Reintegrating Coastal Development and Public Health in Western Australia

Abstract

This article presents three case studies that take a socio-ecological perspective to highlight an interconnectedness between the environment, human participation and organization, and public health, in Western Australian marine, coastal, and near-coastal places. We examine the degree to which coastal zone planning and management interact with public health practitioner, and the consequences of this interaction for biophysical surroundings and human health. The case studies demonstrate the limited roles the public health sector has played, and the indispensable expanded role it might play, in what is traditionally seen as the domain of natural resource management. A socio-ecological analysis highlighted the value of decision-making processes for coastal developments that emphasize dialogue, place, public health issues, resource distribution, as well as ecology. These adaptive capabilities offer scope for understanding the consequences of coastal planning and management actions on both the biophysical condition of the environment and human health, break the cycles of reaction, and provide an alternative framework for regulating the developmental expansion of the Western Australian coastline.

Decadal changes in the ichthyofauna of a eutrophic estuary following a remedial engineering modification and subsequent environmental shifts

“…As the large Peel-Harvey Estuary contains commercial and recreational fisheries and is widely used by residents and tourists for boating and other activities (Potter et al, 1983;Steckis et al, 1995;Lepesteur et al, 2008), it was decided to construct a deep second entrance channel to increase markedly the flushing of nutrients and organic material from this microtidal system and thereby reduce the extent of eutrophication (Gilles et al, 2004;Brearley, 2005;Elliott et al, 2016). The opening of this so-called Dawesville Channel in led to a tripling in tidal water exchange with the ocean, a marked increase in salinity, a 2-4 fold decrease in total phosphorous and nitrogen concentrations and a flushing of 10% of the estuary volume each day (Brearley, 2005;Ruibal-Conti, 2014;Elliott et al, 2016).…”

Towards integrated governance for water, health and social–ecological systems: The watershed governance prism

“…In addition to building a research agenda, application of these priorities and principles for ecohealth has shifted attention to governance challenges in contexts as varied as emerging infectious disease (Waltner-Toews, 2001;Parkes et al, 2005;Waltner-Toews, 2009), health and environment in low income slum communities (Bunch et al, 2005), the health implications of fishery and coastal zone management (Gilles et al, 2004;Morrison et al, 2008) and climate change (Neudoerffer, 2008).…”