Learn from yesterday, hope for tomorrow. The Portland coastal landscape - Where will it be in 2050?

The future of coastal development is an important and current issue facing land use planning in Australia. Over the past decade the Australian coastline has had to deal with two phenomena. The first is the rise in popularity of the lifestyle option known as "sea change" (i.e. individuals either moving or retiring to the coast), the second is the ongoing and long term effect of climate change on the Australian coastline.

In the State of Victoria the high value of waterfront property has created a high demand for development and placed great pressure on the environment. The concept of sustainable development is coming under increased pressure as more and more individuals desire the coastal lifestyle. The current trend in land use planning is to favour urban and tourism developments that increase negative impacts and also the cost of shore protection from natural hazards including coastal erosion and flooding.

In keeping with the theme of the 2014 conference "Thematic Cartography for the Society" this paper examines the movement of coastlines and urban development in Portland from 1820 through to 2012 and forecasts coastline movements to 2050. Through the process of visualization residential land use patterns are used as a measure to quantify coastal development.

The two goals of this paper are to highlight the consequences of different planning development policies in on future coastal land use patterns in Portland and to highlight the role visualization can play in assisting interpreting large volumes of spatial data.