How close to the coast? Incorporating coastal expertise into decision-making on residential development in Australia

The paper concludes that Australia has a variable use of adopting coastal expert advice into the coastal residential development approval process because each state has different stages where the advice is incorporated into its planning system. These variations can be represented along a continuum of specificity for expert advice provided. It appears that none of the states provides a fail-safe mechanism to prevent residential development being built too close to the coast as shown by case studies described. In one state there is a statutory requirement for referral to an expert coastal body but a proportion of the advice is ignored. Most state jurisdictions are now attempting to mainstream expert advice into planning legislation, policies and guidelines so that best practice principles are adopted early in the development approval process in order to avoid building too close to the coast.