I'm pleased that my abstract for Water New Zealand's Stormwater Conference 2026 in May has been accepted. My paper is titled The Origin and Use of the "100 Year Flood Protection Standard" in New Zealand and answers the questions: When was the 100-year flood protection standard first used for a publicly funded flood scheme in New Zealand? What influence did central government part-funding have on the selection of design standards for schemes? How did the standard become to be

I have received requests for the pathways diagram I used in my presentation last week to the NZSOLD/ANCOLD Conference in Christchurch - so here it is. My paper was titled "The Drivers of Dam Safety Legislation in New Zealand - Connecting the Past to the Future". It covered both dams and stopbanks (levees) - see below regarding stopbanks. I conceived and developed the diagram whilst preparing my presentation, after I had submitted the paper, hence its omission from the paper.

31 March 2025 marked the 20th anniversary of the building control provisions of the Building Act 2004 coming into force for dams.  This included commencement of sections 12 to 14 of the Act and the transfer of building control responsibilities for dams from territorial authorities to regional authorities. For regional councils (but not unitary authorities) this was significant as it coincided with the introduction of Building Consent Authorities (BCA’s) and the requirement fo

As I've said in my previous postings, I've been researching the relationship between design standards for flood protection schemes and past government funding of such schemes . In the course of doing that I found this handy summary (WASCO 61) of how the approval process worked in the past.

Waihou River, March 2020 Driving across the Hauraki Plains last week reminded me of this paper I co-authored, on the management of coastal flood hazards in the Waikato Region. David Ray and I described the measures that were being initiated, or contemplated, using the recently enacted Resource Management Act 1991. We spoke of landuse planning for managing the residual risk of stopbanked flood protection systems, planning for overdesign, and planning for future sea level rise

Arthur's Pass, Southern Alps, March 2025 I've just finished 4 months fulfilling an Acting Group Manager role at West Coast Regional Council, on a part-time basis. It was a great opportunity to be part of the council's Senior Leadership Team and to work on a range of river and coastal engineering and natural hazards issues, in one of New Zealand's most challenging natural hazard settings . The commuting provided some spectacular flights across the Southern Alps (weather permi

Mount Maunganui from Mauao, July 2025 The Department of Internal Affairs has published guidance on the regulations . The regulations support local authorities implement recent changes to the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987. The changes relate to the provision of natural hazards information on LIMs and the way that regional councils support territorial authorities in the LIM process. The changes to the Act took effect on 1 July 2025 and the new re

I have been working with West Coast Regional Council over the past few months preparing a natural hazards information strategy for the West Coast region. This work is now complete with the Strategy and the Implementation Plan being endorsed by Council's Operations Committee on 15 April. The Plan sets out a suggested 10-year workplan with measures and targets to deliver the vision and objectives of the Strategy. Sunset over Māwhera/ Greymouth - April 2025

Today (31 March 2025) marks the 20th anniversary of the building control provisions of the Building Act 2004 coming into force for dams.  This included commencement of sections 12 to 14 of the Act and the transfer of building control responsibilities for dams from territorial authorities to regional authorities. For regional councils (but not unitary authorities) this was significant as it coincided with the introduction of Building Consent Authorities (BCA’s) and the require

The Department of Internal Affairs has consulted on an exposure draft of regulations for natural hazard information in LIMs. The regulations have been drafted to support local authorities implement changes to the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987. The changes to the Act take effect on 1 July 2025 and the new regulations take effect on 17 October 2025 . Here is the submission I made on the exposure draft of the regulations. Dart River, Otago, 2024

I am complementing my research on the history of dam safety legislation with some research on the origin and basis of flood protection...

The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) has released an updated (2024) version of the Non-Financial Performance Measures Rules . The single performance measure for flood protection and river control is unchanged from the 2013 version. Guidance on applying the measure can be found on DIA's website. I was a member of the working group that developed the 2013 measure and the guidance, along with staff of Auckland Regional Council, Environment Canterbury, Taranaki Regional Counc

By now the owners of classifiable dams should have submitted a Form 1 (Dam Classification Certificate) with their Potential Impact Classification (PIC) to their regional authority. Owners of dams with Medium or High PICs need to submit their Form 2 (Dam Safety Assurance Programme) and supporting information to their regional authority by the dates specified in the Building Act 2004. The MBIE website has a flowchart explaining the process and timeframes, and other helpful gu