Charting Alicante’s blue future: Launch of the Economy Observatory

CENID, the Digital Intelligence Centre of the province of Alicante has launched a Blue Economy Observatory (EA).

The Blue Economy concept encompasses human activities reliant on the sea or grounded in land-sea interactions within the framework of sustainable development.

The project aims to compile indicators covering natural capital, public ports-private marinas infrastructure, economic dimensions, key stakeholders, education, research, and innovation to assess its territorial contribution.

To initiate the initiative, various territorial variables were selected to highlight the significance of the 20 coastal municipalities in the province of Alicante in the Blue Economy, revealing that their contribution amounts to 49.8 per cent, roughly half of the total Blue Economy of the Valencian Community.

Notably, strengths lie in infrastructure-ports (60.7 per cent) and education, research, and innovation (57.9 per cent), while the economic dimension lags (34.9 per cent).

Five municipalities boasting the highest values of the synthetic index of the blue economy have been identified.

Ranked from highest to lowest are Santa Pola, Alacant/Alicante, Altea, Calp, and Dénia.