Island beach management strategy in China with different urbanization level - Take examples of Xiamen Island and Pingtan Island

Because of a rise in tourism in Pingtan, beach resources are threatened by various pressures. This paper proposes beach management strategies for developing tourism on the island, using the experience of developed tourist islands. Pingtan and Xiamen were selected as case studies. This paper addresses beach management practices implemented on both islands, and the important factors affecting the effectiveness of beach management. The results show that the beach environment on both islands vary in types of use. In Xiamen, the coastal management scheme, beach nourishment, and coastal environment improvement programs played important roles in island beach management, according to our analysis of beach management processes. Certainly some negative aspects occurred in urban and tourism development. Comparison of beach management through SWOT analysis between locations indicates that the lack of a management scheme is the primary reason why beach management is so limited, and several environmental problems exist in Pingtan. Both islands implemented beach nourishment as their primary management activity for tourism development. This suggests that beach managers should learn from experiences, and put forward appropriate strategies in the future. For effective beach management, Pingtan also needs to establish interactive participation mechanisms, and enhance public awareness and local managers' perspective of public involvement.