Submission on National Policy Statement for Natural Hazards

The Commissioner has made a submission on the proposal to introduce a National Policy Statement for Natural Hazards (NPS-NH), as part of a series of submissions on the national policy direction of resource management.

He supports the introduction of the NPS-NH but cautions that what is proposed is the bare bones of what will be needed to effectively manage risk. He raises several specific concerns:

• a lack of clarity around what constitutes the ‘best available information’ that councils should use for managing natural hazards and how they should deal with uncertainty
• a lack of guidance for local authorities around how to determine ‘proportional’ natural hazard risk management
• a lack of guidance on how information on climate change risk should be incorporated into the risk management process
• a lack of clarity on why the NPS-NH will cover only some of the natural hazards currently listed in the Resource Management Act
• the exclusion of infrastructure from consideration
• ambiguity around the definition of ‘new developments’ and whether all types of development will be covered by the NPS-NH (e.g. infill housing or granny flats)

Read the submission.