Not just for sunseeking tourists, beaches are an important part of our ecology, and keeping them clean, safe and sustainable is as essential for people as it is for our planet. ISO’s new standard for beaches,ISO13009 Beaches. Tourism and related services — Requirements and recommendations for beach operation, provides robust internationally agreed guidelines for operators to make better decisions about managing their beaches.
At present, there are no specific standards for beaches and very little guidance for beach management to help operators determine and plan for beach management. As a result, many beaches have not been developed or managed in a sustainable way, resulting in some loss of the natural beauty of the site and, consequently, a negative beach user experience. This International Standard seeks to provide guidance in helping to establish international benchmarks for beach management and safety.
The aim of this International Standard is to help beach operators make better-informed decisions about managing the beaches for which they are responsible, using a consistent approach based on best practice. In addition to general beach organization, this International Standard includes other important aspects, such as providing education and information on beach safety, signage, access and zoning, supervision and rescue, water quality and beach facilities.
Every beach is unique and has its own characteristics. A particular beach could be defined as a low activity beach for the majority of the year, but classified as high activity beach for two weeks of the year (e.g. during a high season or a carnival period), thus requiring a different management approach to be adopted and temporary features to be added. This International Standard covers both high activity beaches and low activity beaches, without a clear segregation of beach type.
The beach operator can apply specific features of this International Standard to a particular beach, as stipulated in the results of a beach risk assessment exercise. The beach risk assessment exercise is a simple way to help review the management and safety issues for each beach.
In order to determine how to implement this International Standard, it is intended that a robust risk management process is used which highlights the risks and hazards present at each beach and which identifies the appropriate control measures required to reduce the likelihood of frequency or impact (see
Clause 6). The risk assessment also identifies the beach type (i.e. high activity beach or low activity beach) .ISO 13009:2015 establishes general requirements and recommendations for beach operators that offer tourist and visitor services. It provides guidance for both beach operators and users regarding the delivery of sustainable management and planning, beach ownership, sustainable infrastructure and service provision needs, including beach safety, information and communication, cleaning and waste removal.
Msolutions with Sustainable seas UK offer Clean Blue. The methodology for implementating the new standard. Our Clean Blue team has already worked with relevants projects around globe and we are more than ready to implement ISO 13009