After a series of extreme weather events over the past month, NZ has been reminded that disasters aren’t just acts of nature.
- Professor of Environmental Planning, University of Waikato
Managed retreat can be traumatic and hard. But with good planning, the land left behind can serve new purposes, and make public what was once private.
People want easy access to green spaces and shops and they don’t want to travel more than 20 minutes to get there – but women feel a lot less comfortable after dark.
New research has mapped public submissions to the National Adaptation Plan. With a cross-party inquiry getting under way, four imagined futures are emerging that present a way forward.
A controversial new city project in northern California has echoes of past utopian plans – but idealism and commercial reality have always been uneasy partners.
New or improved flood protection can give a false sense of security – the so-called ‘levee effect’. But climate change is unpredictable, meaning ‘residual risk’ always exists and must be planned for.
Storms, flooding and other climate-related events highlight the urgent need for a national managed retreat framework. Past experiences suggests it will involve many challenges.
Governments embraced shovel ready projects during the pandemic as a way to stimulate the economy. But the potential for real transformation was lost in the rush to build.
What should climate scientists do in the face of ever rising emissions? They could continue providing more evidence, join climate activists – or stop work in protest against government inaction.
Putting affected people and communities at the centre of difficult relocation decisions must be a priority under laws that replace the old Resource Management Act.
Tracing politicians’ use of the term ‘housing crisis’ reveals it came into common use only in recent years, and then only by opposition MPs. Governments prefer to frame the issues differently.
Current policy to manage and protect people from flooding disadvantages those who are most vulnerable.
The insurance industry should help its customers prepare for future catastrophes instead of burying it’s head in the sand.
The drone market is booming, with some unwanted consequences for wildlife. A new study argues that threatened species might need extra protections.
For much of the 20th century, faith has rested in bigger and better defences to hold back floodwaters. But repeated flooding has shown that large defences cannot, and should not, be the sole focus. The…
The 21st century appears to be one riven by shocks - whether terrorist, financial or climatic. In the aftermath, institutions, people, and societies more generally are frequently encouraged to be more…
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