CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Coastal environments are spaces where people may develop varied economic and recreational activities,such as tourism, which usually damage beaches and other natural resources commonly placed in thesesettings. The aim of this paper is to present a methodology to estimate and evaluate the Beach CarryingCapacity (BCC) and the actual beach usage level in coastal cities, using on-site information and videoprocessing to provide significant real-time data. To test our methodology, we chose the coastal city ofMonte Hermoso, Argentina, as a pilot site because it is by far the prime choice for a large populationduring summer vacation in this country. Initially, to estimate BCC, cartographic information about facilitiesand beach zones was collected and combined with surveys requested to tourists, to better understandtheir habits and preferences. This allowed an accurate estimation of other beach capacitiesrelated to BCC. Secondly, beach video sequences were processed with an algorithm that identified,located and counted people on the beach with an adequate accuracy. The actual occupancy factor wascomputed and used to asses whether the BCC had been exceeded. Also, people were tracked and theirpreferred relaxing areas were registered (e.g, closer to seaside during the morning). Finally, all the informationwas stored and visualized using a Geographic Information System (GIS) which allows both toanalyze the different information layers and to produce interactive thematic maps. In this way, theresulting methodology may help to identify zones under risk of deterioration and to define suitableplaces for the development of varied activities (specially those related to tourism). It may also serve as adashboard for decision and policy making and contribute to coastal management planning as well.