Creation of the Systematized Model of analysis and management of public use [FINISHED]

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CALENDAR

START: February 2021

FINAL: August 2021

TARGETS:

  1. Analyze the bathing areas of the internal basins of Montagut, Sales, Tortellà and Beuda from an environmental and communicative perspective, to identify the main threats, make a diagnosis of the current state of the space and determine conservation objectives and public use management.
  2. Design a management plan for the bathing areas of the internal basins of Montagut, Sales, Tortellà and Beuda through regulation, management of uses and accesses and environmental communication.
  3. To determine a management model for public use for bathing areas of internal basins from the perspective of the regulation of uses, management of space and access, and communication for the environmental awareness of these natural spaces .

 

 

FINANCERS:

  1. Diputació de Girona

 

SUMMARY:

Overcrowding in some natural areas of Catalonia is a growing problem, especially in gorges. Due to the lack of regulation, users have been visiting these spaces over time without any specific recreational use regulations or a public use management model that takes into account the environmental perspective. This has a high impact on natural spaces with their consequent effect on biodiversity and the environment, as well as social conflicts due to the discomfort of the inhabitants of these municipalities who are not prepared for this overcrowding.

Some of these areas contain habitats of priority interest and protected species of fauna and flora, and the impact of the lack of regulation at the ecosystem level (waste, noise pollution, erosion, water eutrophication, invasive species ...) causes a displacement or disappearance of the most fragile species and consequently a loss of richness and biodiversity.

In addition, the globalization and dissemination of information on images and locations of these natural spaces on the Internet and social networks makes this problem more likely to increase. The ecosystem of digitized media and the transition from receiving users to content creators makes what is published on the web unpredictable, with an increase in content to visit that users add to their bucketlist of essential spaces in be visited, where natural spaces have a high appeal due to their unique landscape.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this summer 2020 has seen a much higher overcrowding in these areas, as a large part of the population has avoided international tourism and opted for inland tourism. Some of the natural spaces in Catalonia have doubled and tripled the number of visiting users compared to the summer seasons of previous years. This fact has further increased the problems mentioned above, leading some municipalities to want to take active management of the situation.

Recently, in some of the affected municipalities, regulations for the use and access to the natural environment have been implemented in order to alleviate this situation.Due to the lack of regulation mentioned above, and the disparity of measures adopted by the affected councils, a model of public use management with an environmental perspective in these natural spaces has not been unified, resulting in the transfer of pressures from 'one municipality to another, where users who have avoided visiting the bathroom spaces with more restrictive regulations end up accessing others with looser measures or poorly implemented.

Thus, there is a need to assume the creation of a management model for public use that takes into account the active management of overcrowding to which these fragile spaces are exposed. In addition, it is required to focus on the issue from communication and environmental education to, on the one hand, socialize a model for these natural spaces that makes your visit compatible with the conservation of the environment and, on the other, encourage changes in visitors' attitudes in their access to the natural environment to minimize their impact.

 

RESULTS:

You can download the model at this link