Whose line is it anyway? Addressing shared management of watercourse and stormwater infrastructure for uban and rural stormwater
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Networking
Facilitated by Alistair Allan – WSP
‘Local Water Done Well’ proposes that local authorities will retain responsibility for management of flood risk and compliance with water quality targets for stormwater. This management responsibility sits against a backdrop of broader community input and increasing community and stakeholder expectations. Across Aotearoa New Zealand councils have developed, often in response to severe storm events, agreements that seek to clarify organisational and private responsibility for the maintenance of urban watercourses. These agreements in many cases tackle flood risk challenges, however they have not always kept pace with additional complexity that accompanies cultural, environmental and ecological expectations, regulation and the associated costs. The pinch points for these issues often occur at the rural and urban boundary, or areas where these boundaries have been absorbed by urban sprawl. As awareness of water issues increases in our communities there are calls for increased levels of service for flooding, water quality and new overlapping expectations for amenity and recreation opportunities linked to water.
This 1hr workshop aims to explore what success factors with our existing agreements should be retained? What opportunities are there to improve on or broaden our existing agreements? How can we tackle the management of urban and rural watercourses to meet future needs? How do we deliver a fair cost share arrangements between councils, stakeholders and private property owners?
The outcomes from this workshop are to develop an understanding of the challenges of watercourse management across Aotearoa New Zealand faced by local and regional authorities, private landowners and other stakeholders. Ideas on how we effectively share and development of ideas to balance community expectations and desired outcomes with the costs and benefits that come from management activities. Lastly, to develop ideas for alternative approaches to setting up and deliver agreements, including fair and transparent mechanisms to rate for and deliver water course management.