Gold Coast Shoreline Management Plan Volume 3: Shoreline Management Plan and Policies - Chapters 7 to 9

Abstract

The development of the Gold Coast Shoreline Management Plan originally focussed on a review of the littoral processes at work on the ocean beaches of the Gold Coast. The objectives of this review were established in GCCM Report No 39.The review evolved into a shoreline management plan in response to the concurrent introduction of a requirement by the Queensland EPA for a shoreline erosion management plan.

Throughout this report reference has been made to: i) the Littoral Review, which describes the background studies and information covered in Chapters 1 to 6 and Chapters 8 to 10 of this report; and ii) the Shoreline Management Plan (SMP) which is the outcome of the Littoral Review in terms of guidelines for beach management over the next 50 years, and which is effectively presented as Chapter 7.

The approach adopted hereby GCCC for this project was to provide a more holistic assessment of shoreline issues, not merely the physical process and engineering studies usually associated with shoreline erosion. The purpose of this chapter is then to synthesise the findings from the Littoral Review and the various research projects undertaken as part of the review – as they relate to shoreline erosion management. In particular the Delft Report (DHL, 1970) Report recommendations which form the basis of the current Gold Coast Coastal Management Plan (as Amended in March 2004 – see Volume 4) will be examined in light of the Littoral Review. Where the Delft Report strategies are deemed to continue to be appropriate, this will be stated, and no further analysis will be discussed. Where the Delft Report findings are now seen as needing updating, new recommendations will be made. The outcome of this process is a cogent set of recommendations to guide GCCC in the management of its ocean beaches for the next 50 years.