Proposal of actions for the management of beaches due to the danger and vulnerability of their recreational use in case of repeated events of jellyfish presence. Application on the Costa del sol (Malaga)

The presence of jellyfish or other foreign elements to the coastal environment is a limiting factor for coastal leisure and affects a strategic sector such as tourism. To mitigate the negative effects of this issue, a methodology to support the management of the problem on across several beaches of the Costa del Sol, Malaga, is presented. It is presented in three phases. First, a diagnosis of both users and the beach itself is carried out, from which a cartography of priority areas for action is derived. In the second phase, palliative and mitigation measures for danger and vulnerability are proposed. Finally, in the third phase, the conditioning factors required for each beach to activate the proposed interventions are examined, and a matrix is drawn up for assigning proposals according to each beach´s typology. The results identify thirteen beaches suitable for the activation of some of the actions presented, in which the measures for hazard events are potentially feasible on practically all the priority beaches, with those of vulnerability being somewhat more restricted due to the conditioning factors necessary for their installation, such as accessibility or surface area.