GIS analysis of the consequences of short-term urban planning in a mass tourism destination in Spain

Abstract

[ES] La Manga del Mar Menor in the Region of Murcia every year reaches a population of more than 250,000 people during the summer, with only a few thousand in winter. This crowded environment with an asymmetric behaviour submits annual progressive impoverishment in its economic return. This questionable profitability is the result of a misguided urban development, and its results are analysed through the evolution of the land market and the resulting urbanization in the last 50 years using a GIS methodology.

[EN] Urban planning is a lengthy and settled process which results usually emerge after several years or even decades. That is why it is necessary for a proper urban design of cities to use parameters that are able to predict and gauge the potential long-term behaviour of urban development. In the tourist towns of the Mediterranean coast, the long-term design is often at odds with the generation of business profits in the short term. We present here the results of this phenomenon for an interesting case of Spanish Mediterranean coastal city created from scratch in the 60s and turned into a tourist destination today hypertrophied. La Manga del Mar Menor in the Murcia region every year is reaching a population of more than 250,000 people during the summer, which are reduced to a few dozen in winter. This crowded environment with an asymmetric behaviour submits annual progressive impoverishment in its economic return. This questionable profitability is the result of a misguided urban development and the results are analyzed through the evolution of the land market and the resulting urban in the last 50 years with a SIG methodology.