In this piece of work an analysis is made of the ten main aspects of planning and management of coastal zones in Spain, studied within the general context of the country. The ten analysed aspects can be interpreted as a analysis the structure of coastal management of a certain area. Although other issues of interest can be studied for coastal management in Spain, ten have been considered the most important: coastal policies, legislation, distribution of responsibilities, administration, strategies, tools, administrators, economic resources, knowledge and information, and participation. During the last 25 years, there has been a series of decisive structural changes of a political, institutional, social and economic nature. These changes have contributed significantly to an improvement in the system of coastal planning and management. This system cannot, however, be classified as integrated. Besides the elaborated, general diagnosis, guidelines are proposed to enable the improvement of coastal management in Spain in the future.
