Sea level planning not up to scratch in New Zealand – environment watchdog

“Nearly 8000 homes are less than 150 centimetres above the spring high tide mark, and a considerable area of the city, including the airport, is less than 50 centimetres above the spring high tide mark”.

“Further sea level rise is inevitable, and this clearly present a challenge for our city”.

“It is not too soon to begin to consider the fiscal implications of sea level rise”, Dr Wright said on Thursday.

“Homes, businesses and infrastructure worth billions of dollars have been built on low-lying land close to the coast”. Entitled Preparing New Zealand for Rising Seas: …

Parliament’s environmental watchdog is urging the government to take more of a role in planning for sea level rise, but her report has been dismissed as speculation. Of the four, Dunedin faces the biggest and most extensive challenges.

He was not aware of homes being uninsurable due to the risk of sea level rise, “but there will be properties that have had significant erosion of land and sea damage from sea surge and if that has happened with a degree of frequency it is possible that there may be higher excesses on those properties, or there may be an exclusion for a certain sort of damage”.

The report, Preparing New Zealand for rising seas: Certainty and Uncertainty, contains maps of Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin and other regions showing the elevation of low-lying coastal land above the spring high tide mark.

Maps published in the report identified those most at risk.

Whakatane, Tauranga, Motueka and Nelson each have at least 1000 homes at risk.

If emissions were not mitigated, the sea could rise by a metre. “Perhaps the most hard aspect is the impacts on people’s homes, which for many are much more than financial security”.

Dr Wright said councils would need to use science which was fit for goal, and engage with communities “in a measured way and with empathy”.

Councils also needed better direction from central government, the commissioner found.

The Environment Commissioner gives the warning to coastal communities in a sobering report.

“The PCE report provides the science behind climate change and sea level rise, along with a few useful recommendations, to help inform this collaboration and discussion”.

The thawing Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica that is linked to global warming and rising sea levels.

Analysis from the Insurance Council has shown the replacement costs of assets located between 0.5m and 1.5m from mean high tide levels would be between $3 billion and $20 billion.