Did Boa Viagem Beach Environmental Quality Change after 10 Years

Boa Viagem is an urban beach located in the northeast of Brazil. It exhibits a high degree of development and use. Although characterized by typical tourist activities, it is under pressure and the quality of its environment and socioeconomic function can be jeopardized. This study assessed the temporal variation of the quality of the beach over a decade (2007-2017), in order to determine whether its conditions have improved or worsened, and whether the parameters used in 2007 were still effective for this type of assessment. Four indicators (A = excellent, B = good, C = fair, and D = bad) based on the assessment of 60 parameters subdivided into two subsystems (natural and anthropic) were used. All the 30 natural parameters were assessed based on an attribute scale ranging from the worst (1) to the best (3) quality. For the anthropic parameters, only positive or negative categories were attributed. For both subsystems, a scale from 1 (not important) to 3 (very important) was used to obtain the weight of each parameter. The sum of each subsystem was used to obtain a score. The results obtained in the second assessment were very similar to those obtained in the first. The most central part of the beach, which suffered from erosion problems and absence of backshore, was the most affected in both assessed periods; whereas the northern and southern extremes remained in better conditions. Indicators A and D did not occur in the two periods assessed. There was a slight improvement in the infrastructure (such as the extension of the bike path to the entire length of the beach, and safety signaling for users), and there was a very small reduction in quality of the natural subsystem (<5%).