Blog
Vale: Eric Bird—International Coastal Geomorphologist
Vale: Eric Bird—International Coastal Geomorphologist I am departing from my planned sequence of blogs on heavy minerals in coastal deposits to pay tribute to Eric Charles Frederick Bird. Eric recently passed away in Melbourne. Over many decades he has made enormous...
Mining and the Coast
Mining and the Coast Coastal landscapes in many parts of the world have been transformed, or in other ways impacted, by mining. This includes oil and gas extraction. Any visit to Cornwall will provide a visual reminder of tin mining from ages past. Societies and...
Loss of Towns and Villages to the Sea
Loss of Towns and Villages to the Sea Coastal policy discussion around adaptation to climate change frequently invokes the “holy trinity”: protect, accommodate, retreat. Such discussion provokes property owners at potential risk of coastal erosion/shoreline recession...
Mangroves from a Geomorphologist Perspective
Mangroves from a Geomorphologist Perspective Before arriving in Baton Rouge to commence graduate studies at Louisiana State University in late 1962, I attended a lecture in Sydney by a mangrove ecologist named Bill Macnae. He was a South African visiting Australian...
Complex Disasters: Compounding, Cascading and Protracted
Complex Disasters: Compounding, Cascading and Protracted I recently received a copy of a book edited by Anna Lukasiewicz and Tayanah O’Donnell entitled “Complex Disasters: Compounding, Cascading and Protracted”. It was published late 2022 as part of a series by...
Coasts and Climate Change – Don Wright’s Perspective
Coasts and Climate Change - Don Wright's Perspective Many Australian coastal colleagues know Don Wright either personally or through his publications. I have been privileged to have been a colleague since the early 1907s when we teamed up to study estuarine...
Federal Coastal Legislation – Public Trust Principles
Federal Coastal Legislation - Public Trust Principles In two recent blogs (Nos 227 and 233), I outlined how US federal coastal legislation offered a strategic, long-term approach to coastal management in cooperation with the states. Although not without its...
Public Trust Doctrine Part 1: Tribute to Jim Titus
Public Trust Doctrine Part 1: Tribute to Jim Titus Last week I received an email from Jim Titus informing a group of us that this was his last day at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). I quickly responded with congratulations on a great public service...
Coastal Adaptation in Aotearoa New Zealand
Coastal Adaptation In Aotearoa New Zealand Late last year I received a package from the former Secretary of ACS, Tom Fitzgerald. He is now back in NZ and Co-convenor of the Aotearoa Climate Adaptation Network. In the package was Special Publication No 5 of the NZ...
US Coastal Barrier Resources Act: Model for Strategic Federal Intervention?
US Coastal Barrier Resources Act: Model for Strategic Federal Intervention? Many will be aware of my long-standing obsession with the potential application of US style federal legislation for coastal management in Australia. In a previous blog (No. 227, November 2022)...
Philosophers and the Coast
Philosophers and the Coast My first encounter with philosophers and government arose out of being a member of the chorus in a school production of the Gondoliers at Scots College. This memorable Gilbert and Sullivan operetta had the chorus singing to the aria of...
Coastal Learning Blog
Coastal Learning Blog Dr Matt Eliot from Seashore Engineering in WA has kindly shared the following coastal engineering posts from the Coastal Learning Blog: It's the little things... One criterion to rule them all Wadis, Wastelands and Wetlands - Arid Zone Hydrology...