River Scheme Sustainability in the Bay of Plenty Region

A River Scheme Sustainability Project has been developed for and by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council. Following the extensive flooding events in 2004, 2010 and 2011, questions were raised about whether the current levels of service (e.g. protection during a one-in-one-hundred year flood event), and escalating scheme funding requirements are sustainable in the long-term. The River Scheme Sustainability Project considers a number of ‘big picture’ questions to set direction for sustainable management of the five major river and drainage schemes in the Bay of Plenty for the next 100 years.

The goal is to reduce long-term risk of flood hazards while encouraging environmentally and economically sustainable land-use practices and raising awareness, changing attitudes and behaviour in the communities.

The project has seven current work streams: Economic Analysis, Flood Risk Gap Analysis, Rating Assessment, Communication Plan, Climate and Weather Cycle, Optioneering and Governance and Ownership.

In this paper we will present the problems we are facing in the Bay of Plenty, with regards to the long term sustainability of our River Schemes, and the strategy of addressing them.