Slums of the past emerging from sands amid climate fears for Barcelona’s beaches

Locals and visitors in Barcelona have more than just waves of overtourism, housing and surging prices to worry about, according to new reports about rising sea levels and storms that are eating away at the Spanish city’s coast.

The maresme or “marshes” north of the Catalonian capital, were transformed in preparation for the 1992 Olympic Games. They were once characterised by shantytowns, like Somorrostro, where communities of fishers and Roma people lived, strung out along meagre strips of sand littered with rocks and groynes, and loomed over by refineries. But Barcelona’s shores received huge investment after the city successfully campaigned to host the 90s sporting extravaganza.

Hundreds of thousands of tonnes of sand were delivered, taken from the region’s southern Costa Daurada beaches, and even as far away as Egypt, turning the former barrios into a resort-like, man-made beach destination.

⚠️🛑AVISO ROJO | Lluvias muy fuertes y persistentes en la depresión central de Barcelona.

→ Acumulados de más de 60 mm en una hora y más de 120 mm en doce horas.

→ Pueden producirse crecidas repentinas de cauces. Sigue las recomendaciones de autoridades de protección civil. pic.twitter.com/vLcyCm10B7

— AEMET (@AEMET_Esp) July 23, 2025

Six metres of sand lost every year

Now though, Agustín Sánchez-Arcilla, a maritime engineer at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, has told the Associated Press that the region’s sea levels are four times higher today than 30 years ago, having risen 14 cm in two and a half decades. NASA’s Global Warming report, based on UN projections, warns of a potential rise of between 47 and 85 cm before the end of the 21^st century. And a recent study by the Área Metropolitana de Barcelona (AMB) shows the beaches have already been losing at least six, and up to 10, metres of sand every year since 2017.

Storm Gloria in 2020 inflicted carnage, and the “cold drop” phenomenon known in Spain as DANA (Depresión Aislada en Niveles Altos or “Isolated Depression at High Altitudes”) which causes heavy rainfall and flooding in the Spanish Mediterranean, is getting worse. Essentially, scientists know that climate change is driving more and more extreme weather events as well as rising seas, with Europe at the epicentre.

Disappearance of the “last democratic space”

Some might not mourn Barcelona’s fake beaches and it’s possible to argue that their unnatural existence should not be prolonged. But, with fewer and fewer Spanish people able to afford vacations at their own seasides, the disappearance of Barcelona’s newfound coastal gems is causing disquiet. Buried parts of Somorrostro’s slums are even re-emerging from the thinning sands, like unwelcome reminders of a poor past to which no one wants to return.

As Andreu Absil, the mayor of Montgat, a maritime commune around 15km north of central Barcelona, told the Associated Press: “The beaches are the last democratic space we have. And they should be for all of us to use and enjoy all year long.”

@zuzu_pa Go back home, tourist people!! Nooo just kidding☺️☺️ but also pls.. #barcelonabeach #tourist #fyp #dayinmylife #foryour #barcelonavibes ♬ WTHELLY – Rob49

Infrastructure under threat

What’s more, it is not only grains of sand and kiss-me-quick holidays that are under threat. Infrastructure such as rail transport lines, dwellings, restaurants and commerce are at risk too. In response, authorities at the Área Metropolitana de Barcelona are implementing a so-called “Resilience Plan”, under which even more sand is being supplied in a desperate attempt to combat the coastal erosion.

However, even Ramon Torra, Barcelona’s municipal manager, recognises that replacing the sand over and over is not enough. “What we must do first isn’t just replenish the sand, but rather stop the loss of it,” he told AP. In his view and that of academics, more breakwaters, seawalls, and vegetation to contain and hold the sands are what’s needed – to stop the beaches being washed away, along with the well-being and affluence they bring.