Forty years of coastal policy in Andalusia: An exploratory analysis of the Andalusian Governing Council's political output (1982-2022)

Coastal environments are among the most densely populated and environmentally pressured worldwide, and Andalusia, the largest coastal region of Spain, is no exception. The Andalusian Governing Council (AGC), tasked with the political leadership of the region, is a key actor in coastal management, yet its political output has never been systematically analysed. This study fills this gap by providing the first systematic and quantitative analysis of the AGC's coastal policy decisions over a 40-year period (1982-2022).We identified 965 coastal-related decisions of all 38,326 decisions made by the AGC. Our statistical analysis indicate a moderate but statistically significant increase of mixed-type decisions (τ = 0.57, p < .05), as well as a consistent growth in Regional Ministries that integrate environmental and primary sectors responsibilities (τ = 0.648, p < .05). The actor analysis highlights the predominance of public institutions, which accounted for more than 50% of decisions in all legislatures. Despite these trends, our findings reveal lack of a sustained and specific coastal policy in Andalusia, replaced instead by reactive measures and a gradual, though unspecialised, shift toward integrated approaches.