Where does Australian Coastal Management Sit on the World Stage?
Timothy F Smith Address for correspondence: Assoc Prof Tim Smith, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, 306 Carmody Road, St. Lucia, 4067. E-mail: Tim.Smith@csiro.au Coasts are back on the agenda. It is unfortunate that often it takes a tragedy to create the catalyst for this increase in focus and attention. While a ground-swell of recognition about the importance of coastal issues has become evident in many natural resource and community development discourses, mass recognition of the importance of coastal management has certainly been fuelled by both the Boxing Day Tsunami and the New Orleans inundation. Both of these tragedies are significant international events; however, this paper will focus more broadly to provide a brief overview of recent international directions and initiatives in coastal management, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. These trends will also be discussed in relation to the Australian context. In 2000, Sorensen estimated that there were about 700 integrated coast
