Published on 13 March 2024
Have your say on draft Coastal Adaptation Plan
The City of Onkaparinga is seeking your views on its draft Coastal Adaptation Plan.
The plan outlines what the council will do from 2024 to 2030 to anticipate and respond to the impacts of climate change and sea level rise on its 31km coastline.
In particular, the plan focusses on the risks of erosion and flooding, with a greater focus on erosion.
Earlier studies, including the council’s 2021 Coastal Adaptation Study, found that erosion poses a higher risk than flooding because most of Onkaparinga’s coastline is elevated.
Because most private property is set behind public roads, the main threat along the coast is to public infrastructure such as fencing, walkways and car parks.
While the plan will guide approaches to 2030, projections show that most coastal impacts are likely to be realised in the second half of this century.
That’s why the plan’s research, investigations and risk assessments consider possible changes up to 2100.
Council has already undertaken a range of activities to support coastal adaptation, such as replenishing dunes, managing outlet flows from rivers and creeks, revegetating cliffs, installing sandbag groynes, and building sea walls.
Unlike coastal management – which is about day-to-day management of the coast – the Coastal Adaptation Plan focusses solely on our responses to climate change and sea level rise.
The draft plan proposes four goals:
- GOAL 1: Information and evidence
- GOAL 2: Resilience
- GOAL 3: Community knowledge and action
- GOAL 4: Resources and capability
These goals will be achieved through 25 separate actions that are based on evidence and informed by extensive community engagement.
Some of these actions are planned or are under way and are being funded through our existing operational and capital budget allocations
Others will require grant funding from the state or Australian governments, while others will be largely met only through staff time.
Have your say on the draft Coastal Adaptation Plan on the City of Onkaparinga’s Your Say page.
The consultation is open until 2 April 2024 and the plan will be finalised following community feedback.