World Water Day 2023 – making room for water

World Water Day 2023 – making room for water

Water New Zealand chief executive Gillian Blythe says this summer’s flooding events have provided a clear indication that we need to change the way we live with water and that we need more consistency and national leadership.

Globally, we’re facing unprecedent water challenges as population growth and climate change start to impact.

Even in our remote corner of the world, this summer has shown us that we’re not immune to the enormous consequences that climate change will present, and we need to re-think the way we live with water – in both urban and rural environments.

The January flooding and Cyclone Gabrielle was clearly beyond the scope that any council or stormwater utility could be expected to manage with traditional infrastructure and the consequent devastation suffered by so many families and communities was heart breaking.

It was clear that while Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland may have the title of the world’s spongiest city, it was no match for the extremes of nature that shook the urban infrastructure and environment in January.

Creating and developing more urban sponges in our cities needs to be a vital part of future planning but we need to do more than that.

Water sensitive urban design (WSUD) - daylighting natural streams, planting vegetation to absorb the water and trap sediments and pollutants, minimising impervious surfaces and creating spaces that mimic the natural water cycle, are all integral parts or urban development.

WSUD addresses both water quantity and water quality issues. WSUD draws upon the processes of natural systems and adapts these to suit urban environments. It integrates the processes inherent in water systems with the ‘built environment’ – buildings, infrastructure and landscapes.

Larger-scale green infrastructure like wetlands and basins as well as making room for the river, or flood are also important features of WSUD. For instance, Christchurch has invested in over 100 hectares of basins in the Upper Heathcote to significantly reduce flood risk along the river. In Auckland the daylighted Awataha Stream and Greenslade Reserve stormwater detention park held up well during the January floods, with much greater capacity than a traditional hard infrastructure network.

But we can’t rely solely on WSUD, sponginess and piped networks. We need to take a much more joined up national approach to planning our urban environment.

Climate change management needs to be part of every council’s strategic, spatial, and operational planning and it needs to be done in a nationally consistent manner.

For instance, we need nationally consistent direction on managing and restricting development in areas of high or increasing risk such as flood plains and overland flow paths.

This needs to be backed up by more stringent enforcement of planning rules. In many places, existing planning rules aimed at preventing building in high hazard zones are weak or have been overruled when challenged by developers while the advice of stormwater and planning experts have been ignored.

Equity issues arise in communities vulnerable to flooding because low median household incomes make it more difficult for local authorities to fund the protection work needed through rates.

We need to stop allowing short-term, quick return thinking to influence decisions about housing that will be in those areas for decades, if not centuries.

Integrated catchment

It will be crucial for the regulators, local government organisations and the water service entities to work together to ensure an integrated catchment approach for all infrastructure for the benefit of our communities.

Integrated catchment planning manages water resources and land use on a catchment scale.

With the increasing intensification and natural and physical constraints on land use, and the increasing demand for water, the integrated management of land use and the three waters is becoming more and more critical.

Effective integrated catchment planning and management is paramount if we are to improve water quality, reduce over-allocation, manage land change effects and reduce natural hazard risk.

There is a need for the new spatial planning legislation (the Natural and Built Environment and Spatial Planning bills) to be mindful about stormwater resilience and to taking a more co-ordinated, future focused approach to planning and development.

We need to be much more proactive through the identification of hazard areas to inform both location and the design of future developments and infrastructure and areas requiring adaptation and avoidance.

National approach

In order to plan better, we will need to increase our understanding and ensure a more consistent approach to modelling and mapping climate change and risks. How often are these storms likely to occur? How will more frequent and longer droughts affect drinking water supply? How big are they likely to get? How can we design smart, resilient infrastructure and cities to cope with them?

A consistent definition of what is a flood risk and set of national levels of service and measures for flooding will focus funding to address where shortfalls and gaps occur, help inform spatial planning and highlight adaptation priorities and retreat for the most at risk areas.

For example, across Aotearoa there are significant variations in status quo stormwater levels of service for stormwater modelling, planning design, and funding. A nationally consistent suite of levels of services and targets, which allow for local risks and costs, need to be developed and put to decision makers and our communities.

Currently, our inconsistent and haphazard approach and accountability for managing flood risk can too easily hide or overlook problems until there is a major event and we are quick to forget, when it comes to funding stormwater infrastructure shortfalls.

Accountability for stormwater management is often split across agencies or departments within agencies and consequentially can be overlooked by each organisation – until the flood event occurs. A nationally consistent approach would help clarify accountability for flood related outcomes.

Finally, we need to ensure our communities are more informed about their own flood risks.

It’s vital that flood hazard information is freely available, nationally consistent, and transparent.

We have welcomed and fully support the latest moves in the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Amendment Bill legislation to tackle this serious omission and ensure better national guidance on hazard reporting.

At present, not every land information memorandum [LIM] has information about floods and climate change hazard. Yet, this is vital information for householders and businesses.

It is concerning that many people don’t understand their flood risk and what, for instance, a one in a 100-year flood event means.

People must have information to weigh up the risks so they can make informed decisions about where they live - whether to maintain or invest in their properties or in some cases retreat.

We are facing major challenges and if we are going to be resilient in the face of climate change, a nationally-led approach to stormwater planning and management is necessary to protect public and environmental health and wellbeing.