The whole of the Spanish Mediterranean coastline from the border with France down to Gibraltar is 'highly exposed' to climate change which is likely to cause storm surges, stronger winds and drier weather.
The La Manga strip of the Mar Menor, the Ebro River Delta, and the beaches of Murcia (Costa Calida) and Alicante (Costa Blanca) are the most vulnerable areas at risk from sea levels that are forecast to rise by 12cm over the next 40 years, according to Professor Iñigo Losada of Cantabria University, one of the world's leading sea change experts.
By 2050, the Atlantic Ocean is predicted to have risen by 25cm with parts of Galicia, Cantabria and the Canary Islands being permanently lost, according to Greenpeace.
It is not just property close to the beach that will be affected. The number of tourists holidaying on the coast is expected to fall as the surface area of popular beaches shrinks, Losada warns in a report for the Spanish Government.
Thanks to the wall of cement in the shape of blocks of apartments that have been built along most of the Spanish Mediterranean coastline the beach has nowhere to go as water levels rise, so it will simply disappear.
At some point the government will have to decide whether to protect buildings in vulnerable areas from flooding, or abandon them to the rising sea, says the report.
'These coastal areas are highly vulnerable since they are the interface between ocean and land. Sea level rise is not the only effect to be considered. Wave climate, storm surges, winds and currents, river discharge and run-off all have an effect too,' he said.
A coast management plan is needed, Losada points out, and the European Parliament has stated that each country should draw up an integrated coastal zone plan.
But there is concern in Spain, for example, that houses are still being built right on the beach in La Manga where coastal erosion is already taking place.
