Council today endorsed its Coastal Adaption Strategy Phase One – Current Hazards a short to medium-term management plan to assist decision-makers in the identification, assessment and management of areas already experiencing shoreline erosion issues.
Redland City Mayor, Karen Williams said the purpose of the Coastal Adaptation Strategy when finalised will be to outline a consistent approach to managing existing and emerging coastal hazards, to inform future corporate strategies, policies and local planning instruments.
“With Phase One adopted, the next stage of the project is to begin community engagement as part of phase two – Emerging Risks.
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“This first phase of the Coastal Adaptation Strategy provides a rigorous assessment methodology for identifying current coastal hazards and is part of a larger coastal adaptation framework developed by Council for the long term sustainable management of the City’s coastal and foreshore areas.
“The Phase One: Current Hazards report to Council represents a substantial body of work and will be followed by City wide engagement to help confirm community values and long term concerns for areas of our coastline.
“The benefits to all Redland Ratepayers are expected to be reflected in significant budget and project savings,” Cr Williams said.
“The assessment methodology will help provide greater certainty in directing Council funding towards priority areas for coastal erosion and hazard management while confirming areas of known priority such as Amity Point on North Stradbroke Island.
“The new strategy is definitely a benchmark for Council and an important step towards implementing appropriate actions to mitigate risks from coastal processes across an estimated 220 kilometres of our city coastline.
“Coastal hazards assessment can be emotive and complicated issues that at times, without a transparent assessment framework, can lead to ad hoc and inconsistent outcomes,” Cr Williams said.
“Included among the many influences seen as important and sometimes competing priorities by different stakeholders are personal and private property values, social and economic values, environmental values, strategic infrastructure land use values and political values.
“The assessment methodology and Adaptation Strategy has been developed with significant input from a range of coastal expertise.
This included reference to the Coastal Adaptation Steering Committee established by Council to provide advice on coastal management issues.
“Identified hazard locations will be recorded on a live database and be supported by ongoing programmed monitoring that will allow for regular updates of hazard assessment and future responses.
