Climate change and community resilience

We are protecting people, assets and the economy through our work on climate change and community resilience.

Work programmes include minimising and adapting to climate change; reducing and managing risk from flooding, natural hazards, contaminated land, hazardous substances and waste; boating safety; monitoring coastal water quality; and community resilience to natural hazards.

What we heard

The Climate Change resilience programme generated the most comments in this portfolio with many submitters in support of climate change action, including a focus on climate education.

Some submissions urged Council to take more action to mitigate against climate change, while others were not supportive of the activities in this portfolio and suggested removing expenditure from Leading community resilience and Climate change resilience as these programmes have no tangible outcomes.

Some submissions expressed concerns about waste management, especially near the coast. Support for the Regional Coastal Environment Plan and more monitoring and focus in coastal areas was noted. A few submitters raised specific concerns about contaminated land.

Council’s decision

Work in this area will continue as directed by Council, as much of the work addresses statutory requirements and core commitments. We will develop a Canterbury Resilience Strategy and form a Washdyke/Waikarakao working group.

Coastal monitoring is ongoing; we will commission studies to build our knowledge, identify any issues, and inform the review of the Regional Coastal Environment Plan, which will be notified in 2024.

Several initiatives have been confirmed for Contaminated land, hazardous substances and waste work programme, including a shared leadership role in waste, a risk-based approach to contaminated sites, and a mātauranga Māori understanding of contaminated land.

Climate change will be a focus of a public engagement campaign and the development of a climate change adaptation plan for the region, and a low emissions transition plan.

Improving understanding of dust issues in communities

In response to submissions raising concerns about air quality and dust from quarries. Council have allocated funding to work with communities in the Greater Christchurch area.

Flood protection

There was support for flood protection and infrastructure in the Leading flood and river resilience programme. A couple of specific submissions were received on river rating district schemes. There are six significant COVID-19 recovery projects co-funded by the Government’s ‘Shovel Ready’ infrastructure funding.

Council’s decision

Flood protection work as outlined in our 30-year Infrastructure Strategy will be of high importance. We have the bonus of additional grants from the COVID-19 recovery: ‘Shovel-Ready’ infrastructure funding.

Update on May/June 2021 flood event

A significant flooding event occurred during May 2021 in the Canterbury region. Council has not made amendments to the forecasts contained in the plan because the extent of the damage to the region’s flood protection infrastructure and the estimated cost and timing of the remediation work that will be required, are currently unknown and have yet to be assessed by Council. Once this information is known, the Council will determine whether to amend its plan or include the information in the 2022/23 Annual Plan.