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| Pressure of population
makes heavy demands on much of the coastal zone, and in response there have been
urgent moves in Australia to reform coastal management regimes in recent times.
As Thom and Harvey point out, it is now widely recognised that coastal systems
are dynamic and that change is inevitable. They maintain that in the 1990s Australian
coastal management reform has been driven by the prominence given in international
forums to problems associated with global environmental change, the pervasiveness
of notions of sustainable development, a more integrated approach to resource
management across governments and responsible agencies, and growing community
awareness and participation in decision making. [Thom & Harvey: 2000: p.275]
Lockie, in a recent review of the state of Social Impact Assessment (SIA), stresses
the crucial role that public participation should play in environmental decision
making, and draws attention to the fact that more ephemeral values, ‘the
subjective and cultural meanings’ people invest in their local natural environment,
are often neglected in the planning process, perhaps because they are difficult
to measure and quantify. [Lockie:2001:279] |
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