Abstract

MONTI, Alejandro  and  ESCOFET, Anamaría. Littoral urbanization: risk management and management efforts in a self-motivated patagonic coastal community. Invest. Geog [online]. 2008, n.67, pp.113-129. ISSN 2448-7279.

Playa Magagna is a small urban settlement for summer and weekend vacations located at a typical patagonic coastal plain exposed to the strong influence of marine erosion and landslides. This article describes the way the inhabitants mitigated individually the effect of both forcing functions on their houses and other household assets, and shows that individual responses had to be progressively complemented by collective actions and intersectoral arrangements when local and regional use of the site increased. It is shown that structural measures such as defenses contributed to reduce physical vulnerability and that internal cohesion and leadership decreased social, political and institutional vulnerability. The events we describe are to be expected at coastal scenarios in which two conditions are present: an inhabitable space with low carrying capacity, and a self-motivated local community. If the local community has little capacity for self-adjustment, quite different results are to be expected, no matter how similar physical restrictions could be.

Keywords : Littoral urbanization; risk management; coastal management; Patagonia.

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