Second homes and urban landscape patterns in Mediterranean coastal tourism destinations

•A set of spatial metrics at different scales is applied to identify landscape units of temporary residential urban areas.•Urban areas created for temporary residence are defined as specific landscape structures•In the central Costa Daurada tourism destination, temporary residential urban areas form compact landscapes.•Temporary residential urban areas increasingly respond both to needs of temporary users and permanent residents.•A unique temporary residential urban landscape pattern identifies and differentiates the study area.

This paper discusses two recurring land use issues that are conventionally accepted when analyzing most of the Mediterranean mass coastal tourism destinations: the limited role of planning and the supposedly standardized nature of the resulting landscape. Based on a specific case study in the Catalan coastline, this paper presents analytical metrics and empirical data showing that, despite the controversial nature of the resulting urbanization and contrary to this common understanding, urban planning tools have been relevant in the shaping of the landscape of coastal settlements dominated by tourism and second homes. More precisely, the paper analyzes how, on the Catalan coast, partial planning tools have been able to create since the 1960s specific urban pieces with temporary residence uses that, beyond their actual limitations, shaped differentiated landscape structures with a particular landscape identity. To reach this conclusion, we have applied a set of spatial metrics at different scales to the analysis of the urban partial plans approved in the destination. Results allow the identification of the basic urban landscape patterns of the area, facilitate the understanding of the role of regulatory planning tools, and highlight the role of its evolution during the last 50 years in the process of the destination urban landscape shaping and transformation.