ABSTRACT
The focus of this chapter is second homes as urban components of tourism destinations in the Mediterranean coast. In many places in the Mediterranean coast, second homes have created singular urban landscapes in permanent evolution. These landscapes have become part of the local identity of places. Moreover, the current adaptation of Mediterranean mass coastal destinations to a changing tourist context has stimulated functional and morphological transformations in second home areas that can be associated to destination renovation strategies as well as to the transformation of temporary housing areas into permanent residence neighbourhoods. A set of indicators has been identified from information obtained from partial urban planning documents (the planning tools that in Spain organise in detail small homogeneous areas that should be urbanised and built in a relatively short time) to analyse the evolution of second home development areas in a specific Mediterranean coastal destination in ten-year periods from 1960 to 2010. Results show the evolution of second home areas in the observed case study area, the central part of the Costa Daurada in Catalonia, how they are becoming multifunctional spaces and how they have created a specific landscape. Additionally, results highlight how recent urban planning uses second home areas to organise new urban growth. As a consequence, it can be stated that current planning of second home areas is used, in this case, as a tool for urban policy strategies
