DRAFT COASTAL HAZARD ADAPTATION STRATEGY - “OUR RESILIENT COAST. OUR FUTURE”

NOW IS THE TIME TO HAVE YOUR SAY

 Sunshine Coast Council has recently released the draft Coastal Hazard Adaptation Strategy (CHAS) -   “Our Resilient Coast.  Our Future”.

It is a long-term strategy to help manage the impacts of coastal hazards. This is particularly important given our vulnerability to the impacts and effects of climate change.

The hazards include erosion of our beaches and estuarine foreshores as well as short (tides and storm surge) and long term (sea level rise) seawater inundation along our coastline and estuaries.

 The Council is intending to release the final strategy early next year giving only a limited time for the public to have their input into the draft.

Public consultation closes at 5.00 pm, 7^th December 2020

It is vital as many people and groups as possible have informed input into the strategy as it could and should have a major influence on the decision making of the Council. This is a significant generational opportunity

How can you be involved?

• Review the Draft Coastal Hazard Adaptation Strategy and provide your feedback here
• Attend a community webinar or open house session to hear about the draft Strategy and chat to the project team
• View the coastal hazard mapping(External link)
• Subscribe for project updates using the 'Subscribe' button on this page to receive emails from the Council team with the latest news, upcoming events and online activities.
• Ask the team questions about coastal hazards and the Strategy by emailing [email protected](External link).

 For all the details of public consultation visit the Council website 

This draft strategy is the product of considerable and multiple stages of consultation and detailed work over the past 18 months.  As it deals with complex issues and long term planning, it is an extensive document.

To assist in navigating the draft CHAS, here is a summary of its contents and key actions...

KEY ELEMENTS OF THE CHAS:

1. Coastal hazard mapping: (these maps are found in appendix B of the draft)

They include maps for present day, 2041 (.2m SLR), 2070 (.5m SLR) and 2100 (.8m Sea Level Rise).

They show areas for these dates that may be prone to coastal hazards for open coast erosion, tidal areas and storm tide inundation.

The maps are interactive.

• A region wide risk assessment:

This section predicts the timing and scale of the risk associated with coastal hazards.

 The actions required for each of these risk categories is shown in Table 5, pg. 16

• A coastal adaptation framework:

This consists of 3 adaptation responses;

• Monitor, maintain and prepare
• Mitigate
• Transition

Table 8, pg. 22 of the draft defines these responses.

There are 4 themes of adaptation responses.

• Enhancing adaptive capacity
• Planning
• Modifying infrastructure
• Coastal management and engineering

Details of these responses are in Table 9, Pg. 23

• Assignment of adaptation responses across the region (2041, 2070 and 2100)

The region approach to responses is shown in Table13, Pgs., 31-35

• Assignment of location-specific responses.

The CHAS divides our coastline into 28 discrete units. Table 10, Pg., 26 shows adaptation response pathways for each of these units.

Locality summaries from Coolum south to Bells Creek are outlined from pgs., 37-94

SCEC is in the process of reviewing the draft CHAS and preparing its feedback and will provide updates during the consultation period.

We encourage you to be involved in this extremely important and timely opportunity to help shape and guide the current and future resilience of the Coast so do register to join the webinars or attend the interactive open house sessions and provide your feedback by 07 December.

Of course, please get in touch with SCEC if we can be of assistance. 

Jim Cash

SCEC representative on the Community Advisory Group (CAG) for the CHAS