Zealand Cities Research Articles

Overcoming the “fear of density”: vegetational diversity in residential developments in the densifying city

The pressure for more affordable housing has resulted in intensification of residential development and biodiversity loss. Using seven medium-density housing developments in three New Zealand cities, we explore the relationship between medium-density and greenspace quality. We also compare the sites pre- and post-development to determine the extent of loss of permeable space. In six developments for which we had pre and post-data, percentage loss ranged from 12% to 67%. The development with the highest housing density (82 units/ha) had very poor vegetation quality. However, there was no correlation between density and vegetation quality for those with less than 60 units/ha, indicating potential for improving the ecological value of permeable areas. Medium-density developments prioritising communal space had the highest provision of permeable space. We offer some recommendations on the application of biodiverse-sensitive design and planning principles to support biodiverse human living environments.

Allied health new graduates’ voice behavior – new perspectives using realist synthesized narratives

PurposeEffective voice behavior in healthcare workers is critical for patient safety, quality improvement and workforce well-being. A review of the literature on voice behavior in healthcare highlights that little is known about the voice behaviors of new graduates in allied health and that current theory, from medical and nursing research, does not adequately apply to this sector. New knowledge about voice behavior for this sector of the workforce will support education and healthcare institutions in building and sustaining a healthy voice behavior culture.Design/methodology/approachThis paper reports on phase two of a two-phase study looking at the voice behavior experiences of new allied health graduates over one year. Using a realist perspective and narrative analysis, we uncover and illustrate what works, with whom and under what conditions.FindingsFour synthesized narratives outline the contexts and mechanisms that result in different voice behavior outcomes – speaking up effectively, speaking up with unmet expectations, not speaking up and a reduction in speaking up over time. Experiences of positive interprofessional collaboration and reflective supervision supported effective voice behavior.Research limitations/implicationsThis study used a case study approach, focusing on healthcare providers within a large New Zealand city and a cohort of 10 participants. Some researchers argue that small numbers limit the generalization of findings to different populations. Realists argue that, given the way in which knowledge is developed using realist methodologies, the resultant theory is portable. Interviews were conducted online during the COVID-19 pandemic. This may have impacted the connection between the interviewer and interviewee, causing the interviewees to not express their true thoughts. However, the interviewer did take time to connect with the interviewees and build trust over the three interviews over one year. Participants did not capture the diversity in the allied health workforce – most identified as female and none identified as Māori/Indigenous. And finally, participants could inhibit or exaggerate information due to the influence of social desirability. This does not appear to be a significant limitation in this study, given the many examples shared by the participants highlighted their challenges.Practical implicationsThis study provides an in-depth exploration of how new graduates in allied health experience speaking up. Our findings enrich the knowledge of speaking up by using synthesized narratives to provide insights into what factors can enable a healthy speaking up culture within the new graduate allied health workforce. This is new knowledge that will be of interest at the individual, team and organizational levels of healthcare. The findings will support curriculum design and new graduate support frameworks for the education and health sectors. Highlighted in this study are the importance of the following factors in supporting speaking up for allied health new graduates: the employment of reflective supervision, purposeful facilitation of team belonging and interprofessional collaboration and tailored speaking up training for allied health new graduates and leaders in healthcare.Originality/valueBy taking a realist perspective and using narrative analysis, we gain an understanding of the voice behavior experiences of new graduates in allied health and the contextual factors and mechanisms that activate effective voice behavior in sub-acute and rehabilitation settings. These findings differ from nursing and medicine and highlight the benefits of reflective supervision and interprofessional collaborative practice.

Greened shopping spaces and pedestrian shopping interactions: the case of Christchurch

Greened shopping spaces and pedestrian shopping interactions: the case of Christchurch

Modelling Consumers’ Preferences for Time-Slot Based Home Delivery of Goods Bought Online: An Empirical Study in Christchurch

Due to the remarkable growth in online retail sales in New Zealand, a large number of parcels are needed to be delivered to consumers’ doorsteps. Home deliveries in major New Zealand cities (e.g., Christchurch) typically occur between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. on weekdays, when many home delivery attempts fail. This leads to adverse effects, such as vehicular traffic in residential areas and greater air pollution per parcel delivered. However, home deliveries outside of typical business hours (i.e., before 9 a.m. and after 5 p.m.) might be worthwhile to help subside the above issues. Therefore, this study investigated consumers’ preferences for receiving home deliveries during various times, such as early morning, morning, afternoon, late afternoon, and evening. The data used in this study were obtained via an online survey of 355 residents of Christchurch city. Non-parametric tests, namely the Friedman test, Wilcoxon signed-rank test, and ordinal logistic regression, were carried out to examine consumer preferences for the above time slots. The results showed that consumers preferred the late afternoon (3 p.m. to 6 p.m.) time slot the most for receiving home deliveries. It appeared that the off-peak delivery option is less likely to draw the desired consumer patronage and is thus less likely to assist in lowering the number of unsuccessful home deliveries, the transportation costs incurred by service providers, traffic congestion, and pollution in urban areas.

Biodiverse residential development: A review of New Zealand policies and strategies for urban biodiversity

Urban residential development is expanding globally to accommodate increasing housing demand, greatly impacting biodiversity and human wellbeing. Enhanced sustainability of these developments requires an integrated approach to conserving, supporting, and restoring biodiversity through the built environment and understanding the implications of residential development policies, regulations, and guidelines. This paper details a review of current New Zealand policies, strategies, planning documents, and design guidelines that inform urban design and planning at national, regional, and local levels. Three major gaps in biodiversity considerations and opportunities for improvement in residential developments were identified. Firstly, current policies and strategies tend to protect significant indigenous habitats, but the interventions required to improve or retain biodiversity in residential developments are not explicitly considered. Secondly, there is a need for design guidelines with explicit biodiversity outcomes. Thirdly, existing planning documents and guidelines do not account for biodiversity monitoring and management and could be amended to include biodiversity-related outcomes. We conclude that current New Zealand policies and strategies related to residential developments are inadequate and fail to recognise or encourage the enhancement of urban biodiversity in any meaningful way. Holistic and strategic ecosystem-based approaches are required to protect and enhance urban biodiversity and human wellbeing through the built environment to ensure that biodiversity continues to thrive in New Zealand cities and enrich the lives of urban residents.

Factors Associated with Uptake of No-Cost Safety Modifications to Home Access Steps: Implications for Equity and Policy

(1) Background: Fall injuries in the home present a major health burden internationally for all age groups. One effective intervention to prevent falls is home modification, but safety is only increased if opportunities to install safety modifications are taken up. This study sought to identify factors that may lead to a higher uptake of no-cost home modifications when these are offered to people living in the community. (2) Methods: We studied 1283 houses in the New Zealand cities of New Plymouth and Wellington. Using logistic regression, we modelled the odds of uptake according to the number of access steps, the provider who was undertaking the modifications, occupant ethnicity, prior fall injury history, and age group. (3) Results: Homes with older residents (age 65+) had higher uptake rates (35% vs. 27% for other homes). Larger numbers of access steps were associated with higher uptake rates. There was indicative evidence that homes with Indigenous Māori occupants had a higher uptake of the modifications for one of the two providers, but not the other. (4) Conclusions: No-cost home safety modifications offered via cold calling are likely to have relatively low uptake rates but the households that do consent to the modifications may be those who are more likely to benefit from the concomitant increased safety.

Conservation of skinks in New Zealand cities

Urbanisation dramatically alters ecosystems, disrupting key processes and threatening species persistence. Despite growing knowledge of the impacts of cities on wildlife, particularly for birds and mammals, there remains a paucity of research on how urbanisation impacts other taxa, including reptiles. We examined how urbanisation affects skink communities across multiple New Zealand cities by undertaking pitfall trapping surveys in a range of habitats. Of the 20 endemic species thought to have been present historically in the cities, only four were captured during surveys, Oligosoma aeneum in Hamilton; O. polychroma, O. aeneum, and O. ornatum in Wellington; O. polychroma in Nelson; and O. aff. polychroma Clade 5 in Dunedin. Our results reveal highly variable patterns of occupancy, abundance, and complex associations with key threats and habitat modifications. Sites in Nelson and Wellington were much more likely to record skinks than Hamilton and Dunedin, and modelling showed abundance of O. polychroma was positively related to rat tracking rates when grass cover was low but showed a negative relationship when grass cover was high. O. polychroma body condition was negatively associated with the proportion of urban land cover (built up areas or transport infrastructure). The low number of captures of several species is concerning and long-term monitoring is needed to assess the trajectories of these vulnerable populations. Effective conservation management of urban wildlife requires knowledge of where populations exist and how urban processes affect persistence. For understudied urban-dwelling taxa such as reptiles, the lack of this information may be putting populations at risk.

Preventing image-based sexual coercion, harassment and abuse among teenagers: Girls deconstruct sexting-related harm prevention messages

ABSTRACT This paper explores teenage girls’ responses to general advice, and formal prevention messages, designed to reduce sexting-related risk and prevent harm. We conducted workshops with seven groups of girls (28 in total), aged 16–17 years, in a New Zealand city. Each group participated in a series of three workshop sessions. Drawing on a Freirean ‘problem-posing’ approach, we designed the workshops as spaces in which girls were invited to observe and critically discuss norms related to sharing nudes as well as harm prevention messages. Girls noticed the problematic gender and sexual politics that shape abstinence-based models that target girls (implicitly) to not send nudes, but which leave boys who distribute or otherwise misuse them out of the picture. Participants navigated a careful path between attending to risk and protection on the one hand, and endorsing their right to freedom of expression on the other. We argue for a subtle, but significant, shift away from a focus on sexting safety to a focus on the prevention of image-based sexual coercion, harassment and abuse. This reframing would help to direct prevention efforts to the gendered drivers and dynamics of harm perpetration, and the ways in which they are problematically socially ignored or condoned.

Drug substances in the air of a New Zealand city

Nicotine, caffeine, methamphetamine, and Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) were quantified in the total suspended particulate matter of New Zealand's largest city (Auckland), representing the first study of airborne drug concentrations in Oceania. The average airborne concentrations for each drug over the 5-week study were as follows: nicotine (4.91 ± 1 ng m−3), caffeine (16.1 ± 2 pg m−3), methamphetamine (24.8 ± 3 pg m−3), and THC (1.87 ± 0.2 pg m−3). Nicotine and caffeine were higher during weekdays while illicit drugs methamphetamine and THC were higher on weekends, with the lone exception being the weekday sample that overlapped New Year's Eve. Airborne caffeine concentrations correlated with urban pedestrian counts (P = 0.009), demonstrating that atmospheric caffeine concentrations may be an indicator for urban activity. Laboratory contamination of caffeine occurred after the analyst had consumed coffee, highlighting the importance of using laboratory controls when doing trace level analysis. The airborne monitoring of drugs may serve as a complementary technique to wastewater analyses, potentially providing higher resolution spatial data related to locations of drug use, handling, and manufacture. Airborne drug monitoring may also be useful for jurisdictions planning to assess policy performance, such as restrictions on the use and sale of smoked tobacco products in New Zealand.

Evidence and Mass Quantification of Atmospheric Microplastics in a Coastal New Zealand City.

This study investigated the atmospheric deposition of microplastics (MPs) in Auckland, New Zealand, from two sampling sites over a 9-week period. The sizes, morphologies, number counts, and mass concentrations of specific polymers were determined for airborne MPs using a combination of a Nile Red-assisted automated fluorescence microscopy technique in series with pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (Pyr-GC/MS). This enabled a larger number of MPs to be analyzed from each sample compared to traditional spectroscopic techniques. Microplastic number concentrations increased exponentially with decreasing size. The results show the importance of using consistent methodologies and size cutoffs when comparing microplastic data between studies. Eight polymers were quantified in the atmospheric deposition samples, with polyethylene (PE), polycarbonate (PC), and poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) being the most commonly observed. The largest MP deposition rates at an urban rooftop correlated with winds originating from the marine environment with speeds between 15 and 20 m s-1, indicating that airborne MPs in coastal regions may originate from wave-breaking mechanisms. This study represents the first report of using Pyr-GC/MS to determine the chemical compositions and mass concentrations of atmospheric microplastics, along with corresponding data on their sizes, morphologies, and number counts.

Invasive Urban Mammalian Predators: Distribution and Multi-Scale Habitat Selection.

Simple SummaryRestoration of biodiversity in urban green spaces frequently requires eradication or management of invasive species. We aimed to identify fine- and landscape-scale habitat features associated with the presence of five invasive urban mammals (Rattus species, European hedgehogs, mice, and brushtail possums) in three urban green space types (forest fragment, amenity park, residential garden) across three New Zealand cities, and across two seasons, to identify where management effort should be focused. All species were detected in all greenspace types; however, rodents were detected least in residential gardens, possums were detected most often in forest fragments, and hedgehogs least in forest fragments. Proximity of amenity parks to forest patches was positively associated with possum and hedgehog presence and negatively with rats. Conversely, proximity of residential gardens to forest patches was positively associated with rat presence. Management of rats should focus on sites with shrub and lower canopy cover and of mice on sites with herb layer cover, while micro-habitat features were not important for hedgehogs and possums. Rats were most likely to be found in residential gardens with compost heaps. The wide distributions of these species suggest that in order to be successful, ecological restoration must be coordinated, target all green space types, and engage urban residents.A barrier to successful ecological restoration of urban green spaces in many cities is invasive mammalian predators. We determined the fine- and landscape-scale habitat characteristics associated with the presence of five urban predators (black and brown rats, European hedgehogs, house mice, and brushtail possums) in three New Zealand cities, in spring and autumn, in three green space types: forest fragments, amenity parks, and residential gardens. Season contributed to variations in detections for all five taxa. Rodents were detected least in residential gardens; mice were detected more often in amenity parks. Hedgehogs were detected least in forest fragments. Possums were detected most often in forest fragments and least often in residential gardens. Some of this variation was explained by our models. Proximity of amenity parks to forest patches was strongly associated with presence of possums (positively), hedgehogs (positively), and rats (negatively). Conversely, proximity of residential gardens to forest patches was positively associated with rat presence. Rats were associated with shrub and lower canopy cover and mice with herb layer cover. In residential gardens, rat detection was associated with compost heaps. Successful restoration of biodiversity in these cities needs extensive, coordinated predator control programmes that engage urban residents.

Mahuika‐Auckland: A spatially and temporally resolved fossil fuel CO2 emissions data product for Auckland, New Zealand

AbstractAccurate, high‐resolution and sector‐specific greenhouse gas emissions information is increasingly needed for the development of local, targeted mitigation policies. We describe a detailed, spatially and temporally resolved CO2 emissions data product, Mahuika‐Auckland, for Auckland, New Zealand, based on Auckland's regional greenhouse gas and air emissions inventories. Emissions are provided at 500 m spatial resolution and at a 1‐hr time step, a level of detail not previously available for any New Zealand city. We divide fossil fuel emissions into six sectors that comprise the majority of Auckland Region's CO2 emissions profile: on‐road transport, industrial non‐point buildings and point sources, commercial non‐point buildings, residential non‐point buildings, air transport and sea transport. We also include separate layers representing biogenic CO2 emissions (primarily waste and wood burning), as these are significant sources in Auckland. We distribute emissions spatially and temporally based on activity data, energy and fuel consumption patterns, and population statistics. The code to generate Mahuika‐Auckland has been designed to be flexible so that updated information and/or data from more recent years can easily be incorporated. This data product improves upon New Zealand's current inventories that are only resolved at the regional and annual scale, providing a new level of detail that can be used as a prior estimate for atmospheric inversions, to inform emissions reduction policies and to guide the development of zero carbon pathways.

The Difference Diwali Makes: Understanding the Contribution of a Cultural Event to Subjective Well-being for Ethnic Minority Communities

This research provides a nuanced understanding of the contribution of cultural events to subjective well-being for ethnic minority migrant communities, who often face significant challenges in their new lives. The article investigates how the intersection of sense of community and subjective wellbeing function in this context. It focuses on the Hindu celebration of Diwali/Deepavali (the Festival of Lights) in two New Zealand cities. Data from interviews with event attendees and organizers were thematically analyzed using the McMillan and Chavis "sense of community" framework, overlaid with a conceptualization of subjective well-being developed by Davidson and Cotter. The analysis reveals strong evidence of the creation and maintenance of sense of community at multiple levels, from the diasporic Indian subcommunities through to the wider non-Indian macrocommunity. The most significant components are membership, fulfillment of needs, and shared emotional connection: they are also the most significant point of intersection with factors contributing to subjective well-being. These cultural events provide event attendees with opportunities to experience and express positive affects such as happiness, joy, pride, pleasure. They also demonstrate influence in that they respect, promote, and support the ethnic minority migrant subcommunity and act as a bridge to form a sense of community with the macrocommunity through membership and shared emotional connection. To maximize these wider benefits, we recommend practitioners hold such events regularly, advertise widely, select venues that are readily accessible and nonthreatening, and provide informative explanatory content.

An examination of people’s preferences for buildings and streetscapes in New Zealand

ABSTRACT The appearance of the built environment is an important matter for most people, as it can affect their physical, financial and psychological wellbeing. Many studies have been conducted to understand people’s visual preferences for buildings and streetscapes and the majority have used photographic or video representations to stimulate responses. Few have asked people for their preferences as they walk along the street. This research addresses that gap in knowledge, utilising a mixed methods research methodology. People were invited to indicate their preferences while walking along three streets in New Zealand cities. The survey responses were supplemented by two focus group discussions. This research found that people prefer streetscapes where differences in height and architectural composition vary within a narrow band of difference along the length of the street. At the scale of the individual building façade, people were found to prefer traditional cladding materials such as brick and those that could be painted or refinished. Compositionally, people preferred buildings with discrete window openings, a finding that was strongly supported by a dislike for horizontally banded façade treatments. The findings invite questions around contemporary architectural design practices and how these can be directed toward creating a better liked built environment.

Who partners up? Homogamy and income inequality in New Zealand cities

AbstractThis paper examines the impact of homogamy on the distribution of household income in New Zealand at the national level and across different sized cities. We focus on homogamy by age, education, hours worked, employment status, and migration status. We present a new index of homogamy that takes account of maximum potential homogamy. Our index is less sensitive to categories with small population shares than the commonly used concentration ratios. We compare the inequality impact of actual matching with that of randomized matching by means of the additional randomization method. Contrary to public perception, homogamy of the highly educated has declined relative to random matching. Nonetheless, homogamy has had an inequality‐increasing impact on the distribution of income and this effect has grown over time: from around 5% of the mean log deviation (MLD) measure of income inequality in 1986 to 16% in 2013. Allowing for simulated labor supply responses reduces this effect by less than 1%. Spatially, the effect of homogamy is larger and increases more in metropolitan areas than in other urban areas. In Auckland, New Zealand's largest city (around a third of the population), homogamy accounted for a fifth of MLD inequality by 2013, up from 6% in 1986. Educational homogamy plays the biggest role in this process, but the effects of hours worked, employment status and migration status are relatively important too. Homogamy by age has little effect on income inequality. Using the Gini index as an alternative inequality measure yields similar results.

Prosthetic Nostalgia: History and Memory in “Art Deco Napier”

The New Zealand city of Napier is a major international destination for visitors interested in art deco architecture and the 1930s era. This work explores how nostalgia for this period in Napier’s history has evolved, and subsequently been commodified as part of the city’s heritage. The consequence of this commodification is the increasing standardisation of nostalgic evocations of 1930s Napier, which now serve as prescriptive guidelines for visitors to the city. As a corollary of this, the notion of prosthetic nostalgia is examined. This is a nostalgic longing for a period or place that the individual experiencing it has no personal memory of, yet which has the same effect as nostalgic memories derived from actual experience. Although dismissed as imaginative and inaccurate forms of history, nostalgia generally warrants attention for the extent to which it shapes popular perceptions of the past, and how it interacts both with commercial imperatives and sociological forces.

Understanding the core elements of event portfolio strategy: lessons from Auckland and Dunedin

PurposeAn event portfolio is a vital part of economic and socio-cultural processes designed around the use of public events in cities and destinations around the world. The purpose of this paper is to suggest a new research framework for comparative studies of diverse event portfolio strategies.Design/methodology/approachThe discussion in this paper is based on a review of the literature and content analysis of event strategies from two New Zealand cities: Auckland and Dunedin.FindingsThe paper suggests an empirically tested framework for exploring event portfolios. It entails such dimensions as the event portfolio strategy, event portfolio focus, portfolio objectives and evaluation tools and event portfolio configuration.Originality/valueThis exploratory research provides a comparative analysis of diverse portfolio contexts and offers insights on developing sustainable event strategies while considering diverse local contexts. Core conditions and processes shaping event portfolio design and management are evaluated and strategic factors articulated.

Relationships between childhood experience of nature and green/blue space use, landscape preferences, connection with nature and pro-environmental behavior

Nature exposure during childhood is thought to foster habits and preferences leading to greater nature exposure in adult life, thus providing an indirect route to increased mental and physical well-being, and greater engagement in pro-environmental behaviors (PEB). We explored the relationships between childhood nature experience (CNE) and time spent in nature, landscape preferences, biodiversity exposure, nature connection and willingness to engage in PEB as adults, using two data sets. Adults sampled in three New Zealand cities showed no significant association between CNE and time spent by adults in public and private green and blue spaces, nor with biodiversity exposure, as those with higher CNE scores did not select more biodiverse spaces to visit as adults. There were positive but weak associations between both age and the Nature Relatedness score, and nature contact. A second survey of young adults aged mostly between 18 and 25 years found only a weak association between CNE and willingness to engage in PEB, and similarly weak positive associations with scores representing participants' awareness of the term “biodiversity” and strategies to improve biodiversity, the degree to which they valued biodiversity and urban green spaces, and their belief in the wellbeing benefits of nature for people. Time spent in nature during childhood was not a good predictor of time adults spent in natural spaces, landscape preferences or likelihood of PEB, suggesting that even where there is a deficit of childhood experiences adults can positively engage with nature in green and blue spaces.

Antipodean urban dystopias: documenting the New Zealand city 1965–1971

ABSTRACT By relying on the textual analysis and on the examination of existing archival documents related to their production and circulation, this article analyses three documentaries produced in New Zealand in the 1965–1971 time frame while providing an overview of New Zealand film history as well as the examination of pre-existing modes of urban representation in New Zealand cinema. The author argues that these three case studies, Wellington in the 1960s: The Way it Seemed, To Live in the City and Notes on A New Zealand City stand at the intersection of both local and global cinematic, social and cultural phenomena, displaying the emergence of a new stylistic and ideological perspective on the New Zealand cinematic city. Such dystopic take is a reflection of both deep social and cultural transformations in New Zealand society and global cinematic phenomena.

Access and consumption of fruit and vegetables for people living in a deprived neighborhood in New Zealand: a cross-sectional study

ABSTRACT Access to healthy food is important to reduce risk of illness 1,2. This paper describes fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption and perception of access to FV by food bank users (40 households) in a New Zealand city. Data collected via interviews showed that cost was the greatest influence on FV consumption. Data on meeting the fruit (2 + a day) and vegetable (3 + a day) recommendations were: adults F: 57% and V: 62%; children F: 86% and V: 59%. Households wanted to consume more FV. Future interventions need to consider enabling people that live in high deprivation to purchase FV.