Developing a management-based ranking of beaches from a worldwide perspective

Oliveira, Elaine

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.1/19836

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Authors

Oliveira, Elaine

Advisor(s)

Newton, Alice

Botero, Camilo

Abstract(s)

The research aimed to develop a robust and objective framework, based on management effectiveness, to rank beaches worldwide by the integration of indicators and the assessment of the socio-ecological system quality. The methodology involved a critical analysis of web-based rankings to collect the information on how they are made and the indicators used. In addition, a survey was conducted in the Science Direct database to identify the indicators used in beach quality assessments by the scientific literature. The indicators identified were evaluated according to their usefulness for beach management following the SMART criteria. The indicators that passed the evaluation were grouped into domains and categories following the official classification by the literature. Moreover, a measurement technique and a 5-point rating score for each indicator was suggested based on these same articles. Weights were calculated for different beach types using analytical hierarchical process and focus group. The quality value of each beach was calculated through equations after normalization, and the results were output in graphs inspired by CS and OHI. The results show that web-based rankings are mostly subjective and that beaches on these lists are not directly compared to one another. Moreover, they are exploring the visual appealing aspect, which is clear by the importance of indicators (color of water/sand are the most recurrent). The scientific literature, on the other hand, despite incorporating a wider set of indicators, are also focusing on recreation and user satisfaction. The indicators chosen to compose the framework are distributed into four domains (recreation, protection, conservation and sanitary) that cover main functions of a beach and aim to see it from a holistic view. The allocation of weights allowed respecting the differences provoked by distinct urbanization levels, granting the safeguard of the characteristics of every beach type, while the rating score helped to reduce the subjectivity by ensuring that the scale of comparison is always the same. The application of the framework on Portuguese beaches validated the methodology and showed the framework fulfills its purpose of ranking and pointing out the strengths and weakness of every beach.