Community conversations on coastal hazards are ramping up

Nationally we’re seeing an increasing awareness of the impacts of sea-level rise resulting from climate change. In Kāpiti, our communities consistently identify climate change as a key threat to their sustainability and resilience.

The impact of climate change is most clearly seen on our coast. We’re experiencing more frequent and extreme storms causing coastal hazards such as erosion and inundation (flooding by the sea). Coastal hazards don’t just affect private property. They damage council infrastructure like pipes, roads and parks that our rates pay to fix, and they reduce access around the district and along the coast for recreation.

For decades, off and on, our district has debated how we tackle coastal hazards. It’s time to have those conversations not just on the back of severe weather events, but to help us plan deliberately and carefully so we are more resillient when a response is required.

The need for action is becoming more pressing than ever. That’s why we’re facilitating a coastal adaptation project based on Ministry for the Environment guidance on planning for coastal hazards. The Takutai Kāpiti project will support an independent Coastal Advisory Panel made up of local people and tangata whenua representatives to engage directly with you, our community. Those conversations will draw on a range of social, cultural, economic, ecological and scientific studies and new online maps and videos. You’ll have the opportunity to learn more and give your views to the panel. Their job is to use that information, assess the various options for adapting to coastal changes on the Kāpiti Coast, then provide recommendations to Council on how to tackle current and future coastal hazards.

► Read about our coastal adaptation project Takutai Kāpiti at takutaikapiti.nz

► Learn more about the science and the panel at kapiticoast.govt.nz/ coastal-adaptation