Sand dune - Country Report, Spain

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This article on the sand dunes of Spain, is a revised country report from the 'Sand Dune Inventory of Europe' (Doody ed. 1991) [1]. The 1991 inventory was prepared under the umbrella of the European Union for Dune Conservation [EUDC]. The original inventory was presented to the European Coastal Conservation Conference, held in the Netherlands in November 1991. It attempted to provide a description of the sand dune vegetation, sites and conservation issues throughout Europe including Scandinavia, the Atlantic coast and in the Mediterranean.

An overview article on the distribution of European sand dunes provides links to the other European country reports. These represent chapters from updated individual country reports included in the revised, 2nd Edition of the 'Sand Dune Inventory of Europe' prepared for the International Sand Dune Conference “Changing Perspectives in Coastal Dune Management”, held from the 31st March - 3rd April 2008, in Liverpool, UK (Doody ed. 2008)[2].

Status: Original authors Barbara van Agt & Robert Tekke, original text; revised 2008, Juan Diego López Giraldo; additional information Bird (The World’s coast: Online)

Introduction

The Spanish coastline, the Balearic and Canary islands included, is about 6,145km. The Peninsula coast has three major regions:

1. The northern Atlantic coast (2,012km) which consists mainly of cliffs and river mouths with bays and some small sand dune sites;

2. The southern Atlantic coast (949km) is composed predominantly of sandy shores and dunes;

3. The Mediterranean coast (1,063km) has rocky shores and coastal plains with sandy and pebble beaches and a small number of dune systems. The Balearic Islands’ coasts (1,186km coast) mainly consist of cliffs, bays and sandy beaches with some Holocene and Pleistocene dunes.

The Canary Islands (1,477km coast) are of volcanic origin, but include a number of dune systems.


Distribution and type of dune

Figure: Map of sand dune distribution and important sites in Portugal. Copyright: J Pat Doody

Vegetation

Strandline

Foredune

Dune grassland

Dune slack

Dune heath

Scrub

Woodland

Important sites

File:.jpeg
Figure: Map of sand dune distribution and important sites in Finland. Copyright: J Pat Doody


[[Image: Table.jpeg|thumb|right|350px|Figure: List of important sand dunes sites in Finland.












Conservation

Additional information

Web sites:


References

  1. Doody, J.P., ed., 1991. Sand Dune Inventory of Europe. Peterborough, Joint Nature Conservation Committee/European Union for Coastal Conservation.
  2. Doody, J.P., ed. 2008. Sand Dune Inventory of Europe, 2nd Edition. National Coastal Consultants and EUCC - The Coastal Union, in association with the IGU Coastal Commission.

See also


The main author of this article is Doody, Pat
Please note that others may also have edited the contents of this article.

Citation: Doody, Pat (2010): Sand dune - Country Report, Spain. Available from http://www.coastalwiki.org/wiki/Sand_dune_-_Country_Report,_Spain [accessed on 28-03-2024]