Flood damage on road above Titrangi Beach, March 2023. Photo: RNZ / Leonard Powell
Photo: LDR / Gisborne Herald
We haven't acted fast enough or done as much as we should, but the country's biggest council is now at least trying to plan for coastal inundation.
There's no sugar coating, no preparation for a soft landing. The message is blunt and to the point, for good reason.
"We can't do nothing. Change can be hard and it can be expensive. But we are already facing environmental change, we must adapt, we must act."
That's Lara Clarke, speaking to The Detail.
She's the principal coastal adaptation specialist at Auckland Council and is working to prepare - and protect - the city's vulnerable coastal communities from a world that's getting warmer and wilder by the year.
Key to that are Shoreline Adaptation Plans, which cover 20 coastal areas in Auckland. That's about 3200 kilometres of coastline.
The plans look at how best to manage council-owned assets and land - beaches, cliffs, harbours and estuaries - to respond to coastal hazards and climate change over the next century.
Two years ago this issue may not have been at the front of everyone's minds, but that's changed after the devastation unleashed by Cyclone Gabrielle and the Anniversary Day floods last year.
Suddenly a prediction of sea level rise by up to 1.66 metres by 2130 - a seemingly slow moving measure easy to ignore - doesn't tell the whole story. The prediction doesn't include the type of "vertical land movement" (basically cliffs falling into the ocean) we've been seeing a lot of.
And over time, land that already floods in storms and high tides may experience even more frequent and deeper flooding.
"The plans are about how we deal with uncertainty and how we deal with our changing environment over time," Clarke says. "How do we do best coastal management, how do we look after our coasts, which are so hugely important to Aucklanders. There is a strong focus on council being good stewards."
There are four approaches:
- No active intervention - let nature take its course
- Limited interventions - allowing for some maintenance to existing coastal defences
- Hold the line - defending council-owned assets and land from erosion and flooding, including building sea walls and planting dunes
- Managed realignment - planning for changes to the coastline and managing risks by moving assets, uses and infrastructure away from the coast and hazard-prone areas
Auckland councillor Richard Hills is backing the Shoreline Adaptation Plans, saying not enough work is being done right now.
"I don't think any of us could say we are doing enough," he tells The Detail, "and I don't think any of us are saying we are doing it at the required speed. We do need nationwide direction; we can't have different councils and regional authorities making different decisions."
The public is invited to have a say on the Shoreline Adaptation Plans and submissions close soon.
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