Future Coasts Aotearoa
Future Coasts Aotearoa is a five-year MBIE Endeavour research programme which aims to transform coastal lowland systems threatened by sea-level rise into resilient, prosperous communities. Led by NIWA, this multidisciplinary project combines expertise in indigenous culture, economics, social, and physical science to tackle this important challenge by enhancing the evidence base for sea-level rise risks, building fit-for-purpose & holistic wellbeing evaluation tools and applying the tools in adaptive planning and decision-making frameworks for a range of case study site. For more information see our project page, or the official research page.
Climate Shock Resilience and Adaptation
The Climate Shock Resilience and Adaptation project is funded by the Ministry for Primary Industry’s Sustainable Land Management and Climate Change fund and focuses on the near-term vulnerability of the primary sector to economic shocks due to adverse climate events. Improving our understanding of the plausible range and frequency of adverse climate events, and how they may impact the farming sector, is crucial for proactive adaptation to our changing climate.
Our research hypothesis explores the effects of a suite of climate shock “storylines” on farm systems, the rural economy and stream health and the potential benefits of adaptation options such as on-farm actions and adaptive water resource management frameworks. Visit our project page for further information, and see the list of projects funded by this research here.
Monitoring Freshwater Improvements
The Monitoring Freshwater Improvements programme was funded by Our Land and Water under the National Science Challenge, and addressed the mismatch between the requirements of monitoring the slow and uncertain rate of change in nitrate improvements, current monitoring network infrastructure and traditional monitoring network design approaches. We evaluated the requirements for successful freshwater improvement monitoring design through statistical modelling and development of a new Bayesian approach to water quality change detection in non-equilibrium conditions. An interactive web tool and guidance for regulatory bodies, communities, and stakeholders was produced, with findings from the first phase of work published in Science of the Total Environment. A second journal article presenting our new Bayesian modelling method and application of the method to estimate future groundwater nitrate concentrations across New Zealand is in development. More information can be found on our project page, and on the National Science Challenge research output site.
