Natural Asset Management Update - May 2017

By: Regional Natural Asset Management Coordinator, Travis Sydes...

CoastAdapt – final version released.

The final version of the much consulted CoastAdapt toolkit for coastal planners and managers has been released. The review has taken on board many of the recommendations made during the national roadshow and consultation process and the end result is an even better resource for councils and other coastal land managers, users, and planners.

Changes and improvements to the website include:

Getting Started: available from the home page, the Getting Started section provides suggestions for a wide range of adaptation roles.

New temperature and rainfall extremes data provided by CSIRO and accessed through Sea-Level Rise and You, together with an explanatory report: information for five different extremes, and for every coastal local council in Australia, is provided for time slices from the present day up to 2100.

New infographics: these simple and visually appealing one-page guides to key topics have proved very popular with CoastAdapt users. We provide new ones on risk assessment, climate model use, inundation mapping and (still to come) sediment compartments.

New case studies and snapshots, bringing the total to 67. This includes a new video case study from Far North Queensland Aboriginal Shire Councils, outlining the challenges they face from sea-level rise.

A Guide to Hazard Mapping aimed specifically at the needs of local councils.

A new template for local councils on ‘Evaluating consultants’ performance’ at the end of a contract.

The Ask an Expert questions and answers from CoastExchange are now included in an Ask an Expert section, and this will continue to be updated as new questions are asked and answered.

Research Reports from projects commissioned during the development of CoastAdapt to fill knowledge gaps.

A section It’s not just the coast provides information on climate change adaptation for the whole of Australia, not just the coast, which has been developed recently by NCCARF.

Finally, there has been general updating of CoastAdapt, with up-to-date statistics on climate change in the What is climate change section, and updated Information Manuals and jurisdictional differences information to ensure everything in CoastAdapt is absolutely current.

Visit the site to explore this new information

Wet Tropics Plan review

The Wet Tropics Plan is currently under a comprehensive review and is now out for consultation. The review process is built around two formal rounds of public consultation. The first round of consultation will close 30 June 2017. The draft Plan will then undergo a second round of community consultation from February 2018.

The review process is focusing on a range of revisions including

Improvements to the zoning system
Recognising Rainforest Aboriginal tradition
Updates to road classifications and visitor sites
Building and upgrading community services infrastructure
Activities allowed under a permit (including fish stocking and aircraft landing)
Undesirable plants and animals (including cats and dogs)
Domestic activities
Offsets

FNQROC is participating in the review process and has a seat at the table of the Wet Tropics Management Plan Review Interdepartmental Committee (IDC). The group will meet again in late May so any positions or queries that councils may have inclusive of or in addition to their individual submissions can be forwarded to email/t.sydes)(fnqroc.qld.gov.au

Further information can also be found on the Authority’s website which explains the review process and summarises the key changes being considered. The website also features an interactive mapping portal so the proposed changes can be compared with the current plan.

Wet Tropics Healthy Waterways Partnership

The Wet Tropics Healthy Waterways Partnership met this month in the first meeting of the group since the launch of the pilot report card for the Wet Tropics at the beginning of the year. The membership of the partnership continues to grow with more industries, businesses, councils and community groups coming on board. In addition to participation in the partnership group local governments are represented by Lynne Powell (CRC) and myself on the technical working group (TWG) and on the Management Committee by Mark Wuth (CRC).

For more information on the partnership and the pilot report card for the Wet Tropics

Reef Urban Stormwater Management Improvement Group (RUSMIG)

Officers from CRC and myself attended an information session with part of the newly reinvigorated RUSMIG team to unpack the current project and understand a little of the history of the collaboration. In the current iteration DEHP is resourcing an initiative called Great Barrier Reef (GBR) Erosion and sediment control (ESC) and urban stormwater (USW) capacity building and science/technology Project (not sure what the short-hand for that mouthful is!). The project is officially underway but in its early stages and will run from now 2019/20. The key outcomes will be focusing on process and capacity to enable delivery against targets for local governments set in the Reef Plan and Reef 2050 Long Term Sustainability Plan.

The project has two themes

Erosion and sediment control (ESC) and urban stormwater (USW) capacity building
ESC and USW - science, technical, policy legislation and guidelines

Theme one will include resourcing for:

Community of practice workshops
ESC toolkit adaptation for GBR
LG capacity building (extension / embedment)
Industry and capacity building workshops
Digital media for resources
Field days
Emerging technology training
Emerging technology demo sites
ESC accreditation

And theme two will focus on:

Science and technical program
Statewide ESC and stormwater strategy
Evaluation of practices (Urban report card)
Policy and regulation

In related matters the DEHP is currently developing the environmental values and water quality objectives for the EPP - Environmental Protection (Water) Policy (2009). Guidance information for Wet Tropics waters and reef catchment ground waters will be released when available.

Submissions on the draft environmental values and water quality objectives are open. The closing date for is 31 May 2017 Go to https://www.ehp.qld.gov.au/water/policy/

Products and resources from Water by Design Products and resources available at http://hlw.org.au/initiatives/waterbydesign

While they were here John and Adrian from the team spent some time in the region looking at landfill and stormwater management projects on the Tablelands and in Cairns and will be looking for opportunities in the coming months to meet with other coastal councils.

Biosecurity co-investment model rollout

The first meeting of the State Oversight Group which will inform and guide the delivery of the Biosecurity Co-investment Model took place in Brisbane this month. The first two goals of the group at the inaugural meeting were the tuning up the Terms of Reference; and the presentation of the compilation of metrics available for the revision of the contribution calculation methodology. It is certainly early days for the group but the representation from LG’s regional subcommittees from across the state showed great participation and engagement in the process. I don’t believe any of the group is under any illusion as to the challenges ahead in arriving at an agreement on the calculation method. I did walk away from the meeting confident that the process is in place to continue to progress the revised model which allows for much more input from councils. We will keep the region updated as the process rolls out through both the FNQROC Board and the Natural Asset Management Advisory Committee who is chartered with compiling our regional priorities for submission.