Coastal management

Our beaches, dunes, headlands, littoral rainforests, coastal wetlands, creeks and estuaries are essential to the character of the MidCoast Region. Our coastal environment affords our community an enviable lifestyle and draw tourists and visitors to our Region who help drive local economies. These environments support important biodiversity and house many plant and animal species that are endangered and vulnerable.

Council is committed to manage these environments to preserve their quality and appeal, to continue to improve public access and enjoyment and to ensure that protected areas are managed to enhance biodiversity and ecosystem function.

The coast is a particularly dynamic environment. It is continually shaped by coastal processes and is susceptible to acute events like storms. In some locations, coastal processes are conflicting with urban areas and other assets. As the influence of climate change and sea level rise continue to shape coastlines across the world, this conflict and the risks will become more widespread.

NSW Councils are required to prepare coastal management programs (CMP) for their coastal areas to set the long-term strategy for the coordinated management of the coast.

Coastal Management Programs

CMPs identify coastal management issues and the actions required to address these issues in a strategic and integrated way. CMPs detail how and when those actions are to be implemented, their costs and proposed cost-sharing arrangements and other viable funding mechanisms.

CMPs replace the former Coastal Zone Management Plans (CZMP) that were previously prepared under the Coastal Protection Act 1979.

Coastal processes and hazards

The coast is a dynamic environment; constantly changing and responding to weather conditions and long-term coastal processes.

Two coastal processes that are occurring in the region are shoreline recession and coastal erosion.

Coastal erosion

Coastal erosion is the loss of beach sediment or sand from the system. Erosion is generally a rapid onset hazard, it occurs quickly, generally over periods of days to weeks as a result of a storm event, storm surge or sustained periods of high-energy waves.

Erosion is part of the natural response of beaches, and generally most beaches recover from this process. The eroded sands are typically returned to the shore, and the beach is rebuilt during calm weather. However, the recovery process relies on the existence of adequate sand provisions to replenish the beach profile.

Shoreline recession

Shoreline recession refers to the progressive landward shift of the average long-term position of the coastline. Recession is different to coastal erosion, in that it is a longer-term process, and occurs over many years or decades and caused by the cumulative long-term loss of sand from the beach sediment compartment over time, and a shift in the position of the beach landward as mean sea level increases.

There is no natural recovery from this event, the land is lost.

Coastal hotspots

The NSW Government has identified 15 coastal 'hotspots' along NSW coastline where the impact of coastal hazards and the risk to assets is particularly high. Two of those hotspots are located within the MidCoast Region - at Jimmys Beach near Hawks Nest and at Old Bar / Manning Point.

The CMP will specifically consider these areas in detail.

  

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