The New Orleans hurricane protection system: assessing pre-Katrina vulnerability and improving mitigation and preparedness

Source: National Academy of Sciences
"Hurricane Katrina, which struck New Orleans and surrounding areas in August 2005, ranks as one of the nation's most devastating natural disasters. Shortly after the storm, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers established a task force to assess the performance of the levees, floodwalls, and other structures comprising the area's hurricane protection system during Hurricane Katrina. This book provides an independent review of the task force's final draft report and identifies key lessons from the Katrina experience and their implications for future hurricane preparedness and planning in the region."

The economic and social values of beach recreation on the Gold Coast

Source: CRC Sustainable Tourism
"This research program was conducted to investigate the economic and social values of beach recreation on the Gold Coast. The program comprised two subprojects which were conducted concurrently. The major sub-project involved a survey of Gold Coast City residents’ use and attitudes toward Gold Coast ocean beach and foreshore areas. In addition, a desk-top study, based on available secondary data, was conducted of tourist use and values of Gold Coast beaches."

Washed out to sea

Source: U.S. Senate
"It is no day at the beach for American taxpayers when billions of dollars worth of sand projects go out with the tide. Yet, in his new oversight report “Washed Out to Sea, How Congress Prioritizes Beach Pork Over National Needs,” Senator Tom Coburn details just how beachfront communities, D.C. lobbyists, and Members of Congress have teamed up to “save” beaches with federally funded sand – an effort that always results in additional requests for sand projects in the future. While bridges and levies collapse, Congress is earmarking funds to replenish beaches, subsidizing risky flood insurance, and bailing out homeowners who chose to build their houses on sand. These efforts, ironically, have had the unintended effect of inviting more people to develop and live in flood-prone coastal areas, thus creating and sustaining a vicious cycle of development and dependency."

Shellfish reefs at risk: a global analyis of problems and solutions

Source: Nature Conservancy
"Once dominant features in many temperate estuaries around the world, native oyster reefs are critically important ecologically and economically. Centuries of intensive fisheries extraction exacerbated by more recent coastal degradation have put oyster reefs near or past the point of functional extinction globally, but sensible solutions that could ensure conservation of remaining reefs and even reverse losses to restore ecosystem services are available. These solutions involve wider application of area-based conservation approaches, improvements in fisheries management, enhanced restoration for multiple ecosystem services (e.g., water filtration, nutrient removal, shoreline protection and fish habitat provision), and partnerships to improve water quality."

East marine bioregional plan bioregional profile

source: Dept. of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts
"This East Marine Bioregional Profile brings together, for the first time, the best available information for the East Marine Region. It consolidates our knowledge of the spectacular and varied features of the Coral and Tasman Seas, from Cape York Peninsula to southern New South Wales and stretching hundreds of kilometres from shore to include Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands."

The coral triangle and climate change

Source: WWF
"If the world does not take effective action on climate change, coral reefs will disappear from the Coral Triangle by the end of the century, the ability of the region’s coastal environments to feed people will decline by 80 per cent, and the livelihoods of around 100 million people will have been lost or severely impacted. The Coral Triangle and Climate Change: Ecosystems, People and Societies at Risk considers over 300 published scientific studies and includes the work of over 20 experts in fields such as biology, economics and fisheries science to present two different possible futures this century for the world’s richest marine environment -- the coasts, reefs and seas of the six countries of Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Timor Leste."

Sea change: advancing Australia's ocean interests

source: Australian Strategic Policy Institute
"Australia claims jurisdiction over more of the earth than any other country—around 27.2 million square kilometres or 5% of the planet, ahead of Russia and the US. Of this, our maritime domain is around 4% of the planet’s oceans. This Strategy, authored by Sam Bateman and Anthony Bergin, is a new assessment of Australia’s ocean interests. Australia should be an oceanic superpower but currently we are neither a great maritime nation nor a great maritime power: we have neglected the importance of the oceans to our national prosperity and security."

Marine nation: national framework for marine research and innovation

Source: Oceans Policy Science Advisory Group
"This strategy sets the direction for research in this critical area through a new commitment to national co-ordination by agencies involved in Australia’s marine science, technology and innovation effort. The Framework also highlights the need for greatly expanded investment in marine R&D."

An assessment of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in sediments and bivalves of the US coastal zone

Source: NOAA Mussel Watch Program
"NOAA scientists, in a first-of-its-kind report issued today, state that Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs), chemicals commonly used in commercial goods as flame retardants since the 1970s, are found in all United States coastal waters and the Great Lakes, with elevated levels near urban and industrial centers. The new findings are in contrast to analysis of samples as far back as 1996 that identified PBDEs in only a limited number of sites around the nation. "

Climate change, sea level rise and coastal subsidence along the Gippsland coast

source: Gippsland Coastal Board
"The impacts of climate change are complex, difficult to predict, yet too far-reaching to ignore. This 2008 report outlines potential threats to assets and infrastructure in Gippsland and address issues like erosion and sand transport. When storms wash away our beaches where does the sand go? The authors describe, among other things, how the highly erodible Gippsland coast can be shaped by storms and other events."

Climate change impacts on Clarence coastal areas

source: Clarence City Council (Tas.)
A report assessing the impacts of climate change on Tasmania’s Clarence City Council, and ways to adapt to and mitigate these impacts, could serve as a model for other councils. The report is one of five major studies that are being undertaken as part of a national initiative coordinated by the Federal Department of Climate Change that aims to help local governments identify and respond to the risks associated with the predicted effects of climate change. The report provides a preliminary assessment of the climate change-associated risks to coastal areas at 18 coastal locations in Clarence at the present time, at 2050 and in 2100. The report then makes a number of recommendations of actions the council could take to adapt to and mitigate the potential risks of impacts such as sea-level rise, storm surges, erosion and coastal inundation."

Coastal sensitivity to sea-level rise

Source: US EPA
"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in collaboration with other agencies, has released a report that discusses the impacts of sea level rise on the coast, coastal communities, and the habitats and species that depend on them. The report, Coastal Sensitivity to Sea-Level Rise: A Focus on the Mid-Atlantic Region, examines multiple opportunities for governments and coastal communities to plan for and adapt to rising sea levels."

Status of corals reefs of the world 2008

Source: ReefBase
"This Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2008 report is the 5th global report since the GCRMN (Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network), was formed in 1996 as an operational network of the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI)".
NB: You will need to register (free) in order to read the full report.

Revisiting the Cassandra syndrome: the changing climate of coral reef research

Source: Coral reefs, vol.27 (2008)
"Climate change will be with us for decades, even with significant reductions in emissions. Therefore, predictions made with respect to climate change impacts on coral reefs need to be highly defensible to ensure credibility over the timeframes this issue demands. If not, a Cassandra syndrome could be created whereby future more well-supported predictions of the fate of reefs are neither heard nor acted upon. Herein, popularising predictions based on essentially untested assumptions regarding reefs and their capacity to cope with future climate change is questioned. Some of these assumptions include that: all corals live close to their thermal limits, corals cannot adapt/acclimatize to rapid rates of change, physiological trade-offs resulting from ocean acidification will lead to reduced fecundity, and that climate-induced coral loss leads to widespread fisheries collapse. We argue that, while there is a place for popularising worst-case scenarios, the coral reef crisis has been effectively communicated and, though this communication should be sustained, efforts should now focus on addressing critical knowledge gaps."

Variability and trends in the Australian wave climate and consequent coastal vulnerability

Source: Dept. of Climate Change and CSIRO
"occur with climate change will alter the surface ocean wave energy felt on Australia's coasts. These changes must be quantified in order to assess the ocean wave resources available for renewable energy generation, and to determine how any changes will affect Australia's coastal infrastructure and environment."

2007 water quality report: Great Barrier Reef catchments and inshore ecosystems

Source: QLD EPA
"This report focuses on catchments identified as priorities by the Reef Plan and near-shore marine ecosystems of the Reef. It applies a pressure–state–impact–response framework across land management, water quality and reef health. It compiles best available data from a variety of sources and is a first step in providing a comprehensive, integrated and statistically robust assessment for the Reef and its catchments."

Variability and trends in the Australian wave climate and consequent coastal vulnerability

source: Dept. of Climate Change
"Changing wind systems projected to occur with climate change will have the effect of altering the surface ocean wave energy felt on Australia’s coasts. These changes must be quantified in order to assess the ocean wave resources available for renewable wave energy generation, and to enable coastal managers and researchers to determine how any changes will impact on Australia’s coastal infrastructure and environment."

Climate warming, marine protected areas and the ocean-scale integrity of coral reef ecosystems

Source: PLoSONE, vol.3 (8) August 2008
"Coral reefs have emerged as one of the ecosystems most vulnerable to climate variation and change. While the contribution of a warming climate to the loss of live coral cover has been well documented across large spatial and temporal scales, the associated effects on fish have not. Here, we respond to recent and repeated calls to assess the importance of local management in conserving coral reefs in the context of global climate change."

Sea the value: quantifying the value of marine life to divers

Source: Oceana
"Oceana released the results of a new study today that finds a strong economic incentive for protecting living ocean resources. Sea the Value: Quantifying the Value of Marine Life to Divers shows that scuba divers are willing to pay more to see healthy corals, sharks and sea turtles."

Marine protected areas

Source:Research Service, NSW Parliament
"The oceans and seas under Australian jurisdiction include the full range of ocean temperature zones, from tropical to polar, ranging from the spectacular coral reefs of the tropical north to the majestic kelp forests of the temperate south. This environmental diversity explains the rich variety of life found in Australia’s oceans. Australia's marine environments contain more than 4,000 fish varieties and tens of thousands of species of invertebrates, plants and micro-organisms. Large areas have been little explored and new species are often discovered. Scientists estimate that about 80% of the species in Australia’s southern oceans occur nowhere else in the world. This paper looks at competing uses of the oceans, threats and regulatory arrangements."