Measuring Coastal Landscape and Lifestyle Values: An Interpretive Approach

Abstract

There is mounting evidence of public disenchantment and frustration with current approaches to coastal resource management in Australia, and the processes employed and their outcomes. There are also lingering doubts about whether these processes adequately represent the diversity of views within the wider community. A recent “Coastwise” project, “Images from the Edge!” involved a pioneering attempt to document the nature of coastal landscape and lifestyle values in the Far North Coast region of New South Wales. The project employed an interpretive approach to public consultation and utilised a range of media techniques spanning the creative arts and applied sciences. The central element of the project, a touring exhibition, attracted some 9,000 participants. Surveys of approximately 1,200 exhibition participants, regional residents and visitors indicate that there is an intricate and inseparable link between coastal landscapes and lifestyles. The community values coastal landscapes highly, is knowledgeable about their functioning, and deeply concerned for their future. The community is demanding increasingly responsive planning, and is prepared to play an active part in landscape management if its values and efforts are integrated into a coherent action programme.