Flood Schemes, Flood Hazards, and Awareness in New Zealand

Abstract

Despite the widespread use of flood mitigation schemes, where targeted property taxes are used to fund flood infrastructure, there has only been limited research on them. This research set out to fill that information gap, including a broad data collection effort across regional and district councils, consultants, Crown Research Institutes, and academic sources. This paper catalogues highlights of the data collected from that effort and previews ongoing analysis of that data. We obtained and/or created comprehensive maps of flood hazards, flood schemes, sea level rise, and insurance claims. These data and their relation to social and economic data are highlighted in this paper. After an extensive data collection, we have national maps of flood hazards, flood schemes, and sea level rise risk. These should be broadly useful in other research. We also compare measures of peoples’ awareness of flood risk, such as survey data and EQC damage claims, to flood hazard maps. There are several notable areas where they do not align, which has several important policy implications for future planning.