From Cosmos (17/2/24)…
Staying ahead of the wave
A beautiful, sandy beach. Crystal clear waters. Fish. Thriving sand dunes.
Coastal communities often depend on these tourism drawcards. So, how can councils anticipate the damage done by increasingly frequent storms?
It’s a challenge close to the heart of the Noosa Shire Council, on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.
Main Beach, Noosa, is a thriving resort location, with its rolling Pacific surf offset by the beauty of the surrounding Noosa National Park.
But Queensland is being battered by frequent cyclones and intense storms, and it’s only a matter of time before Noosa cops a direct hit.
Inevitably, its sandy beaches will bear the brunt of that force.
University of the Sunshine Coast geographer Associate Professor Javier Leon has taken up the challenge, finding ways to draw together field research, geospatial data and computer modelling into a simple and cost-effective coastal data portal for Australia’s coastal communities.
