Coastal and Estuarine Risk Mitigation Program

In 2022 the Australian Government announced the $50 million Coastal and Estuarine Risk Mitigation Program (CERMP) to support projects that reduce the impact of natural disasters on coastal communities. The Queensland Government, through the Department of Environment, Science and Innovation (DESI), submitted 10 local and state government project proposals and received $8.4 million in funding for these projects. DES will administer funding and deliver the projects over three years.

Virtually all of Queensland’s major coastal cities and townships have substantial coastal development vulnerable to coastal hazards such as erosion, storm tide inundation and climate change sea level rise. The CERMP will help drive resilience amongst these communities through the construction of coastal protection infrastructure, including seawalls and breakwaters, as well as investing in monitoring infrastructure and risk management and planning.

The flagship project for Queensland is a $4.3 million ‘State-wide Nearshore Bathymetry Survey for Improved Coastal Hazard Assessment’, which is led by the DESI. The project will use airborne sensors to capture high resolution beach and seabed levels up to two kilometres offshore from developed coasts. The survey will create a new dataset of coastal bathymetry, which is critical for assessing and modelling the extent and impact of coastal hazards. In addition to informing development planning and evacuation decisions for vulnerable communities the bathymetry data will also have broad value for governments in mapping coastal resources and coastal hazards, disaster modelling and for navigation purposes.

For more information on the CERMP, including a list of the successful projects, please visit the CERMP homepage on the Australian Government website.