SMART Coast

The Atlantic Area coast, both highly attractive and sensitive, is home to a multitude of challenges regarding climate change, with tourism being a major sector requiring evolution to succeed in adaptation. Some coastal areas are currently experiencing levels of tourist numbers that question the capacity of natural areas to accommodate visitors, facing a number of challenges, in particular the need to preserve the natural heritage of the Atlantic coastline.

Through cooperation between Atlantic Area regions facing these challenges, the project aims to provide tools for better understanding and managing coastal tourist flows, and to rethink access to these areas from a sustainable perspective. Precisely, the project will develop a common replicable strategy to ensure that visitors are better managed and welcomed.

This strategy will be supported by testing pilot actions based on visitor flow management, alternative mobility and visitor empowerment, to determine the best practices to adopt. For example, the Maharees peninsula, in Ireland, will host tests for alternatives modes of transport on this sensitive Natura 2000 site. It will also support the 300 year-round residents of Maharees and the estimated >12,000 visitors per day during warm-weather spells during peak summer season. Azores and Algarve, in Portugal, will test beacons and sensors to monitor visitor flow in real time. Piélagos, in Spain, will test a cbcycle storage system, electric charging points, and a vehicle and parking monitoring system.