There are growing concerns along urban coastal areas with respect to the risks associated with climate change. These are in terms of sea level changes and the effects of increasing numbers of severe weather events. As coastal developments increase in scale and density, and locate in increasingly exposed positions, these risks become more threatening. Although risk is a concept that we use frequently it can be misinterpreted depending on the particular application and the political and economic situation in which it is being used. Risk is associated with impact and the consequences of human actions on the environment.
According to the Australian/New Zealand Risk Management Standard risk can be defined broadly as the failure to meet objectives. Risk to a community is often described as a function of hazard, the elements at risk and the vulnerability of those things being impacted upon.
This paper discusses a risk-based approach to coastal zone management adopting Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to express the variation in coastal risk along a specified coastline. Following a general definition of risk the paper will discuss how coastal risk differs from other forms of risk. Because of the spatial characteristic inherent in coastal risk from natural hazards, the review will focus on the spatial characteristics that distinguish coastal risk from other forms of risk. The conclusion will emphasise the importance of risk-based approach to coastal zone management in times of increasing evidence of global warming, and the use of GIS as a tool in this approach.