Improvements to Integrated Coastal Zone Management on Australia's Gold Coast Integrating coastal planning and engineering in local government

HUNT, S., STUART, G., MCGRATH, J. and HOSSAIN, S., 2007. Improvements to Integrated Coastal Zone Management on Australia's Gold Coast. Journal of Coastal Research, SI 50 (Proceedings of the 9th International Coastal Symposium), 25 - 28. Gold Coast, Australia, ISSN 0749.0208 Gold Coast City Council is one of the largest local governments in Australia with a staff of approx 2800. The City includes over 50 km of open coastline and over 600 kin of waterways. Given the city's position as an international coastal destination it is important that the values of these environments that attract residents and tourists are managed and protected. Integrated Coastal Zone Management requires people that can work across many disciplines. Recent projects and roles developed within Gold Coast City Council are presented as an example of ways that one local government is addressing the complexity of ICZM. Case studies exploring the Gold Coast Ocean Beaches and Foreshores Strategy and the role of the Beaches and Waterways Development Officer describe the ways in which the local coastal management issues are being integrated across a large organisation, across varying disciplines and different levels of government. Both examples are measured against the barriers to successful coastal policy making as described in a theme report following the Coast to Coast Conference (Australia's national coastal conference) in 2002. The major barriers discussed include; lack of integration, lack of adequate monitoring of policy implementation and review, lack of resources for both policy making and the information base is either inadequate or drawn from a narrow range of sources.