Landing on the coast

Abstract

Over the road pattern of the Roman Herculean Road, that ties Carteia and Malaga with Rome, the old national N340 road has allowed to conduct and distribute a constant flux of investments that arrived with the opening of the airport of Malaga and the possibility of arrival of massive sun and beach tourism. In a few years, due to the omission of the application of existing planning, and the overexploitation of the resources of the territory, the system has reached a point of saturation, and the need for urgent measures to avoid its banalisation and decline. We can say that planning has been unable to provide an answer to the demands of the territory, be it the strong will of capital, be it the political situation, or for lack of comprehension of the process. A profound reflection about the territory, the infrastructures, and the touristic phenomenon is necessary. This will permit the creation of strategies to face the future of these spaces and control urbanisation. Due to the scarcity of information about the process of formation of the Costa del Sol, we should seek a methodology that will allow us to draw the different moments of its evolution, to understand its configuration. We took as a reference orthophotographs of three significant moments: 1956, that better known as the American flight which coincided with the date of the opening of the Spanish economy; 1984, beginning of the democratic period and collapse of the infrastructures; 2009, present state, the new configuration of the territory. What is the role played by infrastructures in the process of creation of touristic space?