Application of sustainability appraisal to the Canterbury Water Management Strategy

Abstract

In Canterbury, water management presents a particular challenge with regard to resource availability and quality, and the impact of intensification of land use and changing forms of agriculture. These issues have led to the development of the Canterbury Water Management Strategy, which identifies a number of options to resolve them. A sustainability appraisal of the options with respect to their contribution to sustainability outcomes illustrates the potential of taking a strategic approach to problem solving in the context of complexity and uncertainty. This article describes the application of a method of sustainability appraisal that is based on international developments but adapted to the New Zealand resource management framework. The approach defined a sustainability bottom line and desired sustainability outcomes, and demonstrated that: (1) the status quo was not sustainable; (2) a strategy based on new infrastructure projects met economic criteria but not environmental criteria; (3) advancing environmental protection with a moratorium on new development met environmental criteria but not economic criteria; and (4) for a sustainable outcome across all criteria, existing water and land use needed to be improved and parallel development of new infrastructure and proactive programs for environmental restoration needed to be implemented.

Keywords:

• sustainable resource management
• evaluation of strategies
• sustainability outcomes

Notes

1. RMA s 5 states that the purpose of the Act is: ‘to promote sustainable management of natural and physical resources,’ where sustainable management means, ‘managing the use, development, and protection of natural and physical resources in a way, or at a rate, which enables people and communities to provide for their social, economic, and cultural wellbeing and for their health and safety while (a) sustaining the potential of natural and physical resources (excluding minerals) to meet the reasonably foreseeable needs of future generations; and (b) safeguarding the life-supporting capacity of air, water, soil, and ecosystems; and (c) avoiding, remedying, or mitigating any adverse effects of activities on the environment’.

2. LGA s 10 specifies that the purpose of local government is: ‘(a) to enable democratic local decision-making and action by, and behalf of, communities; and (b) to promote the social, economic, environmental wellbeing of communities, in the present and for the future’. LGA s 14(h) also highlights principles relating to local authorities including: ‘in taking a sustainable development approach, a local authority should take into account – (i) the social, economic, and cultural wellbeing of people and communities; and (ii) the need to maintain and enhance the quality of the environment; and (iii) the reasonably foreseeable needs of future generations’.

3. For effective integration, there should be: substantive integration of the different types of impact; procedural integration of analytical and consultative measures at key stages of the process; and policy integration of findings in decision-making and implementation (Dalal-Clayton & Sadler 2013).

4. The Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840 between the British Crown and many Māori chiefs. It provided the British Crown the right of governance and is generally considered the founding document of New Zealand as a nation. One of the key principles in relation to water management is that Māori were to retain rangatiratanga (management authority) over their resources.

5. For example, ‘assets’ related to natural capital including ‘ecosystems’. Process descriptions include ‘equity of water allocation’. Outcome indicators include ‘regional value added’.

6. Potential evapotranspiration deficit (PED) is the amount of water that needs to be added to achieve optimal plant growth. The annual average PED for Canterbury is 322 mm.

7. A key to success of the CWMS was the role of the steering group. The 16-person group contains a diversity of backgrounds including local and central government, industry, irrigation, fishing, kayaking, community, conservation and Ngāi Tahu (the Māori tribe within whose traditional land the CWMS was being developed). They were engaged on a voluntary basis. The willingness of the steering group to work constructively to accommodate multiple perspectives facilitated widespread support for the CWMS. Another key component has been the technical input from the officials group with specialists from local and central government. They provided much of the background material for the steering group's deliberations.

8. The collaborative governance model follows the principles of ‘self managed communities’ of Ostrom (1990), and a description of its application in strategy development is provided in Jenkins (2005).

9. This approach for option development and selection arose from experience of decision-making processes in environments where inter-organisational collaboration was essential to successful service delivery (Midgley 2000).

10. It is interesting to compare these principles with the capital assets of the four pillars of sustainability (Table 4). The fundamental principles only reflect some of the potential dimensions of social wellbeing.

11. As expressed in statutory and non-statutory planning documents such as regional policy statements and plans, regional environmental reports, the community outcomes reports and long-term council community plans.