2022-11-14 GC Agenda - Item 3 - Attachment 1 - Draft Eastern Beaches Foreshore Management Plan

6. Climate change
Our foreshores are at the front line of climate change with- expected climate change impacts such
as sea level rise and increased storm intensity and frequency already being felt. Naturally,
vegetated foreshores play a vital role in sustaining our coasts and protecting foreshore
communities as sea levels rise and erosion areas expand landward.

The Noosa Coastal Hazards Adaptation Plan 2021 (CHAP) identifies and maps Noosa’s coastal
hazards risks, including for sea level rise, coastal erosion and storm tide inundation for three future
timestamps: 2040, 2070 and 2100. Virtually all of the land in the EBFRs is identified as erosion
prone, and the beach and some frontal dunes and coastal creeks are identified as vulnerable to
storm tide inundation during a major storm event.

As outlined in Section 4.4 of this Plan, community consultation for the Noosa CHAP strongly
identified nature-based solutions as the preferred response to climate change impacts. Many in the
community consider that a nature-based approach will best keep the natural look and feel and
safeguard the natural environment, while mitigating coastal hazard impacts. Building the health
and natural stability of the natural foreshores and vegetated dunes, and maintaining natural coastal
processes of erosion and accretion, are central to this approach.



How do vegetated dunes buffer our coasts to climate change impacts?
Climate change may increase both the occurrence and intensity of severe weather events and
cause sea level rise, increasing storm tide inundation, permanent inundation and beach erosion.
An important ecosystem service that naturally vegetated foreshores provide is the buffering of
beaches and dunes to help slow coastal erosion impacts1.

Healthy dune systems absorb wave and wind energy and can reduce flooding, wind, and storm
surge impacts. Dune vegetation helps hold dunes and foreshores together, making them more
resilient to wind and wave erosion. Dune vegetation slows the wind near the surface of the dune
and allows sand to drop out of the air. This reduces wind impacts on the dunes and nearby
settlements and recreational areas.

Healthy dunes systems are self-regenerating, and are able to rebuild more easily after severe
weather events, given enough time between storms and suitable material for rebuilding. Dunes in
good condition means that there are sources of seeds and runners nearby to recolonise disturbed
areas after storm events. Vegetation and natural debris act as an entrapment point, allowing the
lodgment of sand and seeds that contribute to the rebuilding and revegetation of frontal dunes after
disturbance2.

Sloping, healthy dunes help keep sand on our beaches. Waves run-out on the natural slope,
reducing the amount of energy available to lift and carry sand away. Steep dune faces left after
storms soon slump, quickly returning the back of the beach to a more natural slope. Dunes are a
source of sediment for off-shore bars that develop after storms that then act as a local source of
sediment to rebuild beaches and frontal dunes3.



1 Morris et al. (2021). The Australian Nature-Based Methods for Reducing Risk from Coastal Hazards. Earth

Systems and Climate Change Hub Report No. 26. NESP Earth Systems and Climate Change Hub, Australia.
2 De Battisti, D. (2021). The resilience of coastal ecosystems: A functional trait-based perspective. Journal of

Ecology. 109
3 Lawlor, P., Jackson, D.W.T. (2022). A Nature-Based Solution for Coastal Foredune Restoration: The Case

Study of Maghery, County Donegal, Ireland. In: Misiune, I., Depellegrin, D., Egarter Vigl, L. (eds) Human-
Nature Interactions. Springer, Cham.

Eastern Beaches Foreshore Management Plan – Draft (V4 26.9.22 – for public consultation)               Page 11