A critical view of the Blue Flag beaches in Spain using environmental variables

Over the past years, a growing environmental awareness in our society has run parallel with the development and implementation of environmental management systems in tourism destinations. The Blue Flag classification system for beach coastal systems tries to justify environmental quality, even when these areas have long lost their geomorphological and ecologic features. The aim of this project is to test if the Blue Flag management system really ensures an improvement of environmental and natural features of beaches, or if they are just a mechanism for improving the services and benefits to users. Thus, 481 beaches of the Spanish coastline awarded with a Blue Flag have been analyzed over the period 2007–2012 using different environmental variables. ACP and Cluster (Bray Curtis similarity) analysis show that the beaches are not characterized for their naturalness; instead they show high levels of human influence and artificialization. The concession of Blue Flag award is strictly focused on services offered to the users of the beach, and they do not take in account environmental and ecological issues related to the behavior of beaches as natural and fragile systems.