The Peron Naturaliste Partnership (PNP) is a group of local governments who have adopted a regional, collaborative approach to address climate change including monitoring and management of the coastal zone from Cape Peron to Cape Naturaliste in southwest Western Australia. The PNP has undertaken a number of studies to identify areas where current and future impacts from coastal erosion and inundation may affect natural, cultural and built assets along the PNP coast.

A key purpose of the PNP is to facilitate effective and timely adaptive responses to climate change in the coastal zone (including estuarine areas). As part of a number of ongoing programs for coastal management, the PNP has developed a strategy for a sustainable, long-term and standardised Coastal Monitoring Program (CMP)¹.

This presentation will provide an overview of the opportunities provided by regional partnerships of local governments such as the PNP to undertake a co-ordinated management approach of coastal and estuarine areas. The CMP addresses the needs of the PNP to implement a targeted and meaningful monitoring program for the Peron-Naturaliste coastal region. It provides a strategy for systematic, regional physical monitoring of the beaches and coastal systems to inform and assist decision making with respect to ongoing coastal management, planning and adaptation. While the information provided is necessarily regional in scope, it is also mindful of each local government’s ongoing responsibility to manage their own coastline and prioritise their discrete set of management issues.