Although beaches can provide several protective,recreational and natural functions,in regions where coastal tourism is one of the main economic drivers(e.g.NWMediterranean),only recreation has been traditionally prioritized by beach managers. Thus,management focus allmost exclusively
on fulfill user expectations,optimizing this commercially oriented function without taking other values or characteristics into consideration. This lack of perspective and short-term vision, which has fostered intensive urbanization and development in coastal areas,has been one of the main responsible on the anthropization and degradation of coastal systems. Furthermore, this partial management that is largely standardized and poorly adapted to beach characteristics,setting sandusers,has led to the homogenization of beach management practices.Thus different potential beaches with different users are managed with the same strategies.