Public perception and social network analysis for coastal risk management in Maresme Sud (Barcelona, Catalonia)

Abstract

Understanding the governance system, stakeholder relationships and perceptions of coastal landscape risk is essential to improving the sustainability of coastal environments. Our main objective was to analyse social networks for the Maresme Sud coastal area in Catalonia and examine public perceptions of risk in order to shed light on how the current governance system could be improved to promote more adaptive coastal landscape risk management. Our methodology was based on semi-structured interviews of key stakeholders and a social network analysis, which provided contextbased information on stakeholder interactions and power relationships and the transfer and diffusion of different types of knowledge. In Maresme Sud, the strong presence of public bodies makes the integration of more adaptive and innovative discourses in coastal management practices more difficult. The role of supra-local stakeholders, currently poorly represented in the network, should be enhanced. Coastal partnerships could also act as bridging organizations to facilitate learning, cooperation and knowledge exchange among stakeholders.

Matrix of Architectural Solutions for the Conflict between Transport Infrastructures, Landscape and Urban Habitat along the Mediterranean Coastline: The Case of the Maresme Region in Barcelona, Spain

“…This research can be understood as an opportunity to solve these problems in a coherent way with the littoral landscape not only in one specific location, but also in other similar places all along the Mediterranean coastline following the methods presented [ 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 ]. Furthermore, in these littoral areas, there is a common conflict between the management of the different implicated administrations [ 22 ] (e.g., municipalities, provinces and government) and also between different infrastructures (e.g., railways, roads and ports). Hence, this research plans to establish unified criteria for the whole littoral that are able to solve most of the detected problematics.…”

Applying network analysis to assess coastal risk planning

“…This focus on the role of formal stakeholders is key to decision-making power and planning integration especially at the regional and national scale (Fisher, 2017). Governmental actors are more stable and easy to define which contrasts with a previous research on the role of informal relationships of statutory and nonstatutory authorities, where the boundaries and the characteristics of the networks were more diffuse and unstable but resulted relevant at the local level (Roca et al, 2014).…”

“…Folke et al (2005) have also shown how social networks can promote accessibility to, circulation and communication of different types of reliable information. Network analysis based on graph theory is a quite a novel approach, yet it seems particularly suited to dealing with power relationships and knowledge distribution in the management of natural resources, as demonstrated by several authors (Berkes et al, 2003;Adger et al, 2005;Bodin and Prell, 2011;Crona and Bodin, 2006;Crona and Parker, 2012;Franquesa and Budapest-Mengual, 2009;Roca et al, 2014). Network structures affect the ability of actors stakeholders to cooperate, share information and adapt their behaviour to new circumstances (Berardo et al, 2017).…”

“…Social network analysis has, to date, been little used in the field of coastal management (Roca et al, 2014), even though it is a powerful means for quantitatively measuring the number, types and intensity of interactions between social groups. Traditionally, the methodologies used for coastal management have been mainly qualitative and fragmented, based as they are on legal documents, grey literature and stakeholder-provided information and observations.…”

The coastal risk landscape application on the Catalan coast

“…Thus, it is observed that "objective" results obtained here reflect a high correlation with stakeholder perceptions for the area ("subjective"). As Roca et al (2015) suggest, stakeholders clearly perceive episodic coastal processes, such as marine storms and flash flooding, as the intensity and frequency of these hazards is regularly reflected in their induced impacts on coastal assets. Thus, Figure 6.4 shows the results obtained for these perceived impacts, where the railway and roads as well as the loss of beach for a protection function, are the items most valued.…”