Protection and enhancement of watercourses in local catchments
- Client Name
- Auckland Council and Tauranga City Council
- Location
- New Zealand
Challenge
Councils in New Zealand require information on the health of watercourses in their regions to inform master planning and support land development, as well as water sensitive design outcomes and restoration plans to ultimately achieve more sustainable development. Councils also require advice and solutions to maintain high value streams, enhance degraded streams and remedy specific stormwater issues, as identified in their infrastructure works programme.
Solution
Our Ecology team in Auckland have provided Watercourse Assessment Reports (WARs) for Auckland Council to support their Healthy Waters programme since 2014. During this time the team have surveyed over 450km of streams and conducted assessments of the ecological health of streams and stormwater infrastructure condition. Our Ecology team in Tauranga have also carried out watercourse assessment surveys and provided WARs for Tauranga City Council since 2021. We have produced WARs for thirteen catchments, including 11 in Auckland and two in Tauranga, with further catchments to be surveyed in 2025.
Our Ecology teams carry out extensive fieldwork during the summer months using ArcGIS applications to collect and quality check the data, collaborating with our GIS team. The findings and recommendations are mapped, and the survey data is provided back to Council in a quality-controlled database.
The WARs or Story map produced describe the catchment survey findings and high-level recommendations. This includes identifying any issues such as fish passage or erosion, and a prioritised list of recommendations and key management actions for the catchment, aimed at enhancement and remedying the specific stormwater issues.
Over the past few years, Auckland Council and Tauranga City Council have introduced rural catchments into their programmes including Future Urban Zone areas. This has enabled areas identified for development to be assessed and the ecological values documented prior to any development works undertaken, which can be used as a baseline for any future impacts. SLR is now supporting Auckland Council resurvey catchments that were initially assessed 20 years ago, to track changes over time.
The reports also recognise future growth pressures and the essential function of urban streams in conveying stormwater within realistic environmental and economic constraints.
Impact
The focus and format of the surveys and reports help to inform various professionals operating in the built environment, including developers and officers in local and regional councils that have oversight of parks, stormwater operations, planning, and community facilities.
Monitoring the impacts and providing recommendations has enabled Auckland Council to embark on stream restoration projects, daylighting projects and fish passage and stormwater asset remediation across the Auckland Region and develop enhancement opportunities to improve the health of the stormwater catchments leading to better environmental outcomes.
Tauranga City Council have utilised the findings in their WARs to assist with the Mount Spatial plan and work with the developers of one of the rezoned rural catchments to enhance sustainability.
