Cape Town’s coastline protected through Coastal Management Line
24 March 2021
The City of Cape Town’s Coastal Management Line (CML) has been gazetted in the Western Cape Provincial Gazette. The CML is pivotal in protecting Cape Town’s unique coastline against the impact of climate change, while at the same time, promoting appropriate economic activities and development.
In terms of the Integrated Coastal Management Act (ICMA), South Africa’s principle coastal legislation, all coastal municipalities in South Africa are required to establish a CML.
The City was proactive and delineated its CML in 2007 prior to the commencement of ICMA, and also had it formally approved as the ‘coastal edge’ within the City’s Spatial Development Framework.
‘I am proud to say that the City is the first coastal municipality in the country to now have its Coastal Management Line also gazetted and formalised in terms of the requirements of the ICMA. This is a great achievement, in particular because the CML is used as a key spatial planning tool to promote coastal development that is risk averse, sustainable, and equitable,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Spatial Planning and Environment, Alderman Marian Nieuwoudt.
The purpose of the City of Cape Town’s CML is manifold. The use of the CML as a key spatial planning tool is critical, given the highly dynamic and storm prone nature of Cape Town’s coastline, and the anticipated impacts of climate change and sea-level rise in future.
The CML has also been designed with the strategic intent to promote principles of restorative justice through spatially identifying and demarcating nodal growth areas, and enabling associated socio-economic and livelihood opportunities from these nodal development areas along Cape Town’s 307 kms of coastline.
Additional strategic intents and benefits of the CML include the following:
protecting coastal development against the destructive forces of coastal erosion and high seas;
the protection of ‘green belts’ and associated ecosystem services that these ‘green belts’ provide along the coastline;
the protection of sensitive coastal ecosystems and the biodiversity within such ecosystems;
where possible, the creation of space to allow for naturally occurring dynamic coastal processes – such as migrating dune systems and estuary mouths – to take place without such processes impacting on coastal public and private infrastructure;
enhancing Cape Town’s natural coastal aesthetics and sense of place;
enhancing Cape Town’s various coastal scenic drive experiences;
enhancing the recreational and cultural value and experience of Cape Town’s natural coastal heritage; and
optimising the economic potential that Cape Town’s coastline provides.
‘The CML is pivotal in building and promoting a resilient coastal city. Now that the CML has been gazetted, it will ensure that the diverse range of social, economic and environmental opportunities that Cape Town’s coastline currently provides, are both retained and further enhanced into the future,’ said Alderman Nieuwoudt.
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Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office
