by Some of the most popular coasts in Europe disappear from our eyes. The parts of the Spain Costa del Sol, Malta’s wild islands, the bays and cliffs of the French Riviera – everyone is threatened and stolen by rising, stormy seas.
In the Algarve, the Portuguese Minister of the Environment and Energy, Maria da Graça Carvalho, warned in April that “emergency intervention” was required to fill Fuseta Beach in Olhão after extensive storms.
Around 150,000 cubic meters of sand are obliged to restore its 600 m long, 30 m wide coast for the summer.
In Spain, only 30,000 cubic meters of sand are washed away by Barcelona’s beaches every year. In 2024, according to the local authorities, the province lost up to 25 m of sand to storms.
The beaches of Barcelona are reinforced by artificial sand, but of the 700,000 cubic meters that were added to the coast in 2010, an estimated 70 percent have now disappeared.
What causes coastal erosion?
It is a natural process, but it is often tightened by human and climate -colored factors, says Maria Ferreira, director of the international program at the Coastal & Marine Union (Eucc), which promotes sustainable coastal development in Europe.
“Storms are an important cause of coastal erosion, especially for fast and dramatic coastal changes,” she explains. “Other natural factors such as waves, currents, wind, sea level and changes in sediment supply play a crucial role.
“Human activities make and intensify these processes and make and make coastal erosion a complex challenge.” This can be the developments for residential or golf courses on Klittops, dredging, building coastal barriers or developing mangroves.
Experts assume that coastal erosion will deteriorate with a deepening of the climate crisis. “With the projected increase in the sea level of around one meter in the next century, the submission of wave energy will increase due to longer exposure times,” explains Dr. John Barlow, Associate Professor of Applied Geomorphology at the University of Sussex. “We can therefore expect an acceleration of the erosion rates.”
It seems that no area of Europe is immune to the effects. In 2021, satellite photo comparisons of the Greek coast of the European Space Agency showed that 10 percent had decreased by more than three meters per year between 1995 and 2020, with some areas such as deltas and river estrums withdrawn by up to 30 m each year.
Great Britain’s bank are also threatened. According to the environmental authority, East Anglia has “some of the fastest eroding coasts in Europe”: In 2023, she reported that more than 2,500 houses in Norfolk and Suffolk are exposed to direct risk through the coastal erosion.
Other, rapidly steady holiday destinations in Great Britain include West Bay in Dorset, Newhaven and Birling Gap in East Sussex as well as parts of Cornwall such as Newquay and Perranuthnea.
Here we describe the European goals that suffer the most from coastal erosion and what is done to protect them.
Europe’s endangered holiday hotspots in Europe
Nouvelle-Aquitaine Coast, France
According to Bureau de Radumhurches Géologiques et Minières (BRGM) – the country’s geological survey, more than a quarter of the coast of France is at risk of coastal erosion.
Such a area is Nouvelle-Aquitaine: “By 2050, the sandy coast of the Gironde and the country could lose an average of 50 m, and the rocky coast of the Basque Country 27m,” warns the BRGM.
“In Charente-Maritime, on the Pointe de Gateau on the southern tip of Ile d’léron, the sea grabs around 20 m every year.”
In order to track the changing coast and inform nature conservation projects, the local authorities have launched the Coastnap initiative. It asks visitors to upload photographs of important sea areas and monitor conservationists how the landscape is changing.
Andalusicia, Spain
If you have ever visited the beaches of Andalucien in spring, you have seen how the storms of winter use the sand along the Costa del Sol in areas such as Malaga, Nerja and Torremolinos.
The Spanish government has declared a “situation of serious regression”, with a beach worth 45 m in some areas between 2016 and 2022.
In addition to weather events and rising seases, the damage was also attributed to local construction work such as beach bars, golf courses and housing estates.
A new coastal model tool, which was developed by the Environmental Change Institute of the University of Oxford, Coastalme, is currently being used to reproduce the 1,200 km long coast of Andalucien for the first time in order to better understand and manage its preservation.
Zakynthos, Greece
This summer, the most famous beach on this Ionian island remains closed for a third year, as the authorities announced due to the erosion of the bay and the cliffs.
Navagio Beach or “Schiffswrack Beach”, which was plugged in here in 1980 for the MV Panagiotis wreck, has suffered an erosion of high tourism activities, earthquakes, landslides and storms in recent years.
Parts of the schooner himself have also deteriorated. In 2028, seven people were injured by a falling cliff.
Atlantic coast, Portugal
In January, Portugal announced that € 20.2 million (€ 17.01 million) to invest in the preservation and protection of its Atlantic coast, including areas such as Algarve, Lisbon and Porto. An estimated 20 percent of its 943 km long coast are undermined by six to eight meters per year, and the protection of the coast was declared the “national priority” by the government.
The financing will support several coastal protection and defense projects, e.g.
Bonifacio, Corsica, France
On the south coast of Corsica, this old defensive city and its citadel are located on Klittops with a view of the Mediterranean. Bonifacio was founded in 828, and over the centuries the waves have carved away on the cliff base: in some cases the buildings and rocks were almost completely undermined.
The authorities declared 30 houses from which the risk of a fall fell into the sea, and in 2023 two major faults were identified in the decaying cliffs.
