Saturday, April 19, 2008

New tools help manage beaches

CSIRO's Wealth from Oceans National Research Flagship and the Western Australian Government have developed practical tools to help planners manage potentially competing uses of Australia's marine ecosystems. The Federal Minister for Industry, Innovation, Science & Research, Senator the Hon Kim Carr, and the Western Australian Minister for Environment, the Hon David Templeman MLA, launchd the North West Shelf Joint Environmental Management Study (NWSJEMS) in Perth on 11 April 2008.
NWSJEMS project leader, CSIRO's Dr Scott Condie, said this research was vital because coasts and oceans worldwide are being exposed to growing pressure from increasing population and industrialisation.
The team developed a sophisticated model that allows users to envisage different development scenarios and management options, and comprehensively evaluate their potential impacts on marine ecosystems. The sophisticated techniques developed for this study are being further improved and can be adapted for any marine ecosystem facing pressures from potentially competing uses. It is already being applied to the Ningaloo Marine Park to make the next benchmark in modelling tools for marine managers, and are being used in south-eastern Australia.

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