Review of the NZ Coastal Policy Statement

Review of the New Zealand
Coastal Policy Statement
Issues and Options
AUGUST 2006

climate change coastal margins
source

Public demand for coastal protection works is often high when coastal processes
affect private property,public infrastructure or reserves. While protection works such
as seawalls can in some cases shield property if properly designed and constructed,
they can also have significant adverse effects on coastal processes and natural features
(e.g.increasing erosion further along the coast) and on natural character,amenity values
and public access to and along the coastal marine area.

Specific criticisms of RCA criteria,particularly from local government,include:
The criteria on parallel structures (usually seawalls) does not manage cumulative
effects well (i.e.a 00 metre seawall built 00 metres at a time will have the same
adverse effects but not the same consideration as a single 00m project) and does
not provide guidance on structures crossing the line of mean high water springs.


Climate change and sea level rise are expected to lead to more severe erosion
and flooding. While the effects of climate change will vary in different areas,and sea
level rise is expected to occur over a long time-frame, it is likely that current erosion
trends, flooding and storm damage will be more severe.
Public demand for coastal protection works is often high when coastal processes
affect private property, public infrastructure or reserves. While protection works such
as seawalls can in some cases shield property if properly designed and constructed,
they can also have significant adverse effects on coastal processes and natural features
(e.g.increasing erosion further along the coast) and on natural character,amenity values
and public access to and along the coastal marine area.

3.6.3 NZCPS policies
Principle 7 of the existing NZCPS states that:
The coastal environment is particularly susceptible to the effects of natural
hazards.
Policies on natural hazards are in Chapter ,“Activities Involving the Subdivision,use
or Development of Areas of the Coastal Environment”:
3.4 Recognition of Natural Hazards and Provision for Avoiding or
Mitigating Their Effects
Policy 3.4.1
Local authority policy statements and plans should identify areas in the coastal
environment where natural hazards exist.
Policy 3.4.2
Policy statements and plans should recognise the possibility of a rise in sea level,
and should identify areas which would as a consequence be subject to erosion
or inundation. Natural systems which are a natural defence to erosion and/or
inundation should be identified and their integrity protected.
Policy 3.4.3
The ability of natural features such as beaches, sand dunes, mangroves, wetlands
and barrier islands, to protect subdivision, use, or development should be
recognised and maintained, and where appropriate, steps should be required to
enhance that ability.
Policy 3.4.4
In relation to future subdivision, use and development, policy statements and
plans should recognise that some natural features may migrate inland as the
result of dynamic coastal processes (including sea level rise).
Policy 3.4.5
New subdivision, use and development should be so located and designed that
the need for hazard protection works is avoided.
Policy 3.4.6
Where existing subdivision, use or development is threatened by a coastal
hazard, coastal protection works should be permitted only where they are the
best practicable option for the future.The abandonment or relocation of existing
structures should be considered among the options.Where coastal protection
works are the best practicable option, they should be located and designed so as
to avoid adverse environmental effects to the extent practicable.
3.6.4 Policy critique
A number of shortcomings have been identified in recent reviews of existing coastal
hazard provisions.There are particular problems with the implementation of policies.
In addition, some of the NZCPS policies have been found to lack direction, and are
neither effective nor specific enough;many have not been given full effect in existing
planning documents, such as district plans.There is also concern about the lack of
integration between regions and districts.
Risk reduction is a key message of the new Civil Defence Emergency Management Act
2002. This message is strongly linked to planning provisions that avoid developments
being located in high risk areas.
The long-term effects of sea level rise combined with climate change mean that
a national framework for managing hazard risk from these is needed.
There is a general lack of understanding of how coastal processes work. Beaches
have long-term and short-term trends in the movement of shorelines and sand supplies.
There is an expectation that structures will be placed to protect property,but there is
not a good understanding of the impact such structures have on the beach.
Protection works can cause loss of public access and cause beach degradation;
they also threaten coastal habitats and ecosystems. While the existing NZCPS policy
on hazard protection works is useful, it needs to be strengthened to ensure structures
are the best solution and that public access and amenity values are maintained.
There is no one solution that suits all sites where coastal erosion is occurring.
As coastal erosion is a natural process, there will be differences in how it affects property
in different areas. A combination of approaches such as avoiding the risk, living with
the risk and protecting property from the hazard may all need to be used.

3.5 Maintenance and Enhancement of Public Access To and Along
the Coastal Marine Area
Policy 3.5.1
In order to recognise the national importance of maintaining public access to and
along the coastal marine area, a restriction depriving the public of such access
should only be imposed where such a restriction is necessary :
(a) to protect areas of significant indigenous vegetation and/or significant
habitats of indigenous fauna;
(b) to protect Maori cultural values;
(c) to protect public health or safety;
(d) to ensure a level of security consistent with the purpose of a resource consent;
or
(e) in other exceptional circumstances sufficient to justify the restriction
notwithstanding the national importance of maintaining that access
Policy 3.5.2
In order to recognise the national importance of enhancing public access to and
along the coastal marine area, provision should be made to identify, as far as
practicable:
(i) the location and extent of places where the public have the right of access
to and along the coastal marine area;
(ii) those places where it is desirable that physical access to and along the coastal
marine area by the public should be enhanced;and
(iii) those places where it is desirable that access to the coastal marine area
useable by people with disabilities be provided.
Policy 3.5.3
In order to recognise and provide for the enhancement of public access to and
along the coastal marine areas as a matter of national importance, policy
statements and plans should make provision for the creation of esplanade reserves,
esplanade strips or access strips where they do not already exist, except where
there is a specific reason making public access undesirable.

NZ Impacts: Coasts

Sea-level rise is virtually certain to cause greater coastal inundation, erosion, loss of wetlands, and salt-water intrusion into freshwater sources, with impacts on infrastructure, coastal resources and existing coastal management programs.

The likely rise in sea-level, together with changes to weather patterns, ocean currents, ocean temperature and storm surges are very likely to create differences in regional exposure. In New Zealand, there is likely to be more vigorous and regular swells on the west coast.

Future effects on coastal erosion include climate-induced changes in coastal sediment supply and storminess. In Pegasus Bay, for example, shoreline erosion of up to 50 m is likely between 1980 and 2030 near the Waipara River if southerly waves are reduced by 50%, and up to 80 m near the Waimakariri River if river sand is reduced by 50%.

Coasts are also likely to be affected by changes in pollution and sediment loads from changes in the intensity and seasonality of river flows, and future impacts of river regulation.

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