Planning and governance approaches for protecting World Heritage Areas: A comparison of the Great Barrier Reef and the Florida Everglades

The focus of this paper is on two World Heritage Areas: the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, Australia and the Everglades in Florida. While both are World Heritage listed by the UNESCO, the Everglades is on the "World Heritage in Danger" list and the Great Barrier Reef could be on this list within the next year if present pressures continue. This paper examines the planning approaches and governance structures used in these two areas (Queensland and Florida) to manage the growth and development pressures. To make the analysis manageable, given the scale of these World Heritage areas, case studies at the local government level will be used: the Cairns Regional Council in Queensland and Monroe County in Florida. The case study analysis will involve three steps: (1) examination of the various plans at the federal, state, local levels that impact upon environmental quality in the Great Barrier Reef and Everglades; (2) assessing the degree to which these plans have been implemented; and (3) determine if (and how) the plans have improved environmental quality. In addition to the planning analysis we will also examine the governance structures (Lebel et al. 2006) within which planning operates. In any comparative analysis context is important (Hantrais 2009). Contextual differences between Queensland and Florida have previously been examined by Sipe, et al. (2007) and will be used as the starting point for this analysis. Our operating hypothesis and preliminary analysis suggests that the planning approaches and governance structures used in Florida and Queensland are considerably different, but the environmental outcomes may be similar. This is based, in part, on Vella (2004) who did a comparative analysis of environmental practices in the sugar industry in Florida and Queensland. This research re-examines this hypothesis and broadens the focus beyond the sugar industry to growth and development more broadly.

Resembling Florida : transpacific transfer of ideas from one Gold Coast to another

Despite different political structures and planning systems, striking physical similarities exist between the tourist destinations of the Gold Coasts of Queensland and Florida. Both have been fast developing sub-tropical coastal areas, subject to massive land booms, speculation, and entrepreneurs’ grand visions throughout their history. As a result, both have become tourist destinations of international renown. Drawing on historical sources, the present research seeks to investigate the extent to which these similarities result from taking American cities as a model for newer development in Australia; in this case from transferring planning and marketing ideas from one Gold Coast to another, with the development of the Florida Gold Coast setting precedent for the development of the Queensland Gold Coast.

An investigation of nucleation events in a coastal urban environment in the southern hemisphere

The occurrence of and conditions favourable to nucleation were investigated at an industrial and commercial coastal location in Brisbane, Australia during five different campaigns covering a total period of 13 months. To identify potential nucleation events, the difference in number concentration in the size range 14-30 nm (N14-30) between consecutive observations was calculated using first-order differencing. The data showed that nucleation events were a rare occurrence, and that in the absence of nucleation the particle number was dominated by particles in the range 30-300 nm. In many instances, total particle concentration declined during nucleation. There was no clear pattern in change in NO and NO2 concentrations during the events. SO2 concentration, in the majority of cases, declined during nucleation but there were exceptions. Most events took place in summer, followed by winter and then spring, and no events were observed for the autumn campaigns. The events were associated with sea breeze and long-range transport. Roadside emissions, in contrast, did not contribute to nucleation, probably due to the predominance of particles in the range 50-100 nm associated with these emissions.

New particle formation and growth at a remote, sub-tropical coastal location

A month-long intensive measurement campaign was conducted in March/April 2007 at Agnes Water, a remote coastal site just south of the Great Barrier Reef on the east coast of Australia. Particle and ion size distributions were continuously measured during the campaign. Coastal nucleation events were observed in clean, marine air masses coming from the south-east on 65% of the days. The events usually began at ~10:00 local time and lasted for 1-4 hrs. They were characterised by the appearance of a nucleation mode with a peak diameter of ~10 nm. The freshly nucleated particles grew within 1-4 hrs up to sizes of 20-50 nm. The events occurred when solar intensity was high (~1000 W m-2) and RH was low (~60%). Interestingly, the events were not related to tide height. The volatile and hygroscopic properties of freshly nucleated particles (17-22.5 nm), simultaneously measured with a volatility-hygroscopicity-tandem differential mobility analyser (VH-TDMA), were used to infer chemical composition. The majority of the volume of these particles was attributed to internally mixed sulphate and organic components. After ruling out coagulation as a source of significant particle growth, we conclude that the condensation of sulphate and/or organic vapours was most likely responsible for driving particle growth during the nucleation events. We cannot make any direct conclusions regarding the chemical species that participated in the initial particle nucleation. However, we suggest that nucleation may have resulted from the photo-oxidation products of unknown sulphur or organic vapours emitted from the waters of Hervey Bay, or from the formation of DMS-derived sulphate clusters over the open ocean that were activated to observable particles by condensable vapours emitted from the nutrient rich waters around Fraser Island or Hervey Bay. Furthermore, a unique and particularly strong nucleation event was observed during northerly wind. The event began early one morning (08:00) and lasted almost the entire day resulting in the production of a large number of ~80 nm particles (average modal concentration during the event was 3200 cm-3). The Great Barrier Reef was the most likely source of precursor vapours responsible for this event.

Enriching relationships : community engagment toward sustainable coastal futures

Coastal communities face the social, cultural and environmental challenges of managing rapid urban and industrial development, expanding tourism, and sensitive ecological environments. Enriching relationships between communities and universities through a structured engagement process can deliver integrated options towards sustainable coastal futures. This process draws on the embedded knowledge and values of all participants in the relationship, and offers a wide and affordable range of options for the future. This paper reviews lessons learnt from two projects with coastal communities, and discusses their application in a third. Queensland University of Technology has formed collaborative partnerships with industry in Queensland's Wide Bay-Burnett region to undertake a series of planning and design projects with community engagement as a central process. Senior students worked with community and produced design and planning drawings and reports outlining future options for project areas. A reflective approach has been adopted by the authors to assess the engagement process and outcomes of each project to learn lessons to apply in the next. Methods include surveying community and student participants regarding the value they place on process and outcomes respectively in planning for a sustainable future. All project participants surveyed have placed high importance on the process of engagement, emphasising the value of developing relationships between all project partners. The quality of these relationships is central to planning for sustainable futures, and while the outcomes the students deliver are valued, it is as much for their catalytic role as for their contents. Design and planning projects through community engagement have been found to develop innovative responses to the challenges faced by coastal communities seeking direction toward sustainable futures. The enrichment of engagement relationships and processes has an important influence on the quality of these design and planning responses.

A method of lines approach for modelling saltwater intrusion in coastal aquifiers

The equations governing saltwater intrusion in coastal aquifers are complex. Backward Euler time stepping approaches are often used to advance the solution to these equations in time, which typically requires that small time steps be taken in order to ensure that an accurate solution is obtained. We show that a method of lines approach incorporating variable order backward differentiation formulas can greatly improve the efficiency of the time stepping process.

Evaluating sewage associated JCV and BKV polyomaviruses for sourcing human fecal pollution in a coastal river in Southeast Queensland Australia

In this study, the host-sensitivity and -specificity of JCV and BKV polyomaviruses were evaluated by testing wastewater/fecal samples from nine host groups in Southeast Queensland, Australia. The JCV and BKV polyomaviruses were detected in 48 human wastewater samples collected from the primary and secondary effluent suggesting high sensitivity of these viruses in human wastewater. Of the 81 animal wastewater/fecal samples tested, 80 were PCR negative for this marker. Only one sample from pig wastewater was positive. Nonetheless, the overall host-specificity of these viruses to differentiate between human and animal wastewater/fecal samples was 0.99. To our knowledge, this is the first study in Australia that reports the high specificity of JCV and BKV polyomaviruses. To evaluate the field application of these viruses to detect human fecal pollution, 20 environmental samples were collected from a coastal river. Of the 20 samples tested, 15% and 70% samples exceeded the regulatory guidelines for E. coli and enterococci levels for marine waters. In all, 5 (25%) samples were PCR positive for JCV and BKV indicated the presence of human fecal pollution in the studied river. The results suggest that JCV and BKV detection using PCR could be a useful tool for the identification of human sourced fecal pollution in coastal waters.