Tasman District Council has endorsed a Natural Hazards Plan Change work programme to ensure communities are resilient to natural hazards and adapt to the effects of climate change, including sea level rise. 

A proactive risk reduction response is being taken by council to address the significant threat Tasman faces from natural hazards. This includes earthquakes and liquefaction; severe weather events that result in floods, slope instability, wildfire, coastal hazards; and rising sea levels. 

The work programme will look at improvements that can be made to strengthen our existing natural hazards planning framework in the Tasman Resource Management Plan (TRMP). This will ensure we avoid putting more people and new development in harm’s way. 

Recent experiences with the August 2022 rainfall event and cyclones Fehi and Gita (February 2018) serve as a wake-up call highlighting the very real dangers these hazards pose. How we manage and plan for the effects of natural hazards needs to be a shared effort to better utilise resources and build community resilience. 

The current work programme is beginning with identifying issues and options for each natural hazard. 

This work builds on community engagement completed in 2019 on coastal hazards and sea level rise mapping. This was followed in 2021 with educational engagement on geological hazards and high-level options for coastal hazards management. 

Further community engagement planned for later in 2024 has a twofold purpose. Raising awareness of the need to proactively mitigate the effects of natural hazards on communities and to seek community feedback on the issues and preferred options.

Central government’s recent announcement to undertake an inquiry into developing a climate adaptation framework is welcomed by the Council. The adaptation framework will set out the Government’s approach to sharing the costs of adapting to climate change. This framework will inform council’s future community adaptation planning programme. 

Read more about the Government’s adaptation framework enquiry and our Natural Hazards work at the Plan Change hub on Shape Tasman: Environmental Policy Plan Changes | Shape Tasman

© Scoop Media