Valuating the effects of beach erosion to tourism revenue. A management perspective George Alexandrakis a, * , Constantine Manasakis b, a , Nikolaos A. Kampanis a a Institute of Applied and Computational Mathematics, Foundation of Research and Technology e Hellas, Nikolaou Plastira 100, Vassilika Vouton, GR 70013 Heraklion, Crete, Greece b Department of Political Science, University of Crete, University Campus at Gallos, Rethymnon 741 00, Crete, Greece article info Article history: Received 27 June 2014 Received in revised form 1 April 2015 Accepted 2 April 2015 Available online Keywords: Coastal erosion Tourism Vulnerability Risk Economic impact Rethymnon Crete abstract Coastal erosion, besides its various environmental impacts, poses a significant threat to coastal econo- mies where the market for tourism services is a key factor for economic growth. So far, a common practise in evaluating the economic implications of beach erosion is to address the cost of coastal pro- tection measures, abstaining from any revenue losses considerations. The present paper departs from this approach by relating the beach erosion vulnerability with the expected land loss and the relevant value from economic activities. The study employs a combined environmental and economic approach along the geographical space. The value of the eroded beach, capitalized in revenues from tourism business, is estimated through hedonic pricing modelling where the beach value is determined by its width and the tourism business located there. The study aims to provide realistic cost-benefit scenarios for the relevant stakeholders and policymakers so as to prioritize and allocate costs and benefits from a “beach governance” point of view, grounded on the Integrated Coastal Management (ICM) framework. The empirical investigation presented considers the highly touristic coastal city of Rethymnon on the island of Crete as the study area. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Coastal environment changes constantly as a result of the interaction between waves, wind, ocean currents and anthropo- centric processes (Carter and Woodroffe, 1997). In this setting, the sustainability of coastal ecosystems depends on their utilization by stakeholders and the effects of exogenous natural hazards, relevant to global warming and sea-level rise (Berry et al., 2014; Ye et al., 2014). Therefore, the effect of climate change and the excessive exploitation of coastal areas' resources contribute significantly to coastal erosion (Granja and De Carvalho, 2000; Jensen et al., 2001; Vilibi c et al., 2000). This results in three types of risks: (i) loss of land with economic value; (ii) destruction of natural coastal de- fences (e.g. dune system); and (iii) undermine artificial coastal defences, potentially leading to flood risk. In coastal areas, the economy of which is heavily -if not primarily-dependent on tourism (such as the Mediterranean and the Caribbean), resort beaches are considered as dynamic natural resources that generate value and capitalized in the relevant properties market, e.g. the tourism business market and the market for housing (Phillips and Jones, 2006). Consistent empirical studies suggest that property values increase with beach width (Brown and Pollakowski, 1977; Edwards and Gable, 1991; Pompe and Rinehart, 1995; Bin et al., 2008) which also increases the coastal capacity for biodiversity (Schlacher et al., 2007). In addition, beaches provide important coastal protection by limiting potential damages to coastal habitats due to waves and erosion. Costanza et al. (2006) found that beaches in New Jersey deliver $42,147/acre/year in economic/ecological services which can be broken in leisure and aesthetic value ($14,847/acre/year) and other services ($27,300/acre/year). In this context, it becomes apparent that coastal erosion poses a significant threat for both the value created by the tourism industry and the coastal biodiversity and protection with further multi- plying negative effects. For example, across the Mediterranean, coastal erosion has been a longstanding large-scale issue, (Pranzini and Williams, 2013) and the estimation of the vulnerability of the beaches has received much attention (e.g Jim enez et al., 2009; * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: alexandrakis@iacm.forth.gr (G. Alexandrakis), manasakis@ uoc.gr (C. Manasakis), Kampanis@iacm.forth.gr (N.A. Kampanis). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Ocean & Coastal Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ocecoaman http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2015.04.001 0964-5691/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Ocean & Coastal Management 111 (2015) 1e11