The occupation of Paraná’s beach coasts for balneal use

The appropriation of seashores is a recent phenomenon in the history of coastal settlements. This resulted from specific interest of the seaboard for bathing purposes, not the previous cultural pattern. Summer time visitors are invariably rooted to close-by cities, where they live and where their economic activities are concentrated. For bathing purposes, beaches are mainly being occupied with secondary residences, for temporary uses. This creates the long, but thin, stretch of longitudinal urban occupation found along most of the shore line. In the state of Paraná beaches started being used for bathing purposes during the 1920s, but only thoroughly developed thirty years later. This was done through an intense process of appropriations that completely dominated the seashores at south of Paranaguá Bay. As a result, coastal erosion took place, courses of water were jeopardized, the landscape was destroyed, and fishing colonies were expelled; not to mention urban problems such as unorganized streets network and settlements of poor environmental quality. The following article presents the occupation process of the part of Paraná’s seashore that was shaped by the bathing use of beaches, the resulting urban configuration of the adopted model, and the resulting damage and problems. In addition, this article explores rules and regulations established since the 1980s seeking to control the occupation of beach bathing space through state legislation, versus the subordinate district legislation – an unusual situation in the Brazilian seashore public management.