Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Ocean and Coastal Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ocecoaman Coastal scenic evaluation at Santa Catarina (Brazil): Implications for coastal management Samanta da Costa Cristiano a,e,* , Luana Carla Portz b , Giorgio Anfuso c , Gabriela Camboim Rockett a , Eduardo Guimarães Barboza a,d a Programa de Pós-Graduação em Geociências, Instituto de Geociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul- PPGGEO/IGEO/UFRGS, Av. Bento Gonçalves, 9500, Prédio 43113, Sala 207 (Bloco I), Bairro Agronomia, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil b Universidad de la Costa, CUC, Calle 58 # 55 - 66, Barranquilla, Colombia c Departamento de Ciencias de la Tierra, Facultad de Ciencias del Mar y Ambientales, Universidad de Cádiz, Spain d Centro de Estudos em Geologia Costeira e Oceânica, Instituto de Geociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, CECO/IGEO/UFRGS, Av. Bento Gonçalves, 9500, Caixa Postal: 15001, Porto Alegre CEP: 91501-970, RS, Brazil e Programa de Pós-Graduação em Gerenciamento Costeiro, Instituto de Oceanografia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande- PPGC/IO/FURG, Av. Itália, Km 8, Bairro Carreiros, Rio Grande, RS, Brazil ABSTRACT Continuous and increasing human coastal occupations and developments, often linked to the lack of adequate management plans, seriously threat coastal and marine environments. The knowledge of natural aspects of coastal environments and human occupation characteristics is essential for adequate and sound coastal planning. The present research characterized 80 coastal sites scenic value along the South and Center-South coast of Santa Catarina (Brazil), which receive huge tourist arrivals during the summer season, i.e. from December to March. Coastal evaluation was carried out by means of the Scenery Evaluation System and information on conservation status, beach awards and human occupation level was also gathered. Sites located on the Central-South coast have higher D values due to their relevant physical characteristics, such as the presence of bays, cliffs, moun- tainous landscape, etc. being very different from those in the South, where the coast is low, rectilinear and unattractive. Class I represents c. 10% of the Center-South coast and class V c. 8%. In the South, the situation is different and none of the sectors was assessed as class I or III, only one sector belongs to class II, and the rest are classified as class IV and V. Obtained information opens new viewpoints to local coastal managers for analysis of the potential for national and international coastal tourism development in: i) natural areas, taking into account that a growing category of beach goers prefer isolated sites of great scenic beauty, and ii) for scenic quality improvement of current tourist developed areas. 1. Introduction Coastal towns have several economic advantages due to the pre- sence of oceans, lagoons and rivers (Lacher et al., 2013). Traditional coastal destinations that have natural conditions of sun, sea and sand (3S) have been outdated by other coastal destinations that also have heritage and cultural elements. Tourists are looking for authentic pro- ducts, such as patrimonial tourism (Agarwal, 2002; Sedmak and Mihalic, 2008). One of the deficiencies of coastal destinations devel- opment is the homogenization of culture and appearance of the area, which often leads to lack of unique and significant characteristics (Gale, 2005). This homogenization can cause future problems, since new tourists require unique and authentic experiences and activities at their holiday destinations (Poon, 1993). This new kind of demand is leading to a restructuration of the coastal tourism industry (Agarwal, 2002). The Brazilian Tourism Ministry classifies “Sun and Beach Tourism” as touristic activities related to recreation, entertainment, or relaxation on beaches, due to the presence of water, sun, and good weather con- ditions. With this approach, tourist market has been studied to organize and plan the coastal and marine shoreline areas of this type of desti- nation, including as an objective: principles of sustainability and the promotion of quality tourism (Martins da Silva and Soriano-Sierra, 2013). Santa Catarina (SC) coast is among the main Brazilian touristic https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2018.04.004 Received 23 August 2017; Received in revised form 29 January 2018; Accepted 8 April 2018 * Corresponding author. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Gerenciamento Costeiro, Instituto de Oceanografia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande- PPGC/IO/FURG, Av. Itália, Km 8, Bairro Carreiros, Rio Grande, RS, Brazil. E-mail addresses: samantaccristiano@gmail.com (S. da Costa Cristiano), luanaportz@gmail.com (L.C. Portz), giorgio.anfuso@uca.es (G. Anfuso), gabriela.rockett@gmail.com (G.C. Rockett), eduardo.barboza@ufrgs.br (E.G. Barboza). Ocean and Coastal Management 160 (2018) 146–157 0964-5691/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T