The Legal and Regulatory Framework for Integrated Coastal Zone Management: A Comparison between Australia and China

Abstract

Rapid development on Australia and China‘s coasts has exacerbated coastal ecosystem degradation and environmental deterioration, which has placed pressure on their coastal zone management. Integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) has been adopted as a promising mechanism to achieve sustainable coastal development. Both Australia and China have an ongoing capability to share their management experience and research outcomes on ICZM. As their research enthusiasm and investments on coasts bear fruit, there is much to learn from each other. This research aimed to explain the contemporary legal and regulatory frameworks for ICZM in Australia and China, to evaluate the effectiveness of the frameworks from coastal stakeholders‘ perspectives and to put forward potential recommendations to improve the frameworks for ICZM. In order to fulfil these research objectives, this research used semi-structured interviews, questionnaire surveys, case inspections, contemporary legal and regulatory documents, academic and government publications and other data collected from fieldwork to achieve research "triangulation". This research analysed valid and verified views of 52 stakeholders from governments, academia, business, non-governmental organisations and the public. Their professional and personal experience in coastal zone management formed the legal and regulatoryframework for ICZM, including legislation and regulations, government administration, judicial performance and public participation. Fieldwork conducted in Australia and China with focus on two intensive coastal developments, the Rose Bay Marina in Sydney, Australia, and the Celebration City Marina in Qingdao, China, provided in-depth understanding into how and why stakeholders evaluated the effectiveness of the legal and regulatory frameworks for ICZM. The comparison between Australia and China facilitated this research to gain a broader insight, a greater awareness and a deeper understanding of coastal management issues in different national contexts. The contributions were demonstrated in terms of respondents‘ understanding of ICZM, coastal legislation and regulations, government administration on coasts, judicial performance in coastal disputes and public participation in coastal management. The detailed results were demonstrated and discussed through a comparative approach between Australia and China, and thus a useful synthesis of lessons and experience for achieving ICZM was provided to Australia, China and other coastal countries. Although it is not possible to give a unified mechanism for successful ICZM and not wise to simply transfer one country‘s experience to another, the findings in this research should be a source of inspiration for coastal managers as they consider measures propitious for their own national or regional contexts.