Coastal Adaptation Planning programme update – 30 July 2021

Kia ora,

We’d like to give you a quick update on Council’s Coastal Hazards Adaptation Planning programme.

In the coming months we’ll be starting a city-wide conversation about adaptation planning – what it means, our guiding principles and our framework for engagement and decision-making with Ngāi Tahu rūnanga and communities. We’re also going to be releasing an updated Coastal Hazards Assessment.

More information about this engagement and the Coastal Hazards Assessment will be available shortly. In the meantime, here are a few things we’ve been up to recently...

CoastSnap up and running in Christchurch 

CoastSnap is a community beach monitoring system designed to capture and measure our dynamic coastline. It was designed by the Water Research Laboratory at the University of New South Wales in Australia. Together with Environment Canterbury and the University of Canterbury, we’re now rolled it out in Ōtautahi Christchurch.

We’ve installed three CoastSnap photo points – two on the New Brighton Pier (one facing north and one facing south) and one is at the start of the Godley Head walkway, overlooking Te Onepoto Taylors Mistake. At these locations you place your phone or tablet in a specially designed cradle, take a photo and then share it to the CoastSnap app, coastsnapchch@ccc.govt.nz,  Instagram or Twitter with the hashtag shown on the sign.

So far, we’ve received more than 100 photos – thanks to everyone who has contributed!

As an example of what we’re tracking, in the images below you can see two CoastSnap images from New Brighton Pier, from the storm in May this year. The shorelines were all recorded at very similar points in the tidal cycle  (around mid-tide), allowing us to see how things have changed over time in response to other coastal processes. 

New Brighton beach, looking north

New Brighton beach, looking south. 

The blue shoreline was taken before the storm on a ‘regular’ day in mid-April. The second shoreline, in red, was taken at about midday on 30 May about half-way through the storm

This difference we can see in the shoreline was likely caused by several factors:

• There was a king tide from 25–30 May which resulted in exceptionally high tides.
• The storm’s low atmospheric pressure system resulted in less downward force (or pressure) over the ocean, allowing sea levels to rise.
• Strong easterly (on-shore) winds on 29 and 30 May (63 and 74 km/hr respectively) helped to push water landward.

The combination of all these factors resulted in a significant increase in water levels and changed the observed shoreline. Some change may also be attributed to re-distribution of sediment on the beach.

The third shoreline, mapped here in green, was taken after the storm on 1 June. Although the worst of the storm had passed, the water level remained higher than the pre-storm shoreline – highlighting the time it takes for the beach to recover.

As we receive more images we’ll be able develop a greater understanding of how coastal processes shape our shoreline.

Find out more information about the CoastSnap project, including the time series video of images.

You can also find us on Facebook

Historic images of our coast

Ōtautahi Christchurch’s coastlines are always shifting.

While the CoastSnap initiative helps us to monitor shoreline change now and into the future, we already have a long history with our coastline, and the photos to prove it. Search for the ‘Coastal Snaps’ photo set on the Canterbury Stories website to see for yourself.

Do you have old images of our coastal environments that you would like to share? You can upload these images to the Discovery Wall.

Huringa āhuarangi climate change programme in schools

Over the past year, Council’s Coastal Hazards Adaptation Planning programme has been proud to support the delivery of the climate change learning programme Huringa āhuarangi: Whakareri mai kia haumaru āpōpō I Climate change: Prepare today, live well tomorrow in Ōtautahi Christchurch schools.

So far the programme has been delivered, or is currently being delivered, to 13 schools - Governors Bay, Diamond Harbour, Okains Bay, St James (Aranui), South New Brighton, Redcliffs, Banks Avenue, Chisnallwood, Star of the Sea Sumner, Lyttelton, Belfast, Haeata and Opawa.

The programme supports and empowers students to have a voice, to take action, and to play their part in a larger, systematic response to climate change. A few months ago members of Council’s Coastal Hazards Adaptation Planning programme team had the pleasure of attending the premiere of Te Kura o Ōhinetahi Governors Bay students’ song 'Fix It Up'. The song is a call to action and a reminder for everyone of climate change hope – everyone has a voice, and it’s never too late to make a difference.

Students from Diamond Harbour School also produced an equally fantastic song late last year called 'Dammit, We Broke The World'. The song offers a balance between how we got here and what we, as humans, can do to reduce climate change impacts.

Climate Adaptation Act

The Government is progressing its reform of the Resource Management Act with the release of the exposure draft of the Natural and Built Environment’s Bill. This exposure draft also provided an update on the Climate Adaptation Act which is "specific climate change adaptation legislation to address the complex legal and technical issues associated with managed retreat and funding and financing of adaptation."

The central goal of the Climate Adaptation Act is to "incentivise action now, to reduce future cost and distress". The Government will release the core Climate Adaptation Act policy in early 2022 and intends to introduce the legislation to the House in early 2023

More information

For more information on the coastal hazards adaptation planning programme visit our website.

If you’d like us to come talk about the Coastal Hazards Adaptation Planning programme with your community group or residents’ association, please get in touch.