict that includes urbanizable land that needs to be developed or partially developed, but which at the same time does not demolish and is careful when determining hypothetical compensation. It’s about ending completely offensive planning, but with an approach that he did not want to be a maximalist and from which those localities that already had POUMs after 2010 are excluded. This means that significant building potential remains, echoed by EL PERIODICO in Saturday’s edition. Cases like Marina Platja d’Aro or Aigua Xelida in Palafrugell (with spaces left out of the Plan) or luxury homes in Begur or Port Lligat, the destruction of urban pine forests, the Tarragona platform, Cala Maria in L’Ampolla, Torredembara or the Cunit forest, to name just a few, are examples that still seriously affect the sustainability of the Catalan coastline. There was the political will to intervene to protect, but must be vigilant to prevent further damage.
Reference-www.elperiodico.com