The theory and practice of coastal area planning: linking strategic planning to local communities

Integrated coastal management (ICM) has been slowly accepted over the last decade as a unifying approach for coastal planning and management throughout the world. Coastal planning aimed at achieving the objectives of ICM can be implemented by varying processes and faces many challenges. One major challenge for coastal planning is to adapt the well-developed theoretical principles of ICM to practical and understandable outcomes in local areas. Associated with this challenge is the need to balance coastal planning objectives for conservation and economic development of a nation or state/province with the objectives of the local community. This article describes a three-tiered approach to coastal planning in Victoria, Australia, which will be of value to other countries, particularly those with subnational coastal planning jurisdictions. This approach not only has the aim of balancing subnational (e.g., state government) and local objectives, but also of applying the theoretical concept of ICM in practice on the ground. In addition, the approach sets out to achieve a sense of ownership of the planning process by local communities by maximizing their involvement at all levels of planning and also by making the state strategy as easy to understand and follow as possible.

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow : attempting to plan for coastal change in South West Victoria

Learn from yesterday, live for today hope for tomorrow. When Albert Einstein penned these opening words, the realm of planning was least on his mind despite the aptness of the thoughts. This paper, having regard to this quotation, questions whether demographic change in one coastal area is occurring at a faster rate than in non–coastal areas? The South West coastal area of Victoria, from 1981 onwards, has witnessed a dramatic increase in population and also major shifts in the social and economic characteristics of the region. What have been the historic demographic and employment characteristics of the area and has there been a shift in these characteristics leading to the rapid population growth? These questions are considered using the City of Warrnambool, the largest urban centre in South West Victoria, as a study vehicle. The impact of a growing population on the municipal landscape can be demanding in terms of land use planning, land supply and the urban design. This paper will review the population growth using a shift share analysis method compared against overall growth patterns in the Victorian state population and Australia overall. It will then examine government population forecasts for the City of Warrnambool and suggest those impacts upon the current City of Warrnambool landscape.

Spatial modeling of electrical conductivity with neural network

Many policy decisions for agricultural management in the coastal region closely depend on the extent of intrusion of sea water. In this study, Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is used to model the spatial variation of Electrical Conductivity to determine the extent of sea water intrusion in the coastal area of Brisbane, Australia. Quarterly EC data obtained from the observation (monitoring) wells located along the coast is used for training ANN architecture. The study demonstrates that ANN is able to model the spatial variation of EC with very good accuracy (even with very less training records) when some spatial information is used as one of the inputs in the network training. The results considerable improvement when compared with the network trained without the distance information.

Sustainable development in the border region plan case study : Pengragoan village, Jembrana regency, Bali-Indonesia

Commonly, the border area is a countryside located far from city centre, so that such area gets less attention from government. This condition is seen from the condition of social and economic aspects that is left behind than other locations (Bappenas 2004). In Balinese Traditional perspective, countryside as border area is a non built environment as a symbol of an authority but it does not mean without activities. Asa regency area, border area is a gate of the regency that gives a first impression and attraction as well as represent of the regency characteristic. One of border areasbetween 2 regencies in Bali is Pengragoanareatraversed bythe main routeconnecting thecentreof the Bali Provinceand Gilimanuk Port. Not only is it as a border area betweenJembrana and Tabanan regencies, but also a coastal area that began to gain influence tourism development. The objective of this study is to find the strategies planning for border development that gives benefit to people, protect the local wisdom and meet with sustainable development issues. In order to achieve this objective, this research uses field study, focus groups discussion strategy and direct interview to collect data and descriptive analysis to analyse data. As an agriculture area, this area can be developed as agro-tourism area that focuses on agticultural activities and some support activities, " in limited number", such as home industries, outdoor recreation, agro tourism, restaurant, villa as well as stop over.

Can macroalgae contribute to blue carbon? An Australian perspective

Macroalgal communities in Australia and around the world store vast quantities of carbon in their living biomass, but their prevalence of growing on hard substrata means that they have limited capacity to act as long-term carbon sinks. Unlike other coastal blue carbon habitats such as seagrasses, saltmarshes and mangroves, they do not develop their own organic-rich sediments, but may instead act as a rich carbon source and make significant contributions in the form of detritus to sedimentary habitats by acting as a “carbon donor” to “receiver sites” where organic material accumulates. The potential for storage of this donated carbon however, is dependent on the decay rate during transport and the burial efficiency at receiver sites. To better understand the potential contribution of macroalgal communities to coastal blue carbon budgets, a comprehensive literature search was conducted using key words, including carbon sequestration, macroalgal distribution, abundance and productivity to provide an estimation of the total amount of carbon stored in temperate Australian macroalgae. Our most conservative calculations estimate 109.9 Tg C is stored in living macroalgal biomass of temperate Australia, using a coastal area covering 249,697 km2. Estimates derived for tropical and subtropical regions contributed an additional 23.2 Tg C. By extending the search to include global studies we provide a broader context and rationale for the study, contributing to the global aspects of the review. In addition, we discuss the potential role of calcium carbonate-containing macroalgae, consider the dynamic nature of macroalgal populations in the context of climate change, and identify the knowledge gaps that once addressed will enable robust quantification of macroalgae in marine biogeochemical cycling of carbon. We conclude that macroalgal communities have the potential to make ecologically meaningful contributions toward global blue carbon sequestration, as donors, but given that the fate of detached macroalgal biomass remains unclear, further research is needed to quantify this contribution.

Stakeholder involvement and interplay in coastal zone management and marine protected area planning

Most of Australia’s coastline and marine waters are crown ‘land’ and can be accessed by the public. As a result, many different users and stakeholder groups have an interest in coastal and marine planning and management decisions. As a way of analysing stakeholder involvement and interplay in coastal zone management and marine protected area (MPA) development in Australia, three case studies are presented to dissect the issues and explore common themes. The three themes are 1) Stakeholder involvement in implementing the oceans policy, 2) Stakeholder involvement in marine protected area network identification and 3) Stakeholder involvement in coastal land issues.

Stakeholder perceptions of a coastal marine protected area

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are an increasingly utilised marine and coastal management tool, designation rising steeply over the last twenty years. MPAs are most commonly designated for conservation objectives and the management is thus focused primarily on meeting conservation associated monitoring programs gathering data on a narrow suite of biological indicators. However, a wide range of potential social and economic impacts and the ability to meet the goals of an influenced by the often unmonitored perceptions and buy-in of local stakeholders. Here we examine stakeholder perceptions concerning a coastal MPA in South Australia. We conducted semi-structured interviews individuals engaged in the MPA' s planning and designation process, as well as those involved with management. We explored their understanding of the purpose of the MPA, whether they thought successful and the future management challenges the MPA might face. In particular, we focused on stakeholders indicators they thought should be used to monitor the ongoing performance of the MPA. varied between stakeholder groups, however, the majority of respondents highlighted the importance economic factors in the ongoing performance of the MPA. The vast majority of them suggested both biological socio-economic indicators that should be incorporated into monitoring programs. Our findings highlight MPA planning and management, when defining goals and developing monitoring programs, to incorporate social and economic, as well as, biological indicators.

Integrated natural resource management in Australia: the opportunity offered by a national coastal policy

Under the Australian Constitution the management (and planning) of Crown Land is a State and Territory Government responsibility. When this is considered in conjunction with the Offshore Constitutional Settlement, which affirmed that coastal waters out to three nautical miles (in general) offshore were also the responsibility of State and Territory Governments, then clearly coastal management in Australia is largely a State/Territory responsibility.

Beyond three nautical miles it is a different story. Under the United Nations Law of the Sea Convention (UNCLOS), which Australia ratified in October 1994, Australia claims jurisdiction out to 200 nautical miles and beyond (Wescott, 2000). These waters cover an area including the Antarctic claim of over 15 million square kilometres or twice the land area of Australia.

Hence in marine and coastal terms we have the national (Commonwealth) Government managing the oceans and seven State and Territory governments largely in charge of coastal management (coastal land and coastal waters). Heading "up river", State and Territory Governments plan and manage catchments.

Given the uncoordinated relationships between Australian coastal management policy and both catchment management policy and Australia's Ocean Policy (Commonwealth of Australia, 1998a and b), the Commonwealth Government's commitment to a "National Coastal Policy" presents an opportunity to progress the integration of natural resources management for the first time in decades.

A blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) feeding ground in a southern Australian coastal upwelling zone

A localised aggregation of blue whales. which may be pygmy blue whales (B. m. brevicauda), occurs in southern Australian coastal waters (between I39°45'E-143°E) during summer and autumn (December-May), where they feed on coastal krill (Nyctiphanes australis). a species which often forms surface swarms. While the abundance of blue whales using this area is unknown, up to 32 blue whales have been sighted in individual aerial  surveys. Krill appear to aggregate in response to enhanced productivity  resulting from the summer-autumn wind-forced Bonney Coast upwelling along the continental shelf. During the upwelling's quiescent (winter-spring) period. blue whales appear to be absent from the region. Krill surface  swarms have been associated with 48% of 261 blue whale sightings since 1998, with direct evidence of feeding observed in 36% of all sightings. Mean blue whale group size was 1.55 (SD =0.839), with all size classes represented including calves. This seasonally predictable upwelling system is evidently a regular feeding ground for blue whales, and careful  management of human activities is required there.

Spatial prediction of rufous bristlebird habitat in a coastal heathland: a GIS-based approach

1. To develop a conservation management plan for a species, knowledge of its distribution and spatial arrangement of preferred habitat is essential. This is a difficult task, especially when the species of concern is in low   abundance. In south-western Victoria, Australia, populations of the rare rufous bristlebird Dasyornis broadbenti are threatened by fragmentation of suitable habitat. In order to improve the conservation status of this species, critical habitat requirements must be identified and a system of corridors must be established to link known populations. A predictive spatial model of rufous bristlebird habitat was developed in order to identify critical areas requiring preservation, such as corridors for dispersal.
2. Habitat models generated using generalized linear modelling techniques can assist in delineating the specific habitat requirements of a species. Coupled with geographic information system (GIS) technology, these models can be extrapolated to produce maps displaying the spatial configuration of suitable habitat.
3. Models were generated using logistic regression, with bristlebird presence or absence as the dependent variable and landscape variables, extracted from both GIS data layers and multispectral digital imagery, as the predictors. A multimodel inference approach based on Akaike’s information criterion was used and the resulting model was applied in a GIS to extrapolate predicted likelihood of occurrence across the entire area of concern. The predictive performance of the selected model was evaluated using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) technique. A hierarchical partitioning protocol was used to identify the predictor variables most likely to influence variation in the dependent variable. Probability of species presence was used as an index of habitat suitability.
4. Negative associations between rufous bristlebird presence and  increasing elevation, 'distance to cree', 'distance to coast' and sun index were evident, suggesting a preference for areas relatively low in altitude, in close proximity to the coastal fringe and drainage lines, and receiving less direct sunlight. A positive association with increasing habitat complexity also suggested that this species prefers areas containing high vertical density of vegetation.
5. The predictive performance of the selected model was shown to be high (area under the curve 0·97), indicating a good fit of the model to the data. Hierarchical partitioning analysis showed that all the variables considered had significant  independent contributions towards explaining the variation in the dependent variable. The proportion of the total study area that was predicted as suitable habitat for the rufous bristlebird (using probability of occurrence at a ≥0·5 level ) was 16%.
6. Synthesis and applications. The spatial model clearly delineated areas predicted as highly suitable rufous bristlebird habitat, with evidence of potential corridors linking coastal and inland populations via gullies. Conservation of this species will depend on management actions that protect the critical habitats identified in the model. A multi-scale  approach to the modelling process is recommended whereby a spatially explicit model is first generated using landscape variables extracted from a GIS, and a second model at site level is developed using fine-scale habitat variables measured on the ground. Where there are constraints on the time and cost involved in measuring finer scale variables, the first step alone can be used for conservation planning.

Landscape characteristics associated with species richness and occurrence of small native mammals inhabiting a coastal heathland: a spatial modelling approach

In the coastal region of south-western Victoria, Australia, populations of native small mammal species are restricted to patches of suitable habitat in a highly fragmented landscape. The size and spatial arrangement of these patches is likely to influence both the occupancy and richness of species at a location. Geographic Information System (GIS)-based habitat models of the species richness of native small mammals, and individual species  occurrences, were developed to produce maps displaying the spatial  configuration of suitable habitat. Models were generated using either generalised linear Poisson regression (for species richness) or logistic regression (for species occurrences) with species richness or  presence/absence as the dependent variable and landscape variables, extracted from both GIS data layers and multi-spectral digital imagery, as the predictor variables. A multi-model inference approach based on the Akaike Information Criterion was used and the resulting model was applied in a GIS framework to extrapolate predicted richness/likelihood of occurrence across the entire area of the study. A negative association between species  richness and elevation, habitat complexity and sun index indicated that richness within the study area decreases with increasing altitude, vertical vegetation structure and exposure to solar radiation. Landform  characteristics were important (to varying degrees) in determining habitat occupancy for all of the species examined, while the influence of habitat complexity was important for only one of the species. Performance of all but one of the models generated using presence/absence data was high, as indicated by the area under the curve of a receiver-operating characteristic plot. The effective conservation of the small mammal species in the area of concern is likely to depend on management actions that promote the protection of the critical habitats identified in the models.

Modelling habitat suitability of the swamp antechinus (Antechinus minimus maritimus) in the coastal heathlands of southern Victoria, Australia

In recent years, predictive habitat distribution models, derived by combining multivariate statistical analyses with Geographic Information System (GIS) technology, have been recognised for their utility in conservation planning. The size and spatial arrangement of suitable habitat can influence the long-term persistence of some faunal species. In southwestern Victoria, Australia, populations of the rare swamp antechinus (Antechinus minimus maritimus) are threatened by further fragmentation of suitable habitat. In the current study, a spatially explicit habitat suitability model was developed for A. minimus that incorporated a measure of vegetation structure. Models were generated using logistic regression with species presence or absence as the dependent variable and landscape variables, extracted from both GIS data layers and multi-spectral digital imagery, as the predictors. The most parsimonious model, based on the Akaike Information Criterion, was spatially extrapolated in the GIS. Probability of species presence was used as an index of habitat suitability. A negative association between A. minimus presence and both elevation and habitat complexity was evidenced, suggesting a preference for relatively low altitudes and a vegetation structure of low vertical complexity. The predictive performance of the selected model was shown to be high (91%), indicating a good fit of the model to the data. The proportion of the study area predicted as suitable habitat for A. minimus (Probability of occurrence greater-or-equal, slanted0.5) was 11.7%. Habitat suitability maps not only provide baseline information about the spatial arrangement of potentially suitable habitat for a species, but they also help to refine the search for other populations, making them an important conservation tool.

Coastal state fisheries management : a review of Australian enforcement action in the Heard and McDonald Islands Australian Fishing Zone

In 1953 the Heard and McDonald Islands Act, which formalised the transfer of sovereignty over the two named sub-Antarctic islands from the United Kingdom, was passed by the Australian Government. For the ensuing 40 years, Australian management of the Islands was uneventful. The first subAntarctic scientific station was established at Atlas Cove, on Heard Island, in December 1947 following the initial indication by Britain of a willingness to transfer rights to the Islands. In 1987 the Islands, together with their 12 mile territorial sea, were proclaimed a wilderness reserve with a number of activities including fishing and mining prohibited. The same area was included on the WorId Heritage List in 1997. In 1979 a 200 nautical mile Australian Fishing Zone (AFZ) was proclaimed around all Australian territories. In 1994 new terminology was embraced and the Exclusive Economic Zone was declared.

Detection and habitat use of the rufous bristlebird (Dasyornis broadbenti) in coastal heathland, in south-western Victoria, Australia

The Rufous Bristlebird (Dasyornis broadbenti) is a sedentary, ground-dwelling passerine of southern Australia, which is listed as nationally vulnerable, and as near-threatened (lower risk) in Victoria. The species inhabits a variety of vegetation, including shrub thickets in coastal gullies to heathlands on limestone cliffs. This study aimed to assess the size, distribution and habitat use of a population of the subspecies D. b.  broadbenti at Portland in south-western Victoria. Monthly surveys (2002–03) were conducted on foot for 1 h after official sunrise and 1 h before official sunset, and presence of Bristlebirds recorded using vocalisations and sightings. Observations outside of the survey times were also recorded to estimate the size of territories and core area of occupancy. To quantify habitat preferences, vegetation composition and structure were measured in areas where Bristlebirds were present, as well as surrounding areas where they were not detected. The population in the survey areas was estimated at between 70 and 86 individuals in the 170-ha survey area. The estimated size of territories of eight selected pairs of Bristlebirds ranged from 0.5 to 3 ha, with core areas of occupancy ranging from 0.2 to 0.6 ha. During the nesting season (August November) Bristlebirds were detected at greater frequencies in the core area of occupancy within each territory. Significant associations were found between the presence of Bristlebirds and floristic associations dominated by the native environmental weeds Acacia sophorae and Leptospermum laevigatum. Bristlebird presence was significantly positively correlated with increasing vegetation density in the mid-canopy level (80–120 cm) indicating that vegetation structure is a key factor in habitat use.

Coastal marine habitat mapping using multi-beam acoustics, video data and a decision tree classifier on the temperate south-east Australian continental shelf

In this habitat mapping study, multi-beam acoustic data are integrated with extensive, precisely geo-referenced video validation data in a GIS environment to classify benthic substrates and biota at a 33km2 site in the near shore waters of Victoria, Australia. Using an automated decision-tree classification method, 5 representative biotic groups were identified in the Cape Nelson survey area using a combination of multi-beam bathymetry, backscatter and derivative products. Rigorous error assessment of derived, classified maps produced high overall accuracies (>85%) for all mapping products. In addition, a discrete multivariate analysis technique (kappa analysis) was used to assess classification accuracy. High-resolution (2.5m cell-size) representation of sea floor morphology and textural characteristics provided by multi-beam bathymetry and backscatter datasets, allowed the interpretation of benthic substrates of the Cape Nelson site and the communities of sessile organisms that populate them. Non-parametric multivariate statistical analysis (ANOSIM) revealed a significant difference in biotic composition between depth strata, and between substrate types. Incorporated with other descriptive measures, these results indicate that depth and substrate are important factors in the distributional ecology of the biotic communities at the Cape Nelson study site. BIOENV analysis indicates that derivatives of both multi-beam datasets (bathymetry and backscatter) are correlated with distribution and density of biotic communities. Results from this study provide new tools for research and management of the coastal zone.