Designing a bathing area management plan - a template for Ramla Bay, Gozo

Abstract

This document represents a recommended design for a bathing area management plan for Ramla Bay, Gozo. The work was commissioned by the GAIA Foundation as a component of an overall management strategy being developed for Ramla Bay within the context of the EU-LIFE funded project ‘’Integrated Management of Specially Protected Coastal Areas in Malta’’ (EU – LIFE TCY 99/M/095). Since this report considers Ramla Bay from the management perspective concerning its use as a bathing area, readers should, for a broader management viewpoint, also refer to the ‘’Management Plan for Ramla Bay, Gozo’’ document, also developed within the same EU-LIFE TCY/99/M/095 project. In this document, management of the Ramla Bay bathing area is addressed through: • Development of a bathing area management strategy. • Application of a number of novel management tools for data gathering, environmental and problem scope evaluation and bathing area quality assessment. • Recommendation of a management plan model. • Identification of bathing area management guidelines and recommendations.

It should be noted that while some of the bathing area management recommendations presented in section 4.0 of this report may be in part or to a larger degree already implemented within existing on-site management efforts at Ramla Bay, they have been retained in this document in order to preserve the integrated nature of such management proposals.