The local strategy for coastal risk management by 2021 is a decision-making tool to formalise management options for mitigating or adapting to the retreat of the coastline. The various stages of the local strategy have made it possible to 

• (1) Establish a cross-cutting diagnosis (socio-economic, urban planning, landscape, environmental, morphological and geological) to identify the mechanisms and causes of erosion and define 10 sectors of intervention;
• (2) Define territorial objectives for each of the sectors, with regard to urban development, the safety of goods and people, environmental protection and the maintenance of economic activities and uses;
• (3) Develop and evaluate possible management scenarios for the different sectors in accordance with territorial objectives (fixed coastline, punctual retreat, inaction/natural evolution of erosion phenomena, etc.), and according to financial, legal, technical feasibility, etc. 
• (4) Finally, to define these choices in an action programme for 2023 and 2043.

The Basque Country Agglomeration Community and municipalities have formalised their coastal management options under an action programme and a timetable. These documents will encourage the preservation of natural environments and their evolution, favour soft actions in semi-natural zones (recharging with sand, revegetation, etc.), the protection of urban areas most vulnerable to erosion (e.g. the most remote areas), the safety of goods and people, preserve economic activities (maintenance of protection works, dykes, etc.) while controlling urban sprawl in risk areas.

The future and planning of the Corniche Basque. The Corniche Basque is highly vulnerable to coastal erosion. This listed site of 445ha is cut across by a highly-frequented road and a coastal path that runs along the cliff through a vast preserved natural and agricultural area. The road is a significant road infrastructure (9,000 vehicles/day in winter and 16,000/day in summer), whose integrity is threatened by the retreat of the cliffs. In the short term, several sectors need protection while there is a need for further thinking on the future and development of the site over longer timeframes. As part of the implementation of the SLGLR, the CAPB is chairing and leading the partnership steering committee on the long-term future and development of the Corniche Basque site. Its roles include project management, the monitoring of cliff movements and the definition of risks.

Local strategy plans to advise and technically support the project implementation. Within the framework of the “Littoral, Trait de côte“ mission, expertise can be provided to municipalities wishing to plan works to reinforce the coastline, make it safe, manage sediments or re-vegetate. Since 2019, this has been the case for the central beach in Bidart, which is the subject of a renaturation and safety study following a major landslide and the collapse of the masonry riprap; as well as the Alcyons and Guéthary zones.

General public strategy. The SLGR is participating in developing risk understanding on the Basque coast through travelling exhibitions. In 2019, in conjunction with the coastal municipalities, the CAPB has developed an exhibition to enable the wider public to understand issues related to coastal risks. Fun and interactive, it tackles, across four modules, the phenomena at play in the evolution of the coastline. This exhibition was designed to be travelling and was hosted in 2020 in Bidart, Saint-Jean-de-Luz and Hendaye. It will continue throughout 2021 in other coastal cities (Anglet, Biarritz, Guéthary, Ciboure and Urrugne). School trips and guided tours are also organised in conjunction with the CPIE littoral basque.

Securing the cliffs of the Côte des Basques in Biarritz: In Biarritz, the Basque Coast is affected by a progressive retreat of the coastline. To preserve the safety of people and their property while maintaining this natural heritage and its various related activities, the City undertook, as early as the 1980s, work to reinforce and drain the cliffs, coupled with the construction of rock riprap. In this area, after comparing different scenarios and given its general importance, the strategic choice of the local authorities was to maintain existing works and carry out efforts to stabilise the coastline in the long term over the whole sector. This scenario avoids economic losses in housing, various commercial activities and roads, estimated at €40M.

The cross-border project Modelling and Decision Support for Coastal Risks in the Basque Country (MAREA) are financed by European POCTEFA funds (2016 -2019) led by the CAPB. It brings together local authorities and scientific organisations that are members of the Basque Coastal Scientific Interest Group. MAREA has made it possible to develop very “high resolution” warning tools capable of forecasting the risk of marine submersion on the beaches of the Basque Country at a local level, in addition to the prefectural departmental warnings. As a storm approaches, the MAREA tools quantify hazards with precision and produce operational decision-making tools enabling municipalities to optimise the deployment of protection and safety measures. 

EZPONDA is a research project led by the CAPB studying the mechanical and chemical parameters at the origin of the alteration of rocky cliffs and protective structures. The two study sites are the Corniche cliff and the dykes in Bidart, the Socoa Fort in Urrugne and Ciboure. The project was launched in June 2019 in the presence of partners: the actors of the GIS Littoral Basque and national research organisations (CNRS, Shom, CEREMA, BRGM) as well as university laboratories specialised in the study of coastal issues from the universities of La Rochelle, Toulouse, Pau and Pays de l’Adour. The results of EZPONDA will support the development of new tools that will allow for the precise measurement of the alteration processes of rocky cliffs, the probability of coastline recession and the impacts on coastal defence works. It will enable the improvement of actions relating to erosion management within the framework of the SLGRL of the Basque Country Community.