NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL SHORES OF THE FRENCH RIVIERA - AN ANALYSIS OF THEIR INTERRELATIONSHIP

The 132 km-long French Riviera exhibits 21.5% of man-mode shorelines c omprising yachting harbours or marinas, reclamation fill, and artifici al beaches. These alternate with rocky shares and natural beaches. The length and characteristics of each of these two natural and three art ificial types of shore have been determined from data digitized from m aps, aerial photographs and held work, and processed using various com puter software. A principal components analysis, carefully interpreted in the light of information gathered during the study, brings out the opposition or complementarity between the various types of shore. The analysis of these relationships also briefly highlights the socio-eco nomic and physical factors that have favoured artificial shoreline dev elopment. The former are related to pressure generated by massive popu lation and tourism-based economic growth, while the latter are associa ted with the geology and geomorphology of this coast. Seventy-five to eighty-five percent of artificial shores have been created at the expe nse of natural beaches, many of which have been disadvantaged by their coarse elastic composition, narrowness, erosional tendencies and poor recreational value. Natural beaches have, therefore, been prone to so -called ''shots valorization'', a process that has been synonymous wit h the proliferation of yachting harbours and fill structures. Pressure an these benches has been exacerbated by the fact that rocky shores, the only other natural shore type, account for over 52% of the present Riviera shoreline and are much more expensive to transform. The 14 ar tificial benches created in the last two decades have compensated for only 1% of the natural benches eaten up by artificial structures.