There’s plenty of things that Portugal is famous for – Port wine, pretty tiles, pastel de nata, for example – but its beaches, particularly the ones in the Algarve, are up there with its biggest draws.
However, certain stretches of the country’s coast seem to be going missing. Why? Well, because the entire region is suffering the impacts of coastal erosion.
This is a phenomenon along all coastlines, but Portugal’s position at the edge of the choppy North Atlantic means it’s particularly vulnerable. The ferocious waves here are why the country is so popular for surfing, after all.
Local governments have been adding more sand to the beaches to try and combat this, as well as doing construction work to prevent further damage from landslides, which are both common ‘soft’ engineering methods to mitigate erosion.