|
Purpose
of the Site
Site
Content and Structure
Site
Administration
Purpose
of the Site
The Coastlinks
Victoria web site is sponsored by the Victorian Coastal Council,
Western Coastal Board, Central Coastal Board and the Gippsland Coastal
Board.
Coastlinks
is a statewide extension of the West Victorian Coast and Marine
Information Reference (WVCMIR) originally conceived and developed
by the Western Coastal Board and stakeholders. All information previously
available via WVCMIR can now be accessed through relevant sections
of Coastlinks.
This web site seeks to raise the profile, and increase understanding
of coastal and marine environments and their planning and management.
This site focuses on statewide, regional and also local features,
values, activities and issues and provides a valuable information,
management and decision making resource for all stakeholders.
Coastlinks Victoria is designed to provide a single entry point
to data and information held by various agencies, providing a shared
understanding of known information. The site also identifies the
management agencies responsible for the region as well as respective
key issues and activities.
Coastlinks serves the role of a Victorian coastal and marine portal
and provides ongoing means of promoting the objectives of the Victorian
Coastal Strategy 2002.
The following extract from Victoria's key coastal and marine policy,
the Victorian Coastal Strategy, explains the need for knowledge
sharing and coordinated management:
The Victorian
Government is committed to the protection of our marine and coastal
ecosystems and to building the principles of ecologically sustainable
development into decision making processes across government.
The sustainable management of Victoria's marine and coastal environments
requires recognition of the interaction between management activities
on the land and in the sea, as well as along the whole length of
the coast.
This involves
consideration of ecological, social and economic values and the
impacts of uses on those values; the coordination of sectoral (eg.
fishing, petroleum and mineral exploration, tourism, marine conservation,
recreation, shipping, cultural uses, research) management activities
within and between spheres and levels of government; and the involvement
of community, stakeholder and industry groups in management decisions
and implementation. -
Victorian Coastal Strategy - 2002
Site
Content and Structure
Scope
Rather than reproducing information, the site identifies and provides
links to existing electronic information currently held on other
established web sites. Key legislation, policies, strategies, investigations,
management and action plans, databases, publications and maps are
some of the resources that are addressed by Coastlinks Victoria.
While a range of national, state, regional and local perspectives
all impact on the coast of Victoria, the Coastlinks site content
predominently comprises coast and marine management information
and links, presented in an easy to access local perspective.
Access
It is recognised that users of the site will have varying preferences
in how they wish to access information in the site. The site provides
the following options:
- Keyword Search. Provides a "Google
enabled" search of the content of this site along with material
stored on the Western Coastal Board site.
- Site Map. Key pages on the site have
been identified and grouped in a broad topic-based listing.
- Alphabetic Listing. Key pages
on the site have been identified and listed in alphabetic order.
- Topic Map. An image map of coastal
and marine based activities
- Geographic. Relates to a series of
maps incorporating various Coastal Action Plan and other management
and topical references.
- Site Navigation. The links in the left hand column of each page
provide for browsing of the site.
Graphics
Many of the photographs incorporated on the site have been provided
by Mr Lynn Murrell, chair, Western Coastal Board, and were taken
during his "Walk the Talk" trek along the entire length
of Victoria's coastline during 2005.
The title photo of the scuba diver and weedy sea dragon (Victoria's
marine emblem) was taken by Mr Peter Kinchington.
Stakeholders
Relevant stakeholders were consulted during the development of the
site. Key local, regional, state-wide and Australia-wide stakeholders
are identified on the "Roles"
page of this site along with respective management responsibility
detail. Local representative and community based organisations are
identified on the "Community Organisations"
page
Top
Site
Administration
The Coastlinks Victoria web site and is maintained by Southern
Stars Web Sites under direction of the Executive Officer, Victorian
Coastal Council.
The structure and content of the site incorporates comments and
suggestions from the sites' many stakeholders. The site conforms
to Victorian Government web site standards .
The site is regularly maintained but no guarantee can be given
as to the accuracy of information at any given point in time. See
Disclaimer
Comments and suggestions on the site operation and/or content,
are always greatlfully received. See the Feedback
page for details.
Top |
