Pipe Clay Lagoon Coastal Management Plan

Project overview

In January 2021, council adopted a Coastal Hazards Policy, which provides a consistent approach to the management of current and emerging coastal hazards on council-controlled land within the municipality.

The policy adopts a risk-based approach to managing coastal hazards and clarifies responsibilities regarding council-controlled land, Crown land and privately-owned land. The policy also enables council to develop coastal hazard management plans for key coastal areas.

Council is now in the process of developing a Pipe Clay Lagoon Coastal Management Plan and is seeking community input in the first stage of this process. You can have your say by completing our survey or using the map tool below.

Background

The City of Clarence features around 191 kilometres of coastline. Natural coastal processes make some of this coastline vulnerable to being eroded away or flooded by the sea. There is an increasing risk over time that erosion or flooding will become hazards to people, natural assets or property because the level of the sea is rising in response to rising global average temperatures.

The likely impact of the rising sea level on coastal communities in Clarence has been extensively investigated by council. Maps from models of probable landward movement (recession) of the shoreline in 2020, 2050, 2075 and 2100 have been available to the public for more than a decade. Council monitors municipal beaches annually - using historical and new aerial photographs and remote light sensing data - so maps showing actual changes in the shoreline from 1957 to 2020 are available on council’s website at www.ccc.tas.gov.au/climate-change.

Council endorsed the Clarence City Council Coastal Hazards Policy in January 2021. The policy is available for public information on council’s website and in the Document Library.

The Coastal Hazards Policy sets up a framework to develop ‘local coastal management plans’ for areas that require a coordinated and long-term response to coastal risks and hazards. These local coastal management plans will focus on documenting pathways to adapt to hazards on the coast. These plans will complement council’s existing ‘Reserve Activity Plans’ that address broader coastal management such as managing the natural, cultural and recreational values of the reserve.

The coastal management plans will be developed for vulnerable sites with input from community and stakeholders. Finalised plans will be made available to the public once they’re adopted.

The plans will include:

• Results of new data collections, for example local tidal water levels and shoreline elevations.
• New data will be included in refined models which will more accurately quantify coastal hazards.
• Options for managing eroding or flooding shorelines.
• Costs and benefits of optional responses to coastal hazards.
• Providing recommendations on how the responses will be funded.

Please see the Information Sheet in the Document Library for more details.

Have your say

In the first stage of this consultation, we are seeking community feedback to assist in developing a Pipe Clay Lagoon Coastal Management Plan. This key stage includes an online survey and mapping tool, as well as an Information Session held on-site in March 2022 (pending COVID-19 restrictions).

Community feedback received during this stage, in conjunction with scientific research and expert advice, will be used to develop the coastal management plan. This plan will then be put to a second round of community consultation.

You can have your say by completing our survey or using the map tool below.

For more information, contact Project Officer Phil Watson on 03 6217 9713 or email pwatson@ccc.tas.gov.au; or Helen Peters on 03 6217 9719 or hpeters@ccc.tas.gov.au.

Information session

A community information session is being held Sunday 12 June at the Sandford Hall, from 10.00am – 12.00noon. 

Council officers will be available to answer questions about the Coastal Hazards Policy and how residents in areas that have been identified as vulnerable to coastal erosion, coastal inundation, and sea level rise, can provide input into the development of coastal management plans.