Gold Coast Strategy to protect world famous waterways

If you’re thinking about the Gold Coast, you’re probably thinking about water—the beaches, the canals and estuaries, the wetlands, the streams and waterfalls in the hinterland. Water is what attracts so many people to the Gold Coast—both as a place to live and as a holiday destination. So, it’s not surprising that the City of Gold Coast wants to protect this valuable resource.

The City wants to create a place where people want to work and live long term, while tackling the challenges that so many cities face—increased urbanisation, periodic floods and droughts, and changing government policy.

The Gold Coast Water Strategy 2019–2024 provides a framework for achieving four strategic objectives:

The strategy was developed in partnership with the CRCWSC as part of IRP1 ‘City Transitions’ research. It involved extensive consultation with representatives from Gold Coast community groups, water resource management authorities, state and local government agencies, university and research teams, and relevant industry entities. Input and ideas from these stakeholders on their needs and visions for the future helped shape the strategy.

The CRCWSC team—Dr Briony Rogers, Chris Chesterfield, Katie Hammer, Emma Church and Christoph Brodnik—used the WSC Index Tool to benchmark the Gold Coast region. The City will use the 34 indicators to track progress towards its water sensitive city goals.

For the CRCWSC, the strategy is yet another example of a successful industry/CRCWSC partnership. We encourage you to read the strategy, and see how it can inspire your region’s water sensitive transition.

Gold Coast was one of six Australian cities that used WSC Index benchmarking, visioning and transitions models to develop a Water Sensitive City Transition Strategy. You can view the Vision and Transition Strategy for a Water Sensitive Gold Coast here. And you can view the strategies for the other cities here.