The Joint Committee brings together elected representatives from Hastings District Council, Napier City Council, Hawke's Bay Regional Council and members appointed from the Maungaharuru-Tangitu Trust, Mana Ahuriri Incorporated and He Toa Takitini. We have support from a Technical Advisory Group of senior staff from each of the councils, and use consultant advisers as necessary.
The most populated stretch of the region's coast between Clifton and Tangoio is our first focus. We will be working with both the community and experts to identify coastal hazards, assess how these will impact over time, and develop a strategy aimed at keeping the community resilient in the face of these hazards well into the future.
An underlying principle for the strategy is that a piecemeal approach to coastal protection in Hawke's Bay is best avoided. The PCE's report also warns of the potential long term financial burden of hard defences like seawalls or banks of rocks. She states: "While each of these hard defences may not cost a lot, collectively the costs will mount. A piecemeal reactive response will become increasingly expensive and, as the sea continues to rise, maintenance and replacement will be needed. At some point, most hard defences will be abandoned."
The PCE report also states that councils and communities across New Zealand face the difficult task of assessing the risks and deciding what to do in response. Planning in the face of uncertainty and competing priorities is never easy, but is particularly difficult when choices affect people's homes. While soft defences, such as allowing sea water to intrude into wetlands and natural shorelines, may be a more resilient approach, this could mean big changes for many coastal communities.
Even if, globally, there's a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, there will be a huge lag effect and sea level rise will continue. But we have time now, as a community, to make sound, long-term decisions.
There's likely to be a high financial and social cost to responding to coastal hazards over the next 100 years. So we need the whole community to look at the big picture, and help decide on what long-term actions and costs might be acceptable. We all need to determine what level of risk the community is prepared to live with, as we would all be affected by a very large storm or tsunami.
Meanwhile, the most immediate risk for Hawke's Bay is damage from storms. Even a small increase in sea level means that the storms and king tides that already regularly impact our coast will result in more frequent and severe flooding. In 1974 the sea overtopped and severely flooded Haumoana, and more recently properties have been lost to the sea as the shoreline changes.
Early next year the Joint Committee will have the first stage of the strategy - the hazards and risks for the Clifton to Tangoio part of the coast - available for everyone in the region to consider. You can find out more about the strategy on www.hbhazards.co.nz, and about hazards at www.hbemergency.govt.nz.
We'd like Hawke's Bay people to think about these issues and get involved in making decisions that will be important well beyond our lifetimes.
-Peter Beaven is a Hawke's Bay Regional councillor and chairman of the Joint Tangoio to Clifton Coastal Hazards Strategy Committee.
-Our regular columnist Mike Williams is on extended sick leave and will hopefully begin writing again in the new year.
