Environment Canterbury's innovative online tool for monitoring potentially contaminated land that saves ratepayers money has been recognised by the industry.

Our Listed Land Use Register (LLUR) was given an Australasian Land and Groundwater Association Industry Excellence Award, in the 'Innovation that has Advanced the Practice of Contaminated Site Assessment' category.

The awards, which celebrate the best in contaminated land and groundwater management, were announced on December 2.

The register contains details of site activity, investigation records, aerial photography, a bespoke database of contaminated site records and links to a document management system.

It is free and easy to use, and users can identify pieces of land, access information held on that land, obtain site specific data and download records and investigations straight to their device.

It meets our Resource Management Act duty to investigate and monitor contaminated land for the purposes of regulation, data management and analysis.

Find out if your land is contaminated with the Listed Land Use Register (LLUR).

Saving Canterbury ratepayers millions

Science team leader Graham Aveyard was thrilled with the win.

“It’s fantastic to see our joint effort recognised in this way. We’re really proud of our LLUR,” he said.

Aveyard said the value of being able to freely search the database can’t be understated.

“25,000 free property statements have been downloaded in the past year,” he said.

“Ratepayers are often charged around $150 for this type of service, so our tool could have potentially saved ratepayers more than $3 million,” he added.

Aveyard said it also significantly saves on staff time and resources.

“It means staff aren’t having to respond to enquiries which would be made through the normal council communication channels,” he said.

Aveyard said making contaminated land accessible has been particularly important after the Christchurch and Kaikōura earthquakes.

“It also comes in handy during the continued expansion of the urban area,” he said.

Team effort

The project to develop a listed land use register began in 2007, but a full upgrade was undertaken this year in partnership with Stratos Technology Partners.

The upgrade provides an improved customer experience with additional functions, including a new option to download reports and information. The system now provides the very latest in accessibility to those seeking land information.

Stratos is a Christchurch-based software services company specialising in bespoke software development. It teamed with us to deliver a unique and nationally recognized application from a combination of Geospatial features.

More information

Take a look at the full list of winners on the Australasian Land and Groundwater Association’s website.

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