Yachts and marinas as hotspots of coastal risk

Abstract

Despite being exceptional concentrations of valuable economic assets, yachts and marinas are typically overlooked in the geography of coastal risk. Focusing on the Mediterranean, which hosts the majority of the world’s yacht activity, we examine three decades of yacht insurance claims in the context of natural hazards and marina development. We find indications that yachts and marinas manifest the same generic relationships between exposure, hazard, and vulnerability observed in terrestrial coastal-risk systems. Given the fundamental importance of yachts and marinas to nautical tourism and strategies for “Blue Economy” growth, particularly in Europe, the role of yachts and marinas in the dynamics of coastal risk must be better understood—but any such insight will first require standardised, comprehensive datasets of yacht movements and marina infrastructure.