Urban Transformation of the Coastline from a Landscape Perspective. Analysis of Cases on the Costa del Sol (Spain)

Abstract

The Spanish Mediterranean coastline has been one of the regions with the fastest urbanization process since the mid-20th century. This study analyzes the urban colonization of the first coastline in two municipalities of the Costa del Sol in southern Spain, Manilva and Marbella, from the mid-twentieth century to the present. For this purpose, pre-existing data were processed by GIS using combined photointerpretation and remote sensing techniques from the Urban Atlas and alphanumeric information from the Spanish Cadastre. The unavailable information was elaborated ad-hoc by means of photo-interpretation techniques and field work. The results show an intense process of urbanization, in which the N-340 road, which has ended up clogging the coastline of Marbella, while in Manilva there are still spaces free of buildings. If the study is carried out for the different periods, we can see how the urban development model has evolved, from an initial phase with a predominantly extensive residential model, passing through construction profiles of greater height and building density in the following decades to, from the beginning of the 21st century, return to an extensive model in a saturated territory. The integration of different photointerpretation and remote sensing techniques with geo-referenced data shows a very high efficiency to analyze the territory from a landscape perspective, to which historical information can be added in the future in graphic or written formats, especially at a scale of detail that does not reach the historical aerial photography.