A model for use in the management of coastal wetlands

The management of a coastal wetland can involve numerous authorities with diverse expertise and different or even competing interests and agendas. The system to be managed is complex and dynamic and generally not well understood. Detailed information on specific wetlands is usually lacking, fragmentary, or costly and time consuming to obtain. Nevertheless, effective management decisions can be made if the managers have a simple-to-understand model which captures the essential features of the wetland to be managed and if they can (co)operate within a frame of reference which is understandable and accessible to all. To this end, an interactions matrix is presented which will enable managers to identify the first-order impacts of human activities on 31 environmental attributes which represent the basic conditions which characterise and/or sustain the wetland under study. This model is a revision of one originally devised for the evaluation of the management of coastal wetlands associated with North Creek at Ballina in New South Wales and one of its applications is illustrated with that case study. Although devised for an Australian situation, the model has potential to be applied elsewhere, particularly in rapidly developing tropical and subtropical regions.