Project overview
Clifton to Tāngōio is the most developed and populated part of the Hawke’s Bay coastline. It embraces the city of Napier and several coastal communities, along with millions of dollars’ worth of at-risk infrastructure and is subject to existing coastal hazards that are anticipated to become more severe with future climate change. Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, Hastings District Council and Napier City Council, charged with managing the effects of coastal hazards, have lead a process to develop a long term strategy to manage them. The Clifton to Tāngōio Coastal Strategy is a New Zealand first in terms of the scale and complexity of the assessment over such a large area. It is a good example of a collaborative project between councils, consultants and academia, with a heavy emphasis on community engagement and working within the latest government guidance. T+T assisted the councils and community with state of the art probabilistic coastal hazard risk assessment techniques to identify the extent of hazard and the risks to social, cultural, environmental and economic values. We then worked with council’s team, using the Ministry for Environment new pathways approach to develop a range of adaptation options to strategically manage the possible outcomes over the next 100 years.
Services Provided
Probabilistic coastal hazard risk assessments, collaboration with councils, iwi, affected communities and academic researchers, community and infrastructure resilience building.
Sectors
- Transport
- Utilities
- Emergency
- Performance
The Strategy has been well received by councils and communities alike. The decisions and recommendations made by the assessment panels are based on the best information available at the present time. It is acknowledged and accepted by all parties that decision-making in the context of climate change presents significant uncertainty, and that this uncertainty increases with time. Accordingly, the Strategy will be reviewed every 10 years to:
- Consider new data collected over the proceeding period (e.g. beach profiles, wave climate, sediment movement, etc.)
- Consider the efficacy of coastal hazard response actions implemented under the Strategy over the proceeding period
- Consider any new information from the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and other reputable sources regarding climate change and sea level rise projections
- Consider any new studies or information regarding coastal erosion, coastal inundation or other hazards (for example the influence of sea level rise on groundwater levels in the Strategy area); and any other relevant information as may be identified
- Taking the above into account, the review will consider whether the actions identified by the Strategy remain appropriate or should be amended in light of the new information
Key personnel
- Richard Reinen-Hamill
- Jonathan Clarke
- Bapon Fakhruddin
- Patrick Knook
Partners
The team contained some of the authors of the Ministry for the Environment’s “Coastal Hazards and Climate Change: Guidance for Local Government” (2017), including Dr Judy Lawrence, Dr Rob Bell and Dr Paula Blackett, also Mitchell-Daysch Ltd.
