Regional Scale Coastal Mapping to Underpin Strategic Land Use Planning in South East Australia.

In the current study we develop spatial data to inform strategic land use and coastal planning which considers coastal hazards and the protection, maintenance and in some cases, restoration of our waterways. The benefits of sustainable coastal development underpinned by a well-established understanding of coastal processes and our ability to avoid negative impacts from inappropriate placement of development are well understood. With climate change and increasing use of coastal systems there is increasing need to identify and manage both current and possible future risk exposure. Mapping is undertaken to allow upfront identification of risks and benefits associated with potential future land use as well fundamental data to help inform coastal assessments. This will help ensure impacts on the coastal environment are minimised and impacts on proposed development from coastal hazards are avoided. The study has several parallel components addressing estuarine water quality and ecosystem health, sea level rise inundation, coastal erosion and sediment/geomorphic setting. Additional benefits of the project include risk based assessment to enable prioritisation of effort to address existing development which is either exposed to coastal hazards or having an impact on coastal waterways.