The Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, AMB warned about the critical state of Barcelona’s coastal beaches in the metropolitan coastline due to the great loss of sand in recent years.
In fact, studies warn of a loss of 20 meters of sand over a period of 30 years if the respective actions are not taken immediately.0600
In this context, Badalona beach is one of the beaches that has lost the most sand recently.
While the AMB recognizes that the ministry has already begun to act on the coastline, more needs to be done.
The metropolitan entity seeks the implementation of underwater geotextile seawalls to reduce the power of waves on the beaches. These have been reduced to the minimum expression as a consequence of the last storms.
The retreat of the Barcelona coast
Technicians state that the annual retreat is one meter, suggesting the construction of new breakwaters.
The study also indicates that 20% of the beaches have disappeared and others will disappear at a rate of one meter per year.
The issue is that the deficit of sand on the beaches occurs for several reasons. These include the Llobregat river dike and the port of El Masnou.
In this sense, the AMB calls for a plan to stabilize the metropolitan coastline in order to avoid what is happening: the loss of 160,000 m3 of sand per year in the Llobregat delta.
And this is because at this site the eight-meter deep dikes become a “sediment trap” that gets trapped at the bottom.
Added to this are the insufficient supply of sand from the port of Barcelona and the increase in storms.
Strategic solutions
The Barcelona Metropolitan Area proposes to build three breakwaters and a free-standing dike in Montgat capable of providing up to 315,000 m3 of sand.
On the beach of les Roques in the municipality of Maresme, the advice is to build a 75-meter breakwater that guarantees a beach width of 30 meters. This requires a supply of 65,000 m3 of coarse sand, as well as the installation of a submerged sand retention structure.
At La Mora beach (south of Badalona), two breakwaters are suggested and the submerged part of the beach is to be raised with 65,000 m3 of sand.
At Barca Maria beach (north of Barcelona), it is suggested to remove the current breakwater and replace it with a geotextile tube, one such as the ministry installed at Gavà beach.
The ministry has also initiated actions such as the decontamination project of the beach of the coast of Sant Adrià de Besòs, which is expected to be completed before the summer of 2023.
