Policy and planning, stakeholders and collaboration

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National legislation places responsibility on Regional and District Councils, along with others, to manage natural hazards. They key pieces of national legislation with natural hazard management-related responsibilities are:

  • Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA)
  • Local Government Act 2002 (LGA)
  • Civil Defence Emergency Management Act 2002 (CDEM Act)
  • Building Act 2004
  • Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 (LGOIMA)
  • New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement 2010 (NZCPS)

Under the RMA local government authorities are responsible for controlling the use of land and actual or potential effects of the use, development, or protection of land for the avoidance or mitigation of natural hazards.

To fulfil our responsibilities, we have developed regional provisions, including the Regional Policy Statement (RPS), the Regional Plan and the Regional Coastal Plan, that give effect to the above national legislation. The districts within the Waikato region have developed District Plans, that give effect to the RPS and are consistent with Regional Plans. Together, these plans set out objectives, policies and rules aimed to reduce the risk of natural hazards to our communities.

Objective 3.24 of the RPS states:

The effects of natural hazards on people, property and the environment are managed by:

  1. Increasing community resilience to hazard risks;
  2. Reducing the risk from hazards to acceptable or tolerable levels; and
  3. Enabling the effective and efficient response and recovery from natural hazard events.

The policies and implementation methods in Chapter 13 Natural Hazards of the RPS provide the framework to achieve this, including that a risk-based approach shall be used, and that long-term strategies will be used to identify risks and mitigation options to communities at risk from natural hazards (Community strategies).

To assist District Councils in the implementation of the RPS, we have created the following guidance:

  1. Waikato Regional Policy Statement - Implementation Practice Note on Natural Hazards
  2. Waikato Regional Council Natural Hazards Risk Assessment Framework

Community strategies

To reduce the risk of natural hazards to our communities, Waikato Regional Council, in partnership with District Councils, have begun to work on community strategies.

The community strategies we are currently working on are:

You can find out more about these strategies by following the links above.

Our work on these community strategies stems from the implementation of RPS method 13.1.3 – Assess natural hazard risk to communities – which states:

Waikato Regional Council will collaborate with territorial authorities, tangata whenua and other agencies to undertake assessments of coastal and other communities at risk or potentially at risk from natural hazards, and develop long-term strategies for these communities. The strategies will, as a minimum:

  1. include recommendations for any hazard zones that should be applied, including primary hazard zones;
  2. identify risks to the community and existing infrastructure from natural hazards; and identify options for reducing the risks to the community to an acceptable level and the relative benefits and costs of those options, including taking into account any effects on:
  3. public access;
  4. amenity values; or
  • natural character (including natural physical processes, indigenous biodiversity, landscape and water quality).

This method recognises that there will be situations where the risk from natural hazards is (or will be in the future) considered intolerable, but that it is not feasible to set region-wide standards for the identification of these areas due to variability in economic, social, cultural and environmental factors. Thus, it provides for the identification of these areas on a case-by-case basis, and management options that are tailored to the local situation. It allows that assessments are undertaken that consider the appropriate scale (for example, whole community, catchment or beach), and take into account the full range of effects and values, not just risks to people and property.

A strategic approach should be taken to avoid the need for ad hoc responses to natural hazard events, and recognise that natural hazards only pose a problem when people or development are put at risk.

Stakeholders and collaboration

To achieve regional and national consistency, and to share resources, we collaborate with many stakeholders with interests in natural hazard management. These stakeholders include:

  • District Councils
  • Civil Defence Emergency Management
  • University of Waikato and other universities
  • GNS Science and NIWA
  • Waikato Lifeline Utilities Group
  • Lifeline Utilities organisations such as Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency and Mercury Energy.

To provide a platform for this collaboration, we hold twice yearly Waikato Regional Resilience Forums, to share new research, and policy, planning and emergency management developments. We also attend the Regional Hazards and Risk Management SIG (special interest group) meetings – a group of natural hazard, civil defence and planning professionals representing all of the regional councils in New Zealand

Additionally, we collaborate with researchers and other stakeholders as part of multiple groups and forums, including: