Coastal Management Act 2016

The coastal vulnerability area means the land identified by a State environmental planning policy to be the coastal vulnerability area for the purposes of this Act, being land subject to coastal hazards.

The management objectives for the coastal vulnerability area are as follows—

to ensure public safety and prevent risks to human life,

to mitigate current and future risk from coastal hazards by taking into account the effects of coastal processes and climate change,

to maintain the presence of beaches, dunes and the natural features of foreshores, taking into account the beach system operating at the relevant place,

to maintain public access, amenity and use of beaches and foreshores,

to encourage land use that reduces exposure to risks from coastal hazards, including through siting, design, construction and operational decisions,

to adopt coastal management strategies that reduce exposure to coastal hazards—

in the first instance and wherever possible, by restoring or enhancing natural defences including coastal dunes, vegetation and wetlands, and

if that is not sufficient, by taking other action to reduce exposure to those coastal hazards,

if taking that other action to reduce exposure to coastal hazards—

to avoid significant degradation of biological diversity and ecosystem integrity, and

to avoid significant degradation of or disruption to ecological, biophysical, geological and geomorphological coastal processes, and

to avoid significant degradation of or disruption to beach and foreshore amenity and social and cultural values, and

to avoid adverse impacts on adjoining land, resources or assets, and

to provide for the restoration of a beach, or land adjacent to the beach, if any increased erosion of the beach or adjacent land is caused by actions to reduce exposure to coastal hazards,

to prioritise actions that support the continued functionality of essential infrastructure during and immediately after a coastal hazard emergency,

to improve the resilience of coastal development and communities by improving adaptive capacity and reducing reliance on emergency responses.