81 South Australian Coastal Viewscapes Project 5. MAPPING COASTAL SCENIC • The insights provided by the predictive QUALITY models (Section 4.11) • Oblique aerial photographs covering 5.1 DERIVATION OF THE MAP most of the South Australian coast available on-line from the Atlas of South Requirements Australia (www.atlas.sa.gov.au) • Maps covering the entire coast at The Project Brief specified that the scenic 1:100,000 scale showing the coastal value of the coast was to be mapped at a viewshed. In addition, 1:50,000 scale scale sufficient for planning and policy viewshed maps were produced of the development. It specified that it would not major bays on Eyre Peninsula – e.g. generally extend beyond one kilometre inland Venus Bay, Baird Bay. from the sea. It would also cover offshore areas to the extent that scenic amenity might Scenic Quality Rating be influenced by marina development. It covered areas subject to tidal influence to The scenic quality rating numbers such as a supra tidal levels, and also river estuaries. figure of 5 covered the range from 5.00 to Information on the regions was to be provided 5.99. It could be a high 5 (e.g. 5.8), middle 5 in the following order of priority: (e.g. 5.5) or a low 5 (e.g. 5.2). The number did not differentiate within the integer and thus • Eyre Peninsula (border to Port Augusta) provided a reasonably robust figure capable of • Kangaroo Island covering the variations within a scene and the • South East (border to Murray Mouth) concomitant changes in scenic quality. • Yorke Peninsula (Port Augusta to Port Mapping coastal scenic quality aimed to Wakefield) differentiate the coast within the range of half • Fleurieu Peninsula (Murray Mouth to an integer, e.g. 6.5 – 7.0. Port Wakefield) Viewshed Maps Mapping Scale The viewshed maps that defined the land The Development Plans were inspected to could be seen from the sea and hence, vice determine their scale. Generally these were 1: versa, the areas from where the sea could be 40,000 in rural coastal areas although some seen from the land. As explained in Section are at 1:100,000. As 1:40,000 maps were not 3.2, the visible areas were those that could be available, maps at the 1:50,000 scale were viewed from a point at sea some 6.2 km from produced by DEH Environment Information for the coast. This represented the distance the mapping of scenic quality. visible at sea at eye level. Land within a 20 km radius of this position was plotted for Resources successive positions 5 km apart parallel to the coast. The resources available for mapping comprised: Visibility was defined in three categories: • Low visibility: visible from 1 – 6 viewing • The photographs of the individual 138 positions scenes of the South Australian coast • Moderate visibility: visible from 7 – 13 together with their ratings (Appendix viewing positions 10.3) • High visibility: visible from 14 – 20 viewing • The photographs of the scenes positions arranged in rating order by landscape unit (included on CD) Because of the prevailing topography, in some • The 1700 photographs taken throughout locations, areas quite distant from the sea the coast in preparation for the survey were included in the low visibility category. • The scoring of the factors for each of the Thus Adelaide’s Hills Face Zone was included 138 scenes (Section 4.8) up to the 20 km limit as were the low remnant • The descriptive analysis of the ratings sand dune ranges in the South East. by landscape unit (Section 4.10) • The quantitative analysis of the ratings The areas shown to have sea views were by region and landscape unit (Section mapped because these would have greater 4.12) development potential, and generally higher © Dr Andrew Lothian, Scenic Solutions 82 South Australian Coastal Viewscapes Project land values, than land without the sea view. The rating of coastal scenes applied to Zone However there would be a distance from the 1. These ratings provided an accurate sea where this factor would be of little measure of the scenic quality rating of this significance. A site nearly 20 km from the sea Zone which in scenic quality terms usually has which may have a glimpse of the sea would be the highest scenic quality and is the most unlikely to have any of its value attributed to important. Zone 2 comprised land which would this and the sheer distance would make it only generally have a higher scenic quality rating slightly noticeable unless it was from a high than Zone 3 but usually a lower rating than point such as Mt Lofty which is about 18 km Zone 1. Its higher rating compared with Zone from the sea. Twenty km is about the distance 3 derived from the visibility of the sea. The of Crater Lake at Mount Gambier to the sea. lowest rating was usually Zone 3. Even a distance of 10 km is considered too far – equivalent to the distance from Belair to the Generic Ratings coast. Following consultation with the Steering Committee, a maximum of 5 km was adopted In mapping the scenic quality of South as representing the distance at which the sea Australia the author used the ratings of scenes view factor would be considered significant. from his earlier State-wide survey to derive This was the distance adopted for coastal generic ratings (Table 5.1) for various scenic quality mapping. Five km is the landscape units including the coast, distance from Flinders University to the sea at agricultural region, Murray Valley, Flinders Brighton. High hills near the coast occur in Ranges and the arid region (Lothian, 2000). only a few locations (e.g. Fleurieu Peninsula, northern coast of Kangaroo Island); generally Table 5.1 Generic Ratings of State-wide the topography is far lower and the sea would Landscape Units (Lothian, 2000) not be as visible as it is from the top of these COAST Rating Ranges. High, sheer or very steep cliffs, 8 frequently indented coast [maximum Coastal Zones edge], reefs, islands, pronounced wave motion, beaches backed by steep cliffs or high land. Overall For the purposes of mapping scenic quality, contains a high vertical element and the coast was defined to comprise three strong awe inspiring effect consecutive Zones: Headlands, long wide beaches, 7 sloping cliffs, extensive dunes, wave Zone 1: The water/land interface and motion, low rocky cliffs, reefs, some land immediately facing the sea, islands, smoother coastline - less including cliffs, dunes, headlands etc. indented. Overall a lower vertical This was generally a narrow band of element, sloping cliffs and low land but for mapping purposes was coastal indentation Beaches, low hinterland, no cliffs, 6 defined as 100 m wide, the narrowest islands, mangrove flats, low dunes, that could be mapped. little wave motion. Overall very little vertical element Zone 2: The land inland from Zone 1 Samphire flats 3 from which the sea was visible. This Coorong 6 may be quite narrow or stretch a AGRICULTURAL REGION considerable distance inland depending Crops and pastures 4 on the topography of the area. The Pastoral 5 extent was defined by the coastal Mixed uses – Hilly land 6 - Flat land 5 viewshed maps and comprised Hills and pastures (Mt Lofty Ranges) 5 agricultural land, parks and other uses. - Steep land 6 NATURAL AREAS Zone 3: Land where the sea was not Mallee vegetation 5 visible and comprised agricultural land, Dense eucalypt woodlands 6 parks and other uses. Often Zone 3 was Salt bush/blue bush without trees 5 inland of Zone 2, however in many with trees 6 areas, low land from where the sea Vegetated dunes 5 cannot be seen occurred near the coast Bare dunes 6 so in these areas, Zone 3 was located quite close to the sea. While the ratings of the coastal Zone were based on the survey scenes, ratings of Zones © Dr Andrew Lothian, Scenic Solutions 83 South Australian Coastal Viewscapes Project 2 and 3 were based on generic ratings derived The generic ratings were based on the sea not from this survey and previous surveys of being visible. Where the sea was visible, these similar landscapes. These resources ratings were increased. In his thesis, the comprised the following. author found that coastal scenes averaged 7.67 while inland scenes without water • Ratings of the 28 scenes of South averaged 5.31, a difference of 2.36. However Australia included in the coastal survey. these coastal scenes included the sea as a The scenes included flat featureless considerable portion of the view. If they were gibber plains, agricultural land, high set back from the coast in Zone 2 their rating mountainous areas in the Flinders would be appreciably lower and the difference Ranges, and the diverse landscapes of between scenes with and without water the Mt Lofty Ranges. The average of the narrower. In the current coastal survey, the agricultural scenes was 4.57. overall mean of non-coastal South Australian scenes was 5.57, slightly less than one unit • Ratings of a further 20 scenes of South lower than the overall mean for the coastal Australia of relevance to the coast derived scenes of 6.51. However again the sea from the author’s PhD thesis (Lothian, occupied a considerable proportion of the 2000). These included cereal growing, coastal scenes and the difference in Zone 2 pasture lands, sand dunes, trees and would be lower. other vegetation. Following consideration of this and analysis of • Ratings of 19 near-coastal scenes and 19 many scenes, a 0.5 unit difference was inland scenes used in the author’s study of adopted between Zones 2 and 3 throughout.