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This paper examines coastal management policies in southern Spain in the context of the state's role in the promotion of sustainable development practices. It recognises the critical importance of the coast as a landscape resource for both visitors and residents and, in addition, the latter's rights to enjoy access to it as public property. Attention is directed at both physical protection of the coast through erosion control programmes and urban planning policies, with special emphasis on the 1988 Shores Act that attempts to treat coastal planning in a more integrated manner than has historically been the case. The underlying rationale to introduce a more environmentally sensitive treatment of the coast is discussed together with the attempts to confront illegal occupancy through re-establishment of public ownership and control of land-use in the coastal zone. Positive achievements in beach management, and changing attitudes to the law, are seen as evidence that the message of sustainability is beginning to be heard. However, such success contrasts with failure to control the wider urban development process which continues (even in developments that postdate the Shores Act) to reflect short-term economic rather than environmental prerogatives. Thus severe limitations upon the maintenance of a quality coastal environment are likely to continue without enforcement of buffer zones at the regional level or a more radical designation of more of the coast as 'protected'. Such may well be encouraged eventually by the very same economic interests that are concerned to retain Spain's position in the global tourism market by providing an environment that is attractive to visitors.

For political reasons Spain's Costa del Sol had until recently presented a classic example of reactive coastal management. The 1988 Coasts Act introduced a more proactive approach, but its management still lacks a scientific classification of the coastline upon which to base coastal policy. Such an overgeneralized delineation of the coastal domain generally ignores the variations in physical and socioeconomic variables and is likely to lead to oversimplified management practices. Against the background of the policies adopted over the past 50 years, this article presents an index that delineates different degrees of sensitivity of the coastline of the Costa del Sol. A geographical information system (GIS) approach is adopted in the construction of the index that recognizes that coastal vulnerability is equally a function of physical processes and human activities. Four physical (lithology, landforms, river discharge, marine processes) and two anthropomorphic (population growth, urbanization) components are incorporated, and the results are applied to produce a broadly based measure for policy making in southern Spain that also has applicability in other coastal situations.

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