Sainte-Marie-la-Mer

Sainte-Marie-la-Mer is a municipality of 4,800 inhabitants that defines itself as a family-oriented locality. It has a bicephalous configuration, with a historic core located inland, complemented by the coastal neighbourhood of Sainte-Marie Plage. Currently, the economy of the municipality is mainly based on tourism and seasonal residence.
The municipality’s coastline includes a fine sandy beach, as well as dunes and backdunes. The mouths of the Bourdigou to the north and the Têt to the south participate in the hydrological and ecological functioning of the coastline. This coastal river is the main source of sand supply for Sainte-Marie-la-Mer. The displacement of its mouth to the south after the 1940 Aiguat flood and the artificialisation of its basin (reduction of flow through dams, waterproofing, sediment extraction, fixation of agricultural land and riverbanks) have caused a decrease in these contributions.
A succession of management actions directly on the coastline from the 1960s onwards has also contributed to altering the morphosedimentary functioning. Currently it is a critical point of erosion at the scale of Roussillon and, more broadly, at the scale of the Eastern Coastal Functional Area. The municipality has six coastal protection structures. Sainte-Marie Plage is also subject to dune restoration along its entire coastal front and sand contributions at the most sensitive point.
On a centennial scale, retreat rates of 1 metre per year are observed. In the last decade, the coastline has retreated up to 3 metres in some years, despite the established management and, in particular, the annual sand contributions (m³). Some urban beaches have lost almost half of their surface area between 2013 and 2023. At the local level, the work of the Catalan Sandy Coast Observatory has contributed to raising awareness.
Managers have begun a more sustainable reflection on the management of the coastal strip. At the inter-municipal level, Perpinyà Mediterrània Métropole leads the strategy, studies, monitoring and actions to move towards spatial recomposition. The town council wants to turn the heart of the resort into a resilient showcase. The beach in this area is eroded and unattractive. It is the subject of a thesis on land-use planning accompanying a project of strategic retreat and reorganisation. This project context, on sensitive issues affecting both managers and users, needs to be supported by a participatory approach.

Actions

Action 3 will affect Sainte-Marie-la-Mer, as well as all the municipalities of the AFLE perimeter, with particular detail given the erosive situation of the municipality. Action 5, “institutional and citizen awareness“, of the DUAL project will allow Sainte-Marie-la-Mer, like Calafell, to benefit from the organisation of citizen awareness through perception workshops with local stakeholders. AFLE elected officials will also be able to meet in person to exchange obstacles and facilitating factors they identify in their territories. To this end, various tasks will involve Sainte-Marie-la-Mer:

• Organisation and facilitation of a citizen participatory workshop to collect testimonies from users.
• Organisation of a meeting and fieldwork day for managers (elected officials and technicians).
• Creation of a photographic and testimonial exhibition from the workshop and the meeting and fieldwork day; a medium to contrast the views and approaches of users and institutions.
• Drafting of a action summary to highlight the lessons learned and good practices with the aim of facilitating local dialogue and the progress of planning projects.