Coastal Management Challenges

• integrate existing knowledge on ecological, social and economic functions of coastal lake systems using a range of methods in a way that incorporates uncertainty
• identify the trade-offs between ecological, social and economic values associated with the management of coastal lake systems
• provide decision support tools and techniques that are transferable to other coastal lake systems.

CLAMs have been developed, or are under development, for 27 coastal lake catchments in NSW, with an increasing demand for the development of specific applications for the management of local coastal lakes. Eight of the original CLAMs are currently being used to assist in the development of management strategies for each lake.

Audience

CLAM is intended for use by local council and state government representatives (e.g. National Parks, Dept Natural Resources) to assist in a holistic approach to planning and decision making in the management of a coastal lake catchment. However, it also provides an educational tool to view the interactions that occur within a catchment, and to assist in identifying important knowledge gaps of how the catchment system operates.

Features

CLAM comprises two components: a decision support tool called DeNA that consists of the model code, tools and documentation, and an application that contains a specific integrative framework system configuration for a given lake system and input data. DeNA has been coded into the Interactive Component Modelling System (ICMS) (Reed et al., 2000).

CLAM is not just a software package. It is an approach to the development of integrative decision support tools which uses Bayesian Decision Networks (BDNs) as an underlying model driver. The steps for the development of a CLAM are summarised as:

1. build understanding of constraints, issues and targets for lake and catchment health
2. develop an initial conceptual framework for BDN and potential future scenarios
3. review BDN framework with stakeholders
4. revise initial framework
5. populate BDN links with data
6. incorporate the BDN model into a user friendly software platform
7. review the interface and populated BDN with stakeholders
8. revise interface and populated BDN to reflect stakeholder feedback
9. distribute the sustainability assessment tool to relevant stakeholders with appropriate training in its use.

It is crucial that the intended end users are included throughout the whole development of the CLAM application and that additional information and support is available within the CLAM tool for its users. The features of a CLAM include:

• Welcome Page: Project background, contacts and licensing agreements
• Info Page: Photograph gallery of the catchment, brief list of facts about the catchment
• Maps Page: Series of catchment properties, which can be overlaid, such as landuse, protected areas, erosion potential etc.
• Approach Page: Brief description of BDN approach and the BDN framework for the catchment
• Inputs Page: Description of how the probability distributions were attained for each variable, including the assumptions and weaknesses for each.
• Scenario Page: Each scenario choice option, plus a map locating various scenarios and a text description of the assumptions used for each scenario.
• Utility Page: Expected dollar value for the economic variables within the model
• Output Page: Resultant probability distribution for each variable in the framework
• Report Page: A summary of the inputs, scenario choices and the output probability distributions, which can be exported and saved.

New features:

• automation for updating the CLAM interface
• tools to assist in constructing input probability distributions.