Blue Heart Sunshine Coast
5,000 hectares
Sustainable, adaptive floodplan management and blue carbon offsets
Blue Heart Sunshine Coast is an innovative partnership-based project, committed to sustainable and adaptive floodplain management in the Maroochy River catchment. It is a place, a project and a partnership.
Place
The Blue Heart is an area of more than 5,000 hectares on a natural floodplain in the Maroochy River catchment. The project area includes approximately 1,400 hectares of public land. This comprises council’s Coolum Creek Environment Reserve network, the Queensland Government’s Coolum Creek Conservation Park, and Unitywater’s Yandina Creek Wetland.
Surrounding this area are lands for:
- rural and agricultural purposes
- generation of renewable energy
- open space purposes
To find out what the Blue Heart area means to our Traditional Owners, watch the Kabi Kabi Story.
Project
The Blue Heart provides flood storage for the Maroochy River Catchment. Preserving flood storage within this area is critical to the ongoing flood management of the catchment and in particular the built environment.
This floodplain area is already impacted by tidal inundation. Over time the area is expected to continue transitioning due to climate change and projected sea level rise. This project seeks to manage the land and water through this transition to provide positive outcomes for our environment, community and economy.
Blue Heart project objectives:
- Protect the most critical areas of the floodplain under public ownership
- Establish a regionally-significant complex of wetland and floodplain ecosystems
- Enhance water quality in the Maroochy River through nutrient management and sediment reduction works
- Enhance water quality in the MaroaProvide community and recreation opportunities through regional parkland, open space and trailsochy River through nutrient management and sediment reduction works
- Establish new uses for existing rural and agricultural lands, including economic opportunities for landowners
The Blue Heart Sunshine Coast is a Transformational Action for council’s Environment and Liveability Strategy – delivering a healthy environment and liveable Sunshine Coast in 2041.