Local Government October 2012

Graffiti is costing councils a fortune To battle taggers councils are using a GPS-based system PAGE 10

VOL 48 • OCTOBER 2012 • $6.50

Managing the cost of living on the coast We are being warned that coastal ecosystems are overexploited and are in peril PAGE 29

MasterBuild

Online building consent application.

Matchless simplicity. Anytime. Anywhere.

When we envisioned MasterBuild, we wanted something any Tom, Dick and Harry* could use to submit building consent applications online.

Then we got carried away.

Make it work from anywhere in the world as long as you have access to the internet.

Make it so it could plug straight in to any councils’ existing systems.

Design it to make all the backstage stuff automated for staff (no double or triple handling.)

And on it went.

You get the picture.

And we succeeded.

Commercial. Industrial. Residential.

Customisable.

Online.

24/7.

You’re welcome.

See MasterBuild in action at www.vimeo.com/ourcoromandel/masterbuild For more information, contact Murray Foster p 07 868 0200 e murray.foster@tcdc.govt.nz

Paperless.

At last.

* Naturally, Tom, Dick and Harry would have to be able to understand what code clauses are, and other building-codey stuff.

NEW ZEALAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT

AGENDA OCTOBER 2012

FROM THE EDITOR 02 Auckland council defends land-use policies NZLG INSIGHT News and current affairs from the New Zealand local government sector.

03 Report says most council debt ‘well-managed’ 04 Crown loans for energy plans 06 EMANZ asks Auckland to do more 07 International award for tsunami awareness 08 Councils’ capital spend – plenty in the pipeline

8

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT 10 Helping councils to win the graffiti war IT INNOVATION 13 Council’s win underscores value of customer service 14 32nd annual ALGIM conference 15 Hamilton council turns to net-based services 15 ALGIM recognises customer services 16 Intuitive website for HBRC 17 Geocortex allows council to minimise custom code GIS TECHNOLOGY 18 GIS technologies in focus at Auckland conference 19 GIS ranks highly with Stanford’s student 20 Seeing wood from the trees with NZ developed GIS

29

WASTEWATER 22 Progress on wastewater 22 Long-awaited upgrade 23 Novel approach to wastewater 24 Was Treasury on the money?

26 Is your monitoring effective?

28 Council acts over pollution 28 Minister backs ‘bottle farm’ to clean up lake COASTAL MANAGEMENT 29 Global and local imperatives intersect at the coast 32 Weighing the tsunami risk CONTRACTING 34 Defining asset management FOCUS 36 BOP may escape serious pollution 38 Data cloud’s silver lining 38 Pride shown in a tough year 40 Minister’s powers under scrutiny 41 ‘Art deco’ at risk in Hawke’s Bay On the cover: -see page 10

FROM THE EDITOR

Auckland Council defends land-use policies Developers in Christchurch have been asking the city council and central government where new land for building houses will come from and now Auckland Council has defended itself against suggestions its land use policies are helping to raise the cost of housing.

The Reserve Bank governor Alan Bollard said recently Auckland Council’s rules on how land can be used for housing are one factor pushing up prices in the region.

“There is some evidence that it is a matter not so much of building costs, it is land costs,” he said.

“That is a challenge for the Auckland authorities and if they can’t meet that challenge people will go elsewhere — to places where they can build more cheaply.”

The challenge brought a rapid response from Auckland Council’s deputy mayor Penny Hulse.

“Auckland is gearing up for more development and the Unitary Plan process will be the next step in making that happen.”

The deputy mayor chairs the Auckland Plan Committee and said council is going through a process of merging the various district and regional plans of the various councils that existed before amalgamation into a single document.

“We are putting in place a good up-front consultation process and are working with Government to consider ways to implement the Unitary Plan in a timely fashion. That will speed up development and economic growth as well as protect our heritage and the environment.

“The Auckland Plan envisages that up to 70 per cent of new dwellings will be built within the current city boundary, while up to 40 per cent will be allowed in new green-fields land. This range allows for flexibility in a time of dynamic change and highlights that there will be plenty of land available to cater for growth.”

Penny Hulse’s comment on a time of dynamic change is certainly apt. When the council released its draft Auckland plan, it spoke of the region having to absorb an additional one million people and 400,000 new dwellings over the next 30 years. And the deputy mayor’s latest comments suggest Auckland council have it covered.

“Auckland needs to build approximately 13,000 dwellings each year to keep up with population growth,” she says. “It is important to note that there is currently provision for the development of approximately 18,500 dwellings on already zoned and serviced green-field land.

“This land can be built on today, subject to the market, and means that current regulations around land-use are not the cause for un-met demand for housing. It is more correct to say that the difficult economic environment has resulted in the downturn in building activity.”

I’m not going to dispute Ms Hulse’s comments. However, it’s interesting that in last year’s October issue of this magazine, From the Editor reported an auction price of $605,000 for a classic Auckland example of backyard infill housing, on an exposed site on a busy Greenlane street that feeds traffic into Ellerslie town centre. I would love to know what that house would fetch at auction tomorrow, 12 months after its most recent sale. I don’t think the economic environment will have dampened its current market price, at all. In fact, real estate sales people I’ve spoken to told me “the owners certainly won’t be unhappy with the unrealised capital gain they have made in the past 12 months”.

However, Auckland Council says it is working on a ‘housing strategic action plan’.

This will focus exclusively on the role of council in housing affordability and will develop options such as leveraging council assets and land in partnership with the private and/or third sector, the unitary plan, financial incentives and levies, development contributions and regulatory levers.

Penny Hulse explains: “There are a number of factors that need to be considered with regard to housing affordability. Uncontrolled release of land will simply result in uncontained sprawl with current ratepayers having to pick up the high cost of investment in new infrastructure,” she said.

“Auckland Council is happy to work with the Government to look at ways of getting the unitary plan to have an impact as soon as possible, so we can get on with developing the city.”

“Auckland Council is working on a ‘housing strategic action plan”

2

NEW ZEALAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OCTOBER 2012

EDITOR Graham Hawkes 09 529 3000 grahamh@mediaweb.co.nz ADVERTISING SALES MANAGER Charles Fairbairn 09 300 2676 charlesf@mediaweb.co.nz DESIGNER Jennifer Adams jennifera@mediaweb.co.nz PRODUCTION MANAGER Fran Marshall franm@mediaweb.co.nz GROUP SALES MANAGER Lisa Morris 09 300 2675 lisam@mediaweb.co.nz ADVERTISING CO-ORDINATOR Pip Maclean 09 529 3000 ads@mediaweb.co.nz COMPANY ACCOUNTANT Pam King 09 300 2670 pamk@mediaweb.co.nz CREDIT CONTROL Gladys Hooker 09 300 2672 gladysh@mediaweb.co.nz CIRCULATION/SUBSCRIPTIONS Sue McDiarmid.

Rates: $80 for 12 issues incl GST and post.

Overseas rates available on request.

Address to: Subscriptions Dept, Mediaweb, PO Box 5544, Wellesley St, Auckland subs@mediaweb.co.nz www.mediaweb.co.nz PREPRESS AND PRINT BY PMP Print PUBLISHED BY

PUBLISHER Toni Myers MEDIAWEB 115 Newton Road, Eden Terrace PO Box 5544, Wellesley St, Auckland Phone +64 9 529 3000 Fax +64 9 529 3001 Email enquiries@mediaweb.co.nz www.mediaweb.co.nz Original material published in this magazine is copyright, but may be reproduced providing permission is obtained from the editor and acknowledgment given to NZ Local Government magazine. Opinions expressed are those of the authors and may not necessarily be those of Mediaweb. We welcome material from commercial sources for publication but cannot guarantee that it will be used as submitted.

ISSN: 0028 8403

PUBLISHER'S STATEMENT OF DISTRIBUTION New Zealand Local Government magazine’s distribution figures can be supplied by way of a publisher’s statement, which can be verified if required by print and postal information. This is the same data reviewed under the ABC system. The guaranteed minimum distribution for NZ Local Government is 2000.

NZLG INSIGHT

Council well-managed says report Local Government New Zealand is backing an independent report which says local government debt is well-managed in the vast majority of cases.

The independent economic research firm, the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research or NZIER, says its research shows New Zealand councils spend well below internationally-benchmarked maximums in servicing their loans, and capital expenditure, debt and interest cover are all at prudent levels.

“This report says that overall, councils have been very fiscally responsible,” says LGNZ president, Lawrence Yule.

“Good, responsible debt enables councils to build and maintain the infrastructure their communities want and need such as roads,

pavements, parks and swimming pools.”

Councils also have to provide infrastructure effectively mandated by central government when it requires, for example, water treatment plants meeting the latest technical standards.

“This infrastructure can’t all be paid for out of rates income and the money doesn’t just appear out of thin air,” Mr Yule says.

“The sector acknowledges that the debt issue in Kaipara is an exception to the overall picture, but there the issue seems to be primarily attributable to the increase in costs of the Mangawhai waste water scheme.

“However, early warning signs combined with more effective assistance packages in the event councils get into trouble, is central

to solving these problems more effectively. LGNZ is doing some vital work in this area that will help.”

Commenting on the report, NZIER principal economist, Shamubeel Eaqub, said: “When looking at borrowing, what matters is how much debt you have relative to assets and the ability to repay the debt. These are the key metrics.

“Rates and spending have risen.

But the increases are modest relative to property values or GDP. Also, at an aggregate level, investment and borrowing cannot be said to be irresponsibly high,” Mr Eaqub said.

The NZIER report places the debtservicing cost ratio at 6.4 per cent last year for New Zealand councils while the international benchmark is around 10 per cent.

Cost-cutters take aim at LG infrastructure The Government has gathered people from local government and private enterprise to find ways to drive down the cost of council infrastructure.

The eight-strong advisory group, led by Greater Wellington Regional Council chair Fran Wilde, will produce a report in February that will feed into local government reform legislation planned for next year.

Local Government Minister David Carter says the wealth of experience of the group members will help to improve the cost/benefit implications of future local government infrastructure decisions.

Other members of the group are Stephen Selwood, chief executive of the New Zealand Council for Infrastructure Development; Jeremy Sole, chief executive of New Zealand Contractors Federation; Josephine Grierson, business woman and infrastructure economics expert; Liz Anderson, infrastructure and policy consultant; Debbie Packer, former deputy mayor of South Taranaki; Philip CoryWright, director, infrastructure company advisor and investment banker; and Alan Bickers, former local government chief executive and engineer.

Contacts:

Auckland

Manukau

Wellington

Ph: 09 379 9350

Ph: 09 262 2145

Ph: 04 499 9824

Auckland

Wellington

Melinda Dickey Andrew Green Linda O’Reilly John Young

Andrew Cameron

NEW ZEALAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OCTOBER 2012

3

NZLG INSIGHT

LGFA delivers cost-savings

Crown loans for energy plans From lighting upgrades to swimming pool covers – the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority is looking for energysaving projects to fund through its Crown loans scheme.

Loans may also fund energyefficient options when it comes to existing capital projects.

“Many organisations put significant energy-saving projects on the back-burner because they think the capital just isn’t there,” says Dan Coffey, EECA business projects manager.

“But money is available through EECA Crown loans. And many types of projects qualify, provided they deliver a cost-effective return on investment through energy savings.”

Recent work funded includes installing heat recovery at Selwyn District Council’s aquatic centre, solar water heating at Otaki pool (pictured) and a major lighting upgrade at Auckland University of Technology. All public sector organisations, including schools, are eligible.

Since they were introduced more than 20 years ago, Crown loans have contributed $30 million to public sector projects, with ongoing energy savings worth $5 million a year. The next funding round closes on November 23.

(Further information: www.eecabusiness.govt.nz or dan.coffey@eeca.govt.nz).

The cost of borrowing by local authorities has reduced as the result of a highly successful first seven months by the Local Government Funding Agency (LGFA) says Greater Wellington Regional Council chair Fran Wilde.

“Greater Wellington Regional Council was one of nine councils on the steering group that worked to establish LGFA, and we were a foundation shareholder.

“LGFA was only set up in December last year and started borrowing in February this year, so its recently released annual report actually covers only seven months of operation.

“In that short time it has been a stunning success, gaining an AA+ credit rating from both Standard and Poor’s and Fitch, and borrowing more than $1 billion for local government bodies around the country at more favourable rates than councils could achieve on their own. LGFA estimates that this has already saved the local government sector between $3 million and $4 million in annual borrowing costs.”

We’re right there with you for practical solutions to local authority taxation issues

4

Richard Toovey, Tax Director T 04 494 2394

Michelle Macdonald, Tax Director T 04 494 2393

Jeff Eaton, Tax Director T 04 494 2391

Phil Fisher, Tax Director T 04 494 2396

NEW ZEALAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OCTOBER 2012

Level 6 44 Victoria Street PO Box 44 Wellington T +64 4 494 2390 F +64 4 494 2399 www.taxteam.co.nz

RECRUITMENT

ADVeRTiseMeNT

Over 40% of workforce actively looking to switch jobs Despite low employment confidence levels and the sluggish pace of the economy, Kiwis are still confident about demand for their own skills – with 41% actively looking for work, even when they are happy in their current role, according to the latest Kelly Global Workforce Index (KGwi).

The survey of nearly 170,000 employees worldwide, including more than 3,500 in New Zealand, examined the changing attitudes to employment, career progression and job mobility.

According to the Kelly research, 43% of New Zealand employees saw their skills as being in high demand, while more than half of the respondents (57%) also believe that if they did change jobs they would be in a good position to negotiate a similar or better position.

Kelly managing director Debbie

Grenfell says that, even in a slow economy and despite continued uncertainty about the prospects of a global recovery, the majority of employees believe they need to move jobs in order to maintain their career.

“Almost half of all New Zealand employees (48%) believe that in order to develop their skills and advance their career opportunities, it is more important to change employers, rather than remain with their existing employer,” says Debbie Grenfell.

“For employers in both the public and private sector, this represents a huge challenge to retain the best talent for their business, when almost half of their happy employees are actively planning their next career move and see a diverse range of experience as more important than progressing through an organisation.”

According to the survey, 66% of New Zealand employees believe work experience with a number of employers is an asset to their career advancement. However, only 26% believe they will have the opportunity to progress or gain a promotion with their current employer, and almost half (49%) believe their employer is not realising their full potential.

“For public sector employers, these trends really highlight the need to maintain strong development programmes within their organisation to retain their best employees.

“It is also extremely important to communicate the opportunities that are available within the organisation for advancement, and work closely with key staff on career planning and goal setting.

“With the Christchurch recovery in particular and the continued growth of the Auckland region predicted to create major movements in the workforce and higher demand across a range of skills, its important employers throughout the country can focus on ways to help key staff enjoy rewarding career development within their organisation.”

New ZeALAND LOCAL GOVeRNMeNT OCTOBER 2012

5

NZLG INSIGHT

EMANZ asks Auckland to do more The organisation representing the energy services sector has welcomed a discussion document by Auckland Council on energy policy, but has urged the council to take a greater leadership role and implement further energy-saving initiatives.

The Energy Management Association of New Zealand (EMANZ) is calling on the council to take a number of steps, including ensuring all its own buildings have an energy performance rating along the lines of the National Australian Built Environment Rating System (NABERS).

In its submission to the council’s “Powering Auckland’s low carbon transformation” discussion document, EMANZ recommended major energy-using assets – such as water and waste treatment, street lighting, buildings and vehicle fleets – should measure their energy performance and benchmark against other territorial authorities with similar assets, creating a collaborative improvement culture.

EMANZ executive officer Ewan Gebbie says the ‘Powering Auckland’ report was an excellent discussion document overall, identifies the main issues and provides practical solutions – but it could go further.

“One area where significant energy waste occurs is with installed over-capacity – such as oversized transformers, boilers and chillers in buildings,” said Mr Gebbie. “The council should consider what role it can play in facilitating more efficient outcomes here.”

EMANZ supports the council’s proposed initiatives around providing greater transport choice, reducing private motor vehicle dependency and reducing reliance on fossil fuels.

However, it suggests additional action including a management system for all council fleet vehicles, measuring fuel use at individual driver level – starting with the heavy vehicle fleet.

It also calls for the vehicle fleet to be energy audited

Census data is an essential and profound information platform for planning decisions. How is your council managing yours? www.id.com.au

6

regularly, with contracted transport service providers, including ferries, encouraged to follow suit.

The council should press for smarter electricity tariffs – for electric vehicles to encourage people to charge them at off-peak times – and consider mass council-owned electric vehicle battery availability to support peak load management. Smarter street lighting would also reduce energy costs ultimately borne by ratepayers.

EMANZ welcomed plans for reducing the consumption of energy in Auckland’s buildings and says the council should adopt an energy rating system – NABERS will be available in New Zealand in 2013 – and consider how this tool could fit in the council’s suite of regulatory measures for improving Auckland’s energy performance.

“Energy costs are one of the most significant controllable costs in buildings and commonly get treated as a fixed cost. Once a building’s energy performance is measured, it can be managed, and energy savings initiatives can be assessed for their true value.

“The list of market barriers preventing optimal energy use in buildings is long and makes it harder for energy use to be optimised so there is a role for councils to lead.”

EMANZ supports planned initiatives for managing growth in Auckland’s peak demand for electricity and says the council should take a lead in setting out clear expectations for management of peak electricity demand within its region and ensuring an organisation is responsible and accountable for managing it.

“Auckland needs an organisation to have clear responsibility for aggregating and managing peak electricity demand,” Mr Gebbie says.

“It is not clear who is responsible at present as a lack of clarity continues on the relative roles of electricity retailers and transmission/lines companies in creating a clear and agreed set of peak load management arrangements.”

.idprofile® is your own interactive website of community information.

Used by staff, consultants and the community, .idprofile® ensures the figures used are correct and consistent, saving money and supporting confident decisionmaking. Make sure you talk to the .id team as you prepare for next year’s census.

Penny Bloomberg • penny@id.com.au nz mobile 021 0820 7905 • nz freephone 0800 955 481

NEW ZEALAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OCTOBER 2012

International award for

tsunami awareness Wellington’s ‘blue lines’ project – which aims to raise community awareness on how to keep out of the way of an approaching tsunami – has been recognised with an award from a global emergency management group.

The International Association for Emergency Managers is based in Washington DC and has more than 5000 members in 58 countries. It is a non-profit organisation dedicated to saving lives and protecting property during emergencies and disasters.

The first tsunami-awareness blue lines were painted on roads in Island Bay in 2010 and more are scheduled to be painted on roads in Houghton Bay and Owhiro Bay. It’s planned to expand the blue lines project around most low-lying areas on the south coast and around Wellington Harbour.

Mayor Celia Wade-Brown says the award is due recognition of an inspired community-preparedness initiative on the south coast.

“The blue lines in Island Bay have certainly raised awareness about the very real tsunami risk in the area.

More people in Island Bay now know that if there’s a big undersea earthquake just off our coast then people may have only 10 minutes or less to get well inland or get to high ground before the first waves come ashore.”

People should evacuate immediately inland, past the blue lines, if the area is hit by any long or strong earthquake – one that lasts more than about a minute and which causes items to fall off shelves, or does more significant damage.

Bruce Pepperell, manager of the Wellington Region Emergency Management Office, says the blue lines concept has generated positive interest from abroad including the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in the US, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre and the Cabinet Office for Disaster Management in Japan.

He says the blue lines act as a catalyst or ongoing reminder to encourage people to plan their evacuation routes before they need to use them.

“It’s a simple, cheap and long-lasting means of keeping people aware of the tsunami danger and of the need to be prepared for emergency.”

Contact Management designed with you in mind People are the most important part of any business. Empower CRM is the business tool to help you manage all your contact information and ensure you are up to date with all interactions.

Track and manage contact activity with other users in your organisation Report on customer trends Access your customer, supplier and staff contact information anywhere, anytime via your mobile Integrate with email and save communications against contacts instantly Easily customise to meet your needs No hidden costs

Easy to Use, Easy to Implement, Easy to Update One all inclusive price.

Visit www.empowercrm.com for your free 30 day evaluation.

Phone 04 473 9499 for a demonstration.

Empower your business today!

NEW ZEALAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OCTOBER 2012

7

NZLG INSIGHT

Councils’ capital spend – there’s plenty in the pipeline

BY LARRY MITCHELL, Finance Analyst

The National Infrastructure Plan of 2011 has linked improvement of New Zealand’s economic performance to five areas or sectors.

Water was identified as one of the top five strategic opportunities – signalling the importance of the development and performance of the three ‘biggies’ of stormwater, water supply, and the biggest of all, wastewater.

The NIP got down to the specifics of future investment in water-related assets identifying the following: i mprovement of demand management practices and consistent performance criteria for water infrastructure; p romotion of partnerships and activities within the sector;

Palmerston North growing up fast • Potable water diving • Reservoir cleaning • Hydro dam inspections and repair • Video and photo inspections and reports • Intake screen and valve installation, repairs and maintenance • Designated potable water equipment • Pipeline inspection and repairs • Confined space entry • Diver operated dredging systems • Waste Water diving

Total In-water Construction Solutions Tel: +64 (0)9 377 2906 • Email: info@diveco.co.nz Website: www.diveco.co.nz

8

NEW ZEALAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OCTOBER 2012

In 25 years, Palmerston North’s population could top 100,000 and in five years it could go past 90,000, meeting definitions of a metropolitan area.

A report for the Manawatu Standard says latest population projections from Statistics New Zealand show the city is the fifth-equal fastest growing area in New Zealand. Shortly after 2016, it is projected to be home to more than 90,000 people, meeting Local Government NZ and Internal Affairs definitions of a metropolitan area.

Mayor Jono Naylor said the projections were encouraging and showed the city’s population growth is at a sustainable level.

He said Palmerston North had already joined Local Government New Zealand’s metropolitan group as it was already close to the mark at 85,100 people and had more issues in common with major centres than other provincial cities.

Palmerston North City Council economic policy adviser Peter Crawford told the newspaper Palmerston North was currently the eighth largest population area, and growing faster than the bigger cities of Dunedin and Lower Hutt. It was also pulling ahead of Hastings, Napier and New Plymouth.

Mr Crawford said the city’s growth was greater than could be explained by the inclusion of 2400 residents from Manawatu as a result of a boundary change.

The city’s projected growth would see an extra 17,000 people living here in 25 years’ time, compared with earlier projections that put that number at 12,500.

NZLG INSIGHT

e nsuring that management of water assets contributes to improved social, economic, environmental and cultural well-being.

Central Government’s proposed reform legislation – currently making its way through select committee and second reading stages – may alter the fourth element in that list, replacing the four well-beings with more of a cost-efficiency approach. Whatever the outcome of the reforms, throughout the whole country, councilowned and managed water assets are being upgraded and new capacity, in spite of recessionary pressures, is planned to accelerate over the next ten years.

If the 10-year long-term plans of councils published in June this year are anything to go by, capital expenditures on water assets will continue to break records.

Last year’s actual ‘three waters’ expenditures made by territorial local authorities were: s tormwater $190 million w ater supplies $564 million w astewater $608 million.

That makes a grand annual total of $1.4 billion. This year’s water supply total is scheduled to exceed all previous annual totals (excluding Christchurch earthquake-affected plans) at more than $650 million, with later years increasing by more than 10 per cent per annum.

For instance the CAPEX annual total for Auckland Council’s water supply alone this year is $172 million and by 2022 it will reach $288 million. This is a huge opportunity in any terms. It is business that is largely immune to many of the economic stresses most other

%URZQ %URWKHUV (QJLQHHUV /WG

6DNXUDJDZD 6XEPHUVLEOH 3XPSV

commercial opportunities confront. Water is big business and with the Roads of National Significance effectively reducing local government’s budgets in this activity, council spending on the ‘three waters’ for the next ten years becomes relatively more significant in dollar terms.

Even without the enormous restoration plans of the earthquake-affected Canterbury region, for councils right across the country their proposed council expenditures are impressive. Firms affected by recessionary pressures should be giving serious consideration to their (informed) servicing of this local government capital expenditure infrastructural assets market.

Infrastructure developments figure prominently in central government’s economic recovery plans and councils have a major part to play in these plans. All New Zealand councils are autonomous in making their own expenditure-based decisions, often dependent upon their relationships with accredited suppliers.

Your firm should be prepared to do the homework in consolidating or furthering these trading relationships and a newly prepared ‘CAPEX Annual’ is an essential part of this process, providing all details necessary for developing a focused response to these challenges.

It provides all council 2012-2022 planned capital expenditures, including water-related spends, but covers all council proposed 2012 -2012 expenditures including community assets, parks and reserves and roads.

(Further information, http://www.kauriglen.co.nz/larry).

'HOLYHULQJ 3XPSLQJ 6ROXWLRQV Š VLQFH

+HDY\ 'XW\ 'HZDWHULQJ 3XPSV Â? )ORZV WR P KU Â? +HDGV XS WR P Â? +RUVHSRZHU XS WR .: )HDWXUHV Â?'XDO PHFKDQLFDO VHDO

Â?([WUHPH KLJK IORZ DSSOLFDWLRQV KHDG

Â?+LJK FKURPH LURQ LPSHOOHU DQG FDVW LURQ FDVWLQJV

Â?/HDNDJH VHQVRU VWDQGDUG

Â?'LVFKDUJH SRUW ORFDWHG DW FHQWUH RI WKH SXPS PS ERG\ IRU VWDELOLW\ Â?$XWRPDWLF PRWRU SURWHFWLRQ $SSOLFDWLRQV LRQV 9 'HHS ZHOO DSSOLFDWLRQV

9 0LQH GHZDWHULQJ DWHULQJ

9 &LYLO HQJLQHHULQJ FRQVWUXFWLRQ VHUYLFHV 9 'DP 6HD KDUERXU SURMHFWV 9 $JULFXOWXUDO LUULJDWLRQ SURMHFWV 9 7XQQHO GHZDWHULQJ

$XFNODQG &KULVWFKXUFK +DPLOWRQ :HOOLQJWRQ 'XQHGLQ

NEW ZEALAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OCTOBER 2012

9

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT

Helping councils to win

the graffiti war Councils all around New Zealand are spending millions of dollars each year to combat graffiti vandalism or ‘tagging’.

Graffiti vandalism costs Christchurch ratepayers more than $1 million annually, councils in the Wellington region are jointly paying much more than that, and Porirua City’s bill is estimated to be $300,000 a year.

Unfortunately for councils tags are not confined to spray-paint damage, they are also written in marker pens or etched on glass, which is a particularly difficult and expensive type of graffiti to remove.

Councils pay large sums of money to deter graffiti because they believe tagging degrades a city or a district’s image, appearance, amenities and environment. Tagging is widely seen by councils and ratepayers as impacting on both residents and visitors’ sense of safety, peace of mind and enjoyment of public amenities.

While attempts to create databases of graffiti vandalism in the past have had mixed results, a growing number

10

of councils are now using a nationally accessible software tool called ‘Stop Tags’ to significantly streamline their efforts in targeting the problem. The GPS-based system tracks taggers and their vandalism geographically and provides solid data on the scale of the graffiti. The system logs the date, location and nature of the tags that are recorded. Police have said they are hopeful that the information the system holds can help bring taggers to account through the courts.

Hamilton City Council uses the system and dispatches graffiti removal jobs to team members’ PDAs (personal digital assistants).

The team member takes a photo

NEW ZEALAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OCTOBER 2012

of the tag, and the system logs the exact location. The tag is painted over, and Stop Tags records the methods used to cover the tag, what area was covered and other relevant details. An ‘after’ photograph completes the job and records the amount of time involved.

Hamilton City’s Tagbusters team leader Charles Flanagan, says council’s four full-time painters carried out 8414 jobs during the 2011/2012 year, up on 6348 for the previous year. He attributes the increase in jobs in part to the introduction of the Stop Tags system, which came into effect on July 1 last year.

“The Stop Tags system provides much more enhanced processing, monitoring, reporting and management of graffiti removal.

This combines to produce greater efficiency and productivity,” Mr Flanagan says. However, other factors were involved, including deployment of four new, customised graffiti trucks and a team

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT

development programme.

“The data the Stop Tags system can produce is far more advanced than we had previously,” he says. “The information it provides is beneficial not just to council. Police have direct access to the data. Stop Tags is a dual-purpose system that allows the council to manage the removal side of things and assists police with enforcement.”

Wellington City Council’s Pita King, who works at the forefront of the council’s efforts to stamp out what has been described in recent months as a ‘plague’ of graffiti, says the ‘Stop Tags’ system is helping council to not only graphically depict the extent and exact nature of the graffiti problem in the region, but also to give police and councils a real-time tool to fight the spread of tagging and to try to reduce the annual bill to ratepayers and private companies.

“It’s a national database and the police can go into the database — because it’s presented in the form of an internet website — and they can look at the ‘work’ of any particular tagger who has been put into the database.

“Let’s say, for instance, that a tagger has the identifying mark CPK. They can see in real terms how much damage he has caused by viewing on

screen a “heat map” which shows the various hot-spots where an offender has been working.

“The graffiti might have been sprayed on a building in central Wellington, or in Porirua or some other part of the district, but those instances will show up on the screen. If the tagger has been often operating in a particular part of the city, the screen will display graphics which highlight the areas his tags show up.”

Mr King says this aspect of ‘Stop Tags’ allows police or council graffiti teams to track the tagger’s movements in both time and distance covered, allowing them to work out when and where most of the damage is being done.

He says Wellington City Council has been using the database for around three months and Hutt City Council for four months. Other councils are also making use of the graphical database, as they try to stem a practice which not only irritates residents of towns and cities nationwide, but also costs ratepayers a significant amount of money, year by year.

Councils such as Auckland are also operating various programmes to help deter graffiti vandalism, including a volunteer scheme which

has four levels of involvement, ranging from people simply making a commitment to report graffiti, to being actively involved in removing graffiti tags. Before amalgamation of councils in the Auckland region, Auckland City had a programme which aimed to make children aware of the consequences of tagging and rewarded them for ‘adopting’ areas in their neighbourhood or street and to take part in efforts to keep the area free of ‘tags’.

Auckland Council says it regards tagging as a community issue which can lower property values and encourage more vandalism and other types of crime. The council has been attempting to encourage a strong community response to the problem, believing this sends a clear message to those involved that tagging will not be tolerated. The council is involved in helping to manage graffiti removal and prevention in partnership with a wide range of government agencies, community groups and volunteers in local areas.

They’re also working to coordinate a number of anti-graffiti programmes which were used by various Auckland councils prior to amalgamation using Stop Tags as the core system to manage the graffiti problem for a region of

Powerful ideas

Sustainable communities thrive on planned and interconnected infrastructure and services Connect to the power of GHD’s global network of engineers and bring your ideas to life To talk urban design, architecture and asset management call Darryl Hubbard on +6427 430 2014 darryl.hubbard@ghd.com or John Cameron on +6427 261 9479 john.cameron@ghd.com

www.ghd.com

NEW ZEALAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OCTOBER 10/2012 1:232012 27 PM

11

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT

1.5 million people. The powerful database within the program can run monthly reports at the click of a button suburb by suburb or for any local board, and the work of contractors involved in removing graffiti can also be managed by Stop Tags.

The council runs an ‘Adopt-a-Spot’ programme to help neighbourhoods contribute by encouraging people to work with the council to combat graffiti. The programme enables ‘Adopt-a-Spot’ volunteers to take ownership of an area in their neighbourhood to keep it graffiti free.

The council will supply the paint, brushes and other equipment to volunteers so that graffiti can be removed from their own, or others’ properties.

In recent weeks a campaign aimed at preventing tagging and vandalising of Christchurch buses has got off to a good start with the arrest of a serial tagger who police believe had regularly been etching his tag on bus windows, causing thousands of dollars damage. Several arrests in the first few days of the campaign highlighted the severity of the graffiti problem. Designed to run through September and October, the campaign used surveillance cameras with damage being photographed and passed on to the police.

Wellington City’s Pita King says the entire Wellington region has been working together in a combined effort against graffiti vandalism, both to boost the amount of information available on tagging and also to build up information on the areas where individual taggers operate.

While the amount of tagging often peaks during school holidays, the past four months have been particularly bad for tagging instances around Wellington. The council has three graffiti teams operating as well as contractors, and they have all been kept been very busy recently.

“For some reason it’s just continued from the last school holidays,” he said.

“We don’t really know why, but with tools such as Stop Tags, we can keep a handle on what is being done and where. I would much rather spend time cleaning city streets of the usual problems of littering and rubbish dumping, rather than having our time taken up with graffiti removal. I’m a ratepayer as well as a council employee and I’m pleased to see the number of people in the district who are volunteering to help.

“People are saying, give us the paint and we will paint over the tagging. So we are getting a lot of help from both residents and businesses around the area.”

A spokesman for Stop Tags Limited, Bryce Herbert, says the Stop Tags system is being used by a number of councils in the country, including Wellington City and Auckland.

He says Hamilton City has developed a close working relationship with local young people to help remove tagging and is experiencing improved response and removal times, allowing council to remove 90 per cent of reported tagging within two working days.

In Hastings, he says in the two years since Stop Tags was implemented, the council has halved the cost of removing graffiti from 92 cents for each tag to 45 cents per tag. He says the council works very closely with Police to prosecute taggers, and has managed to halve the number of hours council staff work on managing graffiti.

Bryce Herbert says the Lower Hutt council has centralised all graffiti removal work through the use of a single contractor who removes all graffiti on behalf of the council and can on-charge the work to relevant parties, such as lines companies whose power transformers are often a target for vandals.

He says the council has taken a regional lead to help reduce tagging and this was demonstrated recently when Parliament completed the third reading of the council’s ‘graffiti removal Bill.

The Mayor of Lower Hutt, Ray Wallace, said “this was a very important and decisive moment in our battle against the spread of graffiti across our city”.

The new Hutt City Council [Graffiti Removal] Bill provides the right for council officers to enter private property after a due notification period to remove graffiti vandalism that is visible from a public place.

“Our council has taken a lead role in reducing graffiti vandalism through a system that quickly removes tags.

“Previously the graffiti on private buildings would stay exposed to the public for long periods because we could not get access — this Bill will enable us to enter private property and remove the offending graffiti.

“Our goal is to be free of graffiti and to ensure any tags that appear are removed promptly.

“Council has been successful in keeping tag hot spots clear and discouraging further offending. The Bill will be an important tool for us,” he says.

Energy & Utilities Management Ellserve simplifies energy and util ties management for even the most complex portfolio of sites.

Save

>

Time

>

Money

>

Energy

Bills, captured at source, are checked and errors taken care of. Invoice details are exportable for upload into financial systems.

Highly configurable, Ellserve’s web-based, multi-user interface is ideal for engaging a wide range of user interests. Experts and non-technical staff can easily track their costs, consumption and emissions against detailed budgets. Unlimited user-defined reporting groups allow informat on to be qu ckly provided at any level of detail and for any audience.

Join a growing number of public sector organisations (NZLG Sept 2012) saving time, money and energy with Ellserve.

03 477 1349 | info@ellserve.co.nz | www.energylink.co.nz

12

NEW ZEALAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OCTOBER 2012

IT INNOVATION

Council’s win underscores value of customer service

BY GEMMA BLACKLOCK, Origin Technology Ltd

The Rotorua District Council recently won the 2012 ALGIM Ultimate Customer Service Award – a win that’s seen as an endorsement of its customer centre’s use of information technology to provide service to customers. A key component of the council’s information technology is the use of the Ozone Contact Centre module.

The RDC customer centre has excellent reporting, ‘lean’ processes, and a philosophy of striving for excellence, continuous improvement and value for customers. These all contributed to the RDC Customer Centre winning the award.

Roanna Dunn, Rotorua’s customer centre manager, looks to the Ozone Contact Centre module as the first port of call for replacing processes in the organisation. “From a staffing point of view it’s quick and it’s easy.”

An example of process replacement and a great win for the customer centre is the new

rebate appointment process. In the past, when a customer made a rebate appointment it was entered into an Outlook calendar, which worked well until the customer called to advise he couldn’t remember the time and date of the appointment. A staff member would have to look through the calendar to find the customer’s appointment.

Under the new process a request for service is generated when the appointment is made and the data relating to the property and the customer is entered. When the customer calls to enquire about his appointment, the staff member taking the call pulls up the customer record or property record in Ozone, clicks on the link to the RFS and can see the appointment details.

Roanna Dunn says this may seem a small process change, but it is a major time-saver for her staff and many other ‘wins’ like this become available when the RFS system is used to its full potential.

The RDC customer centre is constantly trying to enhance captured data, to provide a more comprehensive profile of the

“To find out more about the Contact Centre system or any of the other modules in the Ozone Local Government suite visit our stand at ALGIM. It is the perfect opportunity to get to know each other better and learn more about what we have to offer you.”

www.origen.co.nz | 0800 ORIGEN NEW ZEALAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OCTOBER 2012

13

IT INNOVATION

customer. One example is the way the Ozone Contact Centre module is now being used to capture foot traffic as well as call and email information. The foot traffic information is captured by the front-counter staff using the quickentry screen while the customer is in front of them. Ms Dunn says an added advantage of this process is that it improves the way RDC is able to deal with customer complaints.

When a customer calls to complain, a complete contact history can be seen against the customer’s record.

This provides improved service for the customer because the staff member is immediately aware of any previous contacts the customer has had with council.

The Ozone Contact Centre module provides valuable monthly reporting for the management team on why customers are contacting the council, the numbers of complaints and compliments received, ideas for process improvements, and totals of contact by type.

Ms Dunn says the system allows her to provide critical information required by management on an ongoing basis, but the Ozone system doesn’t just rely on contact centre statistics to deliver useable information. Working on the basis that input from service centre staff can be highly valuable, an ‘ideas bank’ has been set up. Whenever a staff member thinks of a way to improve customer services the idea is logged in the Ozone Contact Centre module and recorded for assessment. So far, more than 500 of these ideas have been logged on the Rotorua District Council’s Ozone system, and more than 300 have been implemented – proof that a contact centre can be much more than a way of answering customers’ questions.

32nd annual ALGIM conference The 32nd Annual ALGIM Conference is being held from 11 - 14 November at the Bayview Wairakei Resort, State Highway One, Taupo, New Zealand.

This year’s conference will combine ALGIM’s key areas and acquaint delegates with numerous exhibitor stands, best-practice local government case studies, workshops, overseas experiences, networking opportunities, international and national speakers, and a prestigious national awards programme.

The event will also showcase leading local government innovative case studies – both nationally and internationally. This year the programme will focus on five key themes: citizen engagement, mobility, shared services and collaboration and open data.

ncs software

Delivering software and services to help Council effectively manage their business and engage with their community.

To find out more about our MagiQ solutions for Local Government call us today on (06) 835 9380 or visit our website at www.ncs.co.nz Auckland

14

Christchurch

Napier

NEW ZEALAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OCTOBER 2012

Melbourne

IT INNOVATION

Hamilton council turns to internet-based services To enhance services being offered to the people of Hamilton, the city council has embarked on an ambitious initiative to transform its traditional ‘over-thecounter’ delivery models to an interactive set of online applications.

Harin Perera, CIO for Hamilton City Council, says people want to interact with the council more and more via the internet.

“Moving towards self-service will enable us to lower the cost of delivery and improve turnaround times for ratepayers.”

In order to deliver these online services, Dimension Data and the council collaborated to develop a shared services platform based on Microsoft SharePoint and the Citizen’s Services platform.

The platform is designed to be multi-tenanted and offered on a ‘pay-as–you-go basis, enabling the council to share the cost of application development, platform support and maintenance.

Dimension Data had previously provided HCC with an infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) solution. At that time, it was the most comprehensive IaaS engagement ever undertaken by a local government entity in New Zealand. Under this arrangement HCC was able to out-source the delivery of infrastructure and acquire resources on a per unit basis. The platform provided a

high-performance, virtualised infrastructure, combined with disaster recovery capability back into the council’s own facilities. The service model was supported

by Dimension Data’s service desk and managed services. This foundation platform served as the basis for Dimension Data’s proposal to develop a shared SharePoint platform for multiple councils.

ALGIM recognises customer service The winners of the 2012 ALGIM Customer Service Awards were announced recently. The awards recognise and celebrate best practice in customer service among New Zealand local authorities.

Local Government Customer Service Representative of the Year, Diana Doyle, Wanganui DC. Runners up were Kieran Morrison, Auckland Council and Raewyne Johnson, Wanganui District Council.

Local Government Customer Service Team Leader of the Year, Sharon Bruce, New Plymouth DC. Runner

up was Jean Hunter, Porirua City Council.

Local Government Customer Service Team of the Year, New Plymouth District Council. Runner up was Hastings DC. Local Government Customer Service Manager of the Year, Mary-Anne Priest, New Plymouth DC. Customer Service Professional Development Award, Angela Hirst, Hastings DC. The Ultimate Local Government Customer Service Centre, Rotorua District Council.

NEW ZEALAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OCTOBER 2012

15

IT INNOVATION

Intuitive website Hawke’s Bay Regional Council’s website was outdated and in need of a revamp.

HBRC needed a powerful yet simple, easy-to-use and userfocused site to give ratepayers information, as and when they needed it.

The new site needed to provide an online “shop window” and a showcase of HBRC’s role in the community. To do this, HBRC needed a versatile, singleview and future-proof platform to achieve its long-term vision of seamless integration with all key systems: Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Microsoft Dynamics CRM and spatial data, while also allowing their website and intranet to be built on the same platform. Leveraging a strong existing relationship with Intergen, HBRC engaged the company to build a new Microsoft SharePoint website, including

…to monitor critical IT infrastructure Over 20 New Zealand local government agencies depend on ManageEngine for complete end-to-end network monitoring and analysis and highly customisable, easy-to-implement help desk software, including Environment Southland Waikato Regional Council Hutt City Council Ask ME how to manage your IT resources with truly affordable, scalable tools.

solutions www.manageengine.co.nz manageengine@sofsol.co.nz 0800-733-233

16

NEW ZEALAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OCTOBER 2012

for HBRC

mobile views and apps, and the user experience design for the site.

“The council’s old site was stale and static,” says Kahl Olsen, HBRC’s ICT manager.

“It had become hard to navigate; it was hard to effectively keep content updated, where content management was manual and time-consuming.

We were using our website as a one-way channel – being all about what the council did – and we needed to rethink our approach, making our website all about the user instead. We needed to foster engagement with our community by providing everything the ratepayer needs, including self-help facilities and social media integration, making information available at 10 o’clock on a Sunday night (for example) from the comfort of any internet-connected home or business in the region.

One of our key drivers was to engage the community in the way they want, when they want.

“We wanted a website that appears simple, intuitive, relevant and needing no explanation,” says Mr Olsen.

In the envisioning stage of the project, HBRC staff identified the need for a user-centric site, seamless to navigate, useable, authoritative and informative.

Transparency of public information was extremely important, and it needed to be searchable, concise and useful. The new site needed to deliver Hawke’s Bay ratepayers a one-stop shop where they could find all the information they need with a long-term goal of being able to perform transactions simply and with ease, including payments, consents and all council submissions . For council website users, the site needed to be flexible. It had to be easy to use and to manage content.

Recognising the ever-increasing use of mobile phones to access website content, mobile accessibility was also a priority for HBRC, with the ‘bus finder’ mobile app proving to be one of the most popular features of the new site.

The website is a resounding success with HBRC staff, councillors and Hawke’s Bay ratepayers. Regional councillor Kevin Rose says: “With the new website, council functions are brought to the ratepayer at the click of a mouse. It’s a bright site that’s pleasing on the eye. It’s easy to navigate and highlights the council’s important areas of activity. The layout is superb, making it easy for users to find their areas of interest.”

Mr Olsen says: “Everyone I’ve spoken to loves it – the feedback has been unanimously positive. Now we have a robust and future-proof communication engine with distributed information in one place, offering accurate and timely access to data, including environmental data – which is critical for us.”

IT INNOVATION

Geocortex allows council to minimise custom code Porirua City Council partnered with NorthSouth GIS NZ to implement an Esri-based enterprise Geographic Information System (GIS). Esri’s ArcGIS platform was selected as it supported an enterprise approach, combined with rich functionality, making data capture, maintenance, analysis and dissemination of that data efficient and scalable.

NSG NZ worked closely with the PCC team to design and implement an enterprise geodatabase which catered for all parts of council business.

One of the key project successes was the launch of the city council’s intranet web viewer which provides extensive data content and a high level of functionality.

This viewer is part of a wider Spatial Application Infrastructure (SAI) approach. SAI is a new approach to designing and building applications which focuses on maximising long-term investment in enterprise GIS. SAI alleviates the pain-points associated with building multiple, separate applications and helps cope with inevitable technology change through the life of the system.

SAI is enabled by the Geocortex Essentials platform. This enables organisations to configure standardised applications through a common platform which adheres to the following principles: i s technology agnostic/neutral; o ffers centralised application

management; m inimises custom code; instead of putting business logic into each individual application, allowing for the centralisation of business logic so it can be shared and re-used by many applications, including future applications; i s extensible; e mphasises ‘workflow’ or ‘taskdriven’ applications over features, functions, and tools.

The SAI approach is superior to the traditional, custom approach of designing, building and implementing web-GIS applications which result in significant custom code tied to specific viewer technologies. Geocortex allows organisations to easily adopt purpose-specific applications

because it deploys focused applications easily and quickly. Custom code is minimised or entirely eliminated. PCC can therefore be assured that over time, applications they have implemented will not only continue to be relevant and useful to a wide user base, but will also evolve easily to cope with technology change.

‘Porirua Pathfinder’ is a specific application delivering a key business outcome by providing access to Porirua’s extensive walking and tracks network.

People can plan their walk, taking into account their specific needs.

Further enhancements to the application will provide the ability for users to upload photos and provide commentary via social media. Pathfinder is built off the SAI platform implemented at PCC and makes use of functionality common to other applications. This saves time and money when maintaining these various applications and means new functionality can be added with ease.

Through their investment in Esri and Geocortex Essentials, PCC now have the solid building blocks in place to drive the use of GIS across the business, extend into mobile solutions and by adopting an SAI approach, are well placed to respond to business needs by providing business-specific viewers and applications.

You have the spatial information.

Your clients want intuitive access.

We have the solution.

IntraMaps MapControl is the latest addition to the tried and tested IntraMaps application suite. Incorporating the latest MapServer OpenSource spatial engine, IntraMaps MapControl can provide your organisation with a cost effective, fully integrated web mapping solution that allows unparalleled data flexibility in any web application.

Contact Digital Mapping Solutions on 09 914 1847 or visit www.mapsolutions.co.nz to find out more.

Integrate, Enrich, Communicate.

NEW ZEALAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OCTOBER 2012

17

GIS TECHNOLOGY

GIS technologies in focus at Auckland conference In July this year more than 14,000 users of Esri’s geographic information systems (GIS) technology filled an auditorium in San Diego to hear Jack Dangermond, president and founder of Esri, present his vision for the future of GIS and to announce Esri’s new products and services.

Mr Dangermond, one of the founding fathers of GIS technology, also shared inspiring examples of the use of GIS technology to make a difference in the world.

Next month, Esri’s Asia Pacific community will have the opportunity to hear him for themselves.

The Esri Asia Pacific User Conference on November 5-7 is one of three regional conferences where ‘global comes to local’. It is an opportunity to learn about the new release of ArcGIS 10.1 including its mobile and Cloud capabilities, directly from Esri’s experts.

Eagle Technology, the official Esri distributor in New Zealand, is hosting the conference, which is being held in New Zealand for the first time. The conference also incorporates the 16th New Zealand Esri User Group conference.

Gary Langford, the CEO of Eagle Technology, regards Esri APUC as a must-attend event for GIS professionals to learn of the power of the latest release from Esri, ArcGIS 10.1.

“This is an opportunity for everyone from the region

to learn about the latest technology and to display their work and tell their story. Asia Pacific is the fastestgrowing economic region in the world, with its own unique character and challenges. This event will empower attendees to positively impact their own communities, both environmentally and economically,” he says.

The conference format includes pre-conference workshops and one-on-one technical sessions. Streams by industry sector, for developers, and about emerging technology will complement the many networking and social events. A dedicated Local/Regional government and planning stream includes an address by Dr Roger Blakely who authored the ‘Auckland Plan’. There will also be a focus on building smarter cities through the conference’s Platinum sponsor, IBM. Interest in the conference and associated exhibition has already been high from the wider Information Technology sector, as GIS moves into the mainstream as an integration platform for IT operations.

Gary Langford says: “New Zealand is a leader in the adoption and application of GIS technology. Eagle has been a distributor for Esri for more than 25 years and is proud to be hosting this important event.”

(Further information: www.esri.com/apuc).

ArcGIS for Server in the Cloud On-demand Cloud based ArcGIS Infrastructure in New Zealand

6th IBM

NZ Business Partner Awards

IN ASSoCIATIoN wITh

Eagle Technology FINALIST Smarter Computing

Eagle Technology in partnership with IBM (New Zealand) offers a true Platform as a Service environment that allows you to use all of the power of ArcGIS for Server in a scalable, reliable and low NZ Government Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Approved Provider

cost way. Visit us, at the Eagle/Esri stand at Esri APUC (Nov 4-7) and at Stand 42, ALGIM (Nov 11-14).

giscloud@eagle.co.nz

18

NEW ZEALAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OCTOBER 2012

GIS TECHNOLOGY

GIS ranks highly with Stanford’s students

Demonstrating the growing importance and spread of GIS technology, Stanford University in the United States has been progressively expanding its GIS research and teaching in recent years.

Recognising the potential of GIS technology, the university first invested in a site licence from Esri in the mid-1990s. Founded in 1891 the Californian university is one of the world’s leading research universities and it served as one of the four original nodes that composed the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) – the predecessor of the internet.

Stanford’s GIS nerve centre is located in the Branner Earth Sciences Library and Map Collections, says specialist Esri writer Jim Baumann, where a team conducts GIS training, support, and research consultation for the entire university.

Stanford’s GIS lab has state-of-the-art computers because students working on major geospatial projects need powerful computers for geo-processing and analysis,” says Patricia Carbajales, geospatial manager.

“Often, they are plotting millions of points, and our computers are the best equipped throughout the library system for that kind of data processing.”

The GIS support team has also pre-loaded some large datasets that are frequently used so that the students can pull them directly from the hard drives on their computers, allowing them to do their projects more quickly.

Originally used in the university’s Schools of Engineering and Earth Sciences, whose departments include Aeronautics and Astronautics, Electrical Engineering, Geological and Environmental Sciences, and Geophysics, GIS is now increasingly taught in the Humanities and Sciences School in the History, Political Science and Classics departments. In addition, the university’s Urban Studies programme has integrated spatial thinking concepts into its curriculum and requires freshmen in the department to take a core

class in spatial approaches to urban studies.

With this increasing interest in the technology, Carbajales is setting up a workshop programme to teach the fundamentals of GIS to students who are required to learn GIS applications as part of their classes.

“If we teach the essential capabilities of GIS to those students who will be using it for specific applications in class, it will lift some of the teaching burden off the instructor and make it easier for the students to learn the specific applications.”

Stanford’s GIS lab participates in a cooperative programme with the 10 University of California campuses called the University of California/Stanford Map and Geospatial Libraries Group. Formed in 1983, the group created the Unified Collection Development Plan to formalise its charter. It furthers the cooperative collection and sharing of data purchases; supports interlibrary lending of geospatial materials; and exchanges other relevant materials, such as training tutorials. The collaborative nature of the group allows it to share the cost of new acquisitions, while the greater university community benefits from having access to the extended paper and digital map collection held among the group’s members.

NEW ZEALAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OCTOBER 2012

19

GIS TECHNOLOGY

Seeing wood from the trees

with NZ-developed GIS Tree harvesters working on steep and erosion-prone slopes can benefit from a new application which was featured at the Forestry GIS conference held in California in May this year.

Philip Elworthy of Rayonier New Zealand made the presentation on CHPS, or Cable Harvest Planning Solution, an application for use in steep forests in New Zealand. He credited Geographic Business Solutions and Atlas Technology as software developers.

Research providers included Scion and the University of Canterbury.

The application integrates planning software with the most common geographical information system (GIS) in New Zealand to allow planners to model a particular plantation and work out the most effective places to position the hauler and the cables to maximise productivity and minimise environmental impact. The speed of the CHPS system allows harvest planners to consider a range of equipment and locations quickly.

Cable harvest planning is carried out to determine the payload of felled trees that can be pulled to the hauler in conditions which most often include steep and broken terrain. It can involve analysis of

Using topographical maps, the GIS software can graphically display the land being logged.

PLACEMAKING NZ FORUM 2012

“Involving the Community” Monday 26 November 2012, 1pm to 6pm Auditorium, Beca House 21 Pitt St Auckland PROGRAMME

1pm – 5pm Welcome and introduction South Dunedin Retail Centre revitalisation: Emma O’Neill and Peter Christos Dunedin City Council Lyttelton:The Rebuild: Kobus Mentz Urbanism Plus Afternoon tea Greening the Rubble: a Christchurch Initiative Wade Robertson Greening the Rubble Trust Closing remarks 5pm – 6pm Drinks Attendance fee is 20 dollars payable in advance.

Seating is limited- please email Gill Plume at gill.plume@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz with ‘reservation’ in the subject line and supply contact details.

http://placemaking.org.nz

20

NEW ZEALAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OCTOBER 2012

GIS TECHNOLOGY

Information about areas of forest to be logged can be read off a screen.

surrounding topography, hauler attributes, rigging, the method of harvesting and payload analysis and can take into account environmental and health and safety constraints.

Harvest planners and forest engineers are also likely to use a cable harvest planning tool for making operational decisions, estimating productivity and setting contract rates for harvesting crew managers and hauler operators. It could also be used for communicating harvest plans to regulatory authorities.

Philip Elworthy says the release of CHPS is significant because while steep-terrain harvesting is already taking place in New Zealand, a lot of steep-slope forest planting occurred in the early 1990s and the trees will be ready for harvest in the next five to 10 years, creating major challenges for harvest planners.

In addition, there are a number of issues with current tools, including the fact that haul distances are not adjusted for slope, they are often on outdated platforms and lack reporting abilities and support.

On the other hand, CHPS has flexible and configurable parameters, fast profile-analysis calculations and is user-friendly, which keeps training costs low.

In the forest it offers live Skyline payload analysis of multiple tree lifts and drops and provides a running technical analysis of the equipment.

The technical parameters of the hauler itself are taken into account, such as make and model, tower height, cable weights, breaking strengths and others.

Spatial data inputs including contour and terrain, stands of trees in the area, hydrology, roads and protected areas are used to define likely hauler placement.

Outputs include a graphical profile analysis chart which includes terrain, payload limiting terrain points and maximum possible payload and the calculation of average and maximum slope-adjusted haul distances.

Business benefits from CHPS include use of highresolution terrain data such as LiDAR, the efficient use of harvesting equipment, reduced risk for forest managers and harvesting contractors and the speed of operational analysis.

Technical benefits include the fact that its integration with ArcGIS means no transaction cost of transferring data between applications, the ability to consider other spatial data in planning, and its use of other Esri products, such as 3D analyst and video flythrough.

NEW ZEALAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OCTOBER 2012

21

WASTE WATER

Progress on wastewater The Ministry for the Environment says wastewater is the biggest waste by volume that New Zealand produces.

Approximately 1.5 billion litres of domestic wastewater is discharged into the environment daily.

The Ministry says sewage treatment practices have changed significantly in recent years. Changes include the reuse of sewage sludge and effluent on land, and the emergence of new technologies for the treatment of sewage and a number of joint strategies have been developed to manage wastewater.

A Liquid and Hazardous Waste Code of Practice with Water New Zealand has been implemented.

The Code was designed to protect human health and the environment, and related to liquid waste and hazardous waste that is transported.

Liquid waste contractors have been encouraged to undergo audits to become Code Compliant under the Liquid and Hazardous Waste Code of Practice. To date 40 contractors are currently certified as Code Compliant.

NZS 9201:Part 23 – Model Trade Waste Bylaw has been redrafted and all councils around the country were sent a copy of the Model Bylaw.

Work has since found that 91 per cent of local authorities have a trade waste bylaw, or are preparing one.

A web-based wastewater database has been developed, called WINFO. This site provides accurate information about New Zealand’s municipal wastewater treatment plants.

A waste-tracking system has been developed called WasteTRACK. This versatile tool can be used to track

Long-awaited upgrade Ground works are underway for the $30 million upgrade of Napier’s wastewater treatment plant at Awatoto.

The Waitangi Road site is being prepared for building a biological trickling filter (BTF) plant, scheduled for commissioning at the end of next year.

Planning for the development - one of biggest projects undertaken by the Napier City Council started in 2007. In granting it a 25-year consent, the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council requires the new plant to be commissioned by December 31 next year.

Over a 10-week period, Holcim Hastings Quarry are

22

NEW ZEALAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OCTOBER 2012

any waste. The Ministry is working with liquid waste contractors, local authorities and waste generators to implement the system for tracking liquid and hazardous wastes.

The Ministry has developed guidelines for the Safe Application of Biosolids to Land and they are available in hard copy or online. The New Zealand Water and Wastes Association can provide these.

A handbook for smaller communities faced with the need to upgrade wastewater systems has been prepared for the Ministry and regional and district councils can obtain a copy of the Wastewater Monitoring Guidelines, intended to help regional and district councils to develop monitoring programmes that reflect the true environmental risk posed by individual wastewater treatment systems.

delivering 30,000 cubic metres of crushed rock onto the site. Another month will be needed to compact the structural fill in 250mm layers, bringing the site for the planned new pump station up to ground level.

The site was excavated in 2004 as part of ground improvements required for the previous planned expansion of the plant. The new development is being built at the same location, next to the existing milliscreen plant, so the earthworks previously carried out are being used.

The Napier City Council expects a start will be made on constructing the main effluent pump station, the first major component of the plant infrastructure, in autumn next year.

WASTE WATER

Novel approach to wastewater An innovative sewerage plant that uses worms as part of the effluent treatment process is the first of its kind in the Far North.

The Far North District Council completed a $470,000 upgrade of its Kaeo wastewater treatment plant last Thursday after a 12-year planning exercise that involved the Whangaroa community.

The upgraded plant, which treats sewage from 164 properties (500 people) still has screens and a settling pond to separate heavy solids from liquid effluent.

However, the secondary treatment process uses red tiger worms to aerate gravel media in a filter bed.

This improves the efficiency of natural bacteria which attach to the media and remove dissolved biological matter from effluent as it is trickled through the bed.

The treated effluent is then ‘polished’ in a wetland where

reeds ‘strip’ the effluent of residual nutrients before it is discharged into the Kaeo River.

Council general manager for infrastructure and asset management, David Penny, says using vermifiltration at the plant instead of a membrane filter reduced upgrade costs by $350,000.

It will also result in ongoing energy cost savings because less power is needed to operate the plant.

“We plan to upgrade the wetland and we have the option of adding ultra-violet light treatment if necessary, but we are confident the plant will meet discharge standards in the new resource consent.”

The vermifiltration system was based on an international concept, but designed by council contractor Transfield Services using research and design ideas provided by council staff.

“We’ve saved ratepayers further money by developing our own system

instead of buying one off the shelf.”

The council may use vermifiltration at its other wastewater plants if it works in Kaeo.

“We are constantly looking for innovative approaches that result in good environmental outcomes while reducing costs for ratepayers.”

Kaeo residents Violet Walker and Bryce Smith are directors of Wai Care Environmental Consultants Whangaroa and have been key members of a working group that was formed in 2005 to explore treatment options for the plant.

“After a change in mayors, a redirection of funds, many meetings and many site visits, it was determined that vermifiltration was the best option for Kaeo - a first for the North Island, and hopefully not the last,” says Ms Walker.

The working group has worked alongside the council to ensure the upgraded plant meets the needs of the community and tangata whenua.

“This project shows how the community, tangata whenua and the council can collaborate on an innovative initiative and achieve an efficient, compliant, lowmaintenance, cost-effective and environmentally-sound result.”

20 years of success in supporting New Zealand’s Water & Wastewater industry 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Your Water & Wastewater Treatment Specialists Filtration Technology Ltd Telephone: 0-9-274 4223

Email: info@filtec.co.nz Website: www.filtec.co.nz

NEW ZEALAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OCTOBER 2012

23

WASTE WATER

Was Treasury on the money?

BY STEVE CARNE, GHD Limited, DAVID WALKER and MARK ROBINSON, PwC

1. The individual scores reflected a better overall result than the preceding industry level assessment completed by the NIU in 2011.

2. This improvement was evident across all participants for the investment analysis and coordination principles.

3. The average score across participants for the resilience and regulation were better than the outcome of the NIP assessment.

4. The outcomes across all participants for the funding mechanisms principle were consistent with the NIP assessment, while the outcomes for the accountability and performance principle were variable across participants but broadly consistent with NIP outcome on average.

The improvements stated above are considered to be “good news stories” for the participants and the urban

There was a relatively poor outcome for the water sector – compared to other chosen infrastructure sectors – in the assessment carried out last year by Treasury’s National Infrastructure Unit.

As a result of that outcome (See Figure 1) GHD and PwC were engaged to undertake a pilot study reviewing the performance and potential improvement opportunities in local authority urban water and wastewater operations.

The pilot study was carried out by assessing performance and outcomes of ten participant organisations – a mixture of various sized councils and water focused council-controlled organisations (CCOs) against the six performance Figure 1. 2011 NIP Outcomes principles contained in the NIP framework.

Inherent in the study outcomes is that good practice is defined as good practice in relation to the defined NIP principles.

Figure 2 presents the results for each pilot study participant against the NIP guiding principles.

Compared to the NIU scores, the pilot study results are as follows:

Transport Telecommunications

Energy

Water

Social

Investment Analysis Resilience Funding Mechanisms Accountability & Performance Regulation Coordination

BETTER ENVIRONMENTAL TESTING...

BETTER RESULTS We offer a comprehensive suite of environmental tests, including air quality and water testing. Visit us at WasteMinz on stand #6.

Or call us on 07 858 2000 for more information.

SEAL5009LGa

VISIT US ON STAND #6 AT WASTEMINZ 2012

www.hill-laboratories.com

www.hill-laboratories.com

24

NEW ZEALAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OCTOBER 2012

WASTE WATER water and wastewater infrastructure sector itself.

Scale of project size was an issue in considering broader funding mechanisms. Due mainly to scale and the obvious requirement for compliance with legislative and regulatory requirements, there was very limited consideration by participants of other infrastructure funding opportunities.

Volumetric charging for water and wastewater, while being an alternative funding source, a tool for improving equity across water users, and affording pricing signals for encouraging efficient water use, may not be appropriate in all jurisdictions.

Strategic focus on the needs and provision of the water and wastewater services was found to be an important improvement factor. This enabled specialised operators embedded in council organisations to score improved results.

There is also a clear correlation between an operator’s scale and its results. Larger operators scored better than smaller operators. Increased size enables improved strategic focus, specialisation of technical staff,

purchasing power and economies of scale.

However, operators involved in shared services arrangements with others were able to achieve some portion of the improved outcomes that could be achieved through larger scale.

Governance models that enabled inter-council sharing or integration provided leverage for both scale and strategic focus. These models also provided greater opportunities for funding network infrastructure in smaller townships, which are subject to affordability challenges.

Two key recommendations were that: T reasury, NIU, Water New Zealand, Local Government New Zealand and INGENIUM evaluate the desirability and value that could be gained by a possible roll-out of a modified assessment framework across all industry providers nationally to complete the picture of this pilot study.

T reasury consider how the findings of this study can be incorporated into Government’s infrastructure work-stream being established through its Better Local Government programme.

Figure 2. Pilot Study Outcomes Principles

2011 NIP

Waikato

Hamilton

Waipa

Taupo

Watercare New Plymouth

Hutt

Wellington

Dunedin

Investment Analysis Resilience Funding Mechanisms Accountability & Performance Regulation Coordination

Dam good ideas?

We’ve got bucket loads With an integrated network of more than 6500 bright minds ready for you to tap into, GHD is your one-stop-shop for bringing innovative and sustainable water projects to life.

Local offices, local people, global thinking.

www.ghd.com

NEW ZEALAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OCTOBER 2012

25

WASTE WATER

Is your monitoring

BY SEAN PATRICK BARNES, AWT Water

Good quality data and analysis is the cornerstone of making informed decisions around water assets. In the context of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) welldesigned monitoring programmes and data management systems offer significant potential in two main areas: c ompliance: better compliance and management of risk; and e fficiency: improved efficiency demonstrated by reductions in energy and chemical use, improved treatment performance (e.g. nitrogen removal), and improved operability.

Overall this can result in reduced operational expenditure, and most significantly, the potential to defer capital expenditure such as WWTP upgrades.

WWTPs are complex systems that are characterised by: c onstantly changing influent wastewater flows and composition; a requirement to meet constant effluent quality standards (e.g. resource consent conditions); a series of process units, most commonly based on biological treatment processes.

26

NEW ZEALAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OCTOBER 2012

In the past, the design of WWTPs with a focus on compliance has typically resulted in conservatively designed WWTPs. As assets age, there is increasing pressure to extend the life or improve the performance of WWTPs to meet modern performance requirements.

In addition, operations have started to move from operator-driven assets with simple control mechanisms, to more sophisticated assets with highly automated control. Despite this, most WWTPs still operate without advanced process control due to a lack of financial incentives to improve performance, poor process understanding and limitations around robust and reliable analytical instrumentation.

The concept of the “feedback loop� can be used to analyse existing, or to develop new, monitoring programmes and data management systems. A feedback loop incorporates four main elements, namely evidence, relevance, consequence and action.

EVIDENCE

ACTION

RELEVANCE

CONSEQUENCE

effective?

ACTION

WASTE WATER

A brief example has been developed to outline this concept focusing on feed-forward monitoring and control:

EVIDENCE

A CTION: What outcomes are you trying to achieve through utilising a monitoring and data management system? These may include: improved risk management and better compliance; improved energy efficiency and reduced chemical use; improved asset management and planning information; improved operational diagnostic and planning tools such as early-warning systems; improved operator support and training.

C ONSEQUENCE: What is the information you need to develop and compare options to achieve these outcomes?

R ELEVANCE: How can I convert ‘data to ‘information’ and relay it in a context that is useful for its intended purpose?

E VIDENCE: What data relating to a behaviour or process must be measured, captured and stored?

RELEVANCE CONSEQUENCE

It is possible to evaluate or design an effective feedback loop by considering these elements in reverse order as follows:

Event detection: • stormflow events — capture or diversion around WWTP; • toxicity events — capture, analysis or diversion.

Load management: • peak loading — smooth out loading to plant, change plant configuration (e.g. aerobic/anoxic swing zones) or operational parameters (e.g. recycle rates); • monitor long-term trends/changes in composition and load.

Continuously monitor wastewater flow, composition and load coming into the WWTP. Detect variations as events then alter WWTP operation.

Real-time analysis and trending of composition and flow parameters within the reticulation network, or at the head of the WWTP. Integrate these with WWTP process models for decision support. Provide to operators on mobile devices.

Online instrumentation using chemical, chemicalphysical, optical or biological sensors capable of capturing composition information and flow data (e.g. S::CAN, SciTox). Instrumentation is coupled with calibration sampling (e.g. grab samples) to demonstrate reliability and performance of instruments over time.

The key message is to ensure that every piece of data collected has a purpose. How effective is your monitoring programme and data management system?

Exeloo is proud to introduce our new budget range of public toilets.

Exeloo is an iconic brand in the Australasian public toilet market with over 1200 sites worldwide and 20 years of experience. From the basic Ecoloo to the fully automated Exeloo public toilet facilities, we back up our install with a comprehensive service. Exeloo takes you from concept stage to handover, with free technical support for the lifetime of your Exeloo / Ecoloo units.

High quality vandal resistant fittings •Stainless steel toilet pan •Stainless steel basin •Stainless steel paper dispenser

Advanced insulated, all weather durable foam core ribbed roof •Locked watertight system •Fire rated •Rigid structure •Recyclable product

Hygienic and easy to maintain •Wall suspended toilet pan •Commercial high impact tiles •Vandal resistant epoxy grouting •Concealed pipe work

Fully compliant accessible unit with easy to use features •Easy to use •Grab bars •Back rests •Timed flow taps •All fixtures at regulation heights

Reinforced concrete shell •Recyclable module •Easy to install •Relocatable asset •Textured epoxy surface

is your Complete Public Toilet Solution!

Exeloo Ltd • tel: 0800 EXELOO (0800 393 566) • tel: 64 9 838 8912 • email: sales@exeloo.com • web: www.exeloo.com

NEW ZEALAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OCTOBER 2012

27

WASTE WATER

Council acts over pollution Waikato Regional Council staff are appalled to have discovered a dairy farmer who appears to have ‘managed’ his farm effluent by deliberately pumping it to a nearby watercourse.

Council staff responded to a complaint from a member of the public in the Waiuku area on September 18. As a result of this complaint they inspected a farm and found a number of unlawful discharges of effluent into the environment. Of most concern was a pump that had been

set up to channel effluent directly into a nearby tributary of the Waikato River.

“Quite frankly, this is appalling,” said the council’s investigations and complaints manager Patrick Lynch.

“We regularly come across discharges that result from negligence or carelessness but deliberate discharges into the environment are rare. I would think that this is very upsetting for the wider dairy industry and all of those farmers who manage their effluent responsibly.

“Clear direction has been given to the farmer to halt these discharges immediately. There is a high likelihood of criminal charges arising from this.”

The discovery came as the council has commenced trialling a new dairy effluent monitoring approach, targeting farms in areas of high risk soils for more in depth inspections.

“This farm was not visited as part of our new inspection regime,” said Mr Lynch.

“But it reinforces the fact that the council will actively pursue any significant non compliance within the Waikato region, however it comes to our attention.”

Minister backs ‘bottle’ farm to clean up lake

Two and a half thousand minds per hour.

We believe in moving ever forward; something you can’t do by resting on your laurels. As a diversely capable, global infrastructure consultancy, we leverage our richest talent to best effect on our client projects.

Relationships are our lifeblood, so we nurture them by continually delivering on what we said we would. But in the end it’s not about us. Ultimately, we are here to enhance human endeavour; to help shape a better world for the communities our projects serve.

Opus International Consultants www.opus.co.nz

28

NEW ZEALAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OCTOBER 2012

Environment Minister Amy Adams says a floating wetland made from hundreds of thousands of recycled plastic bottles has been an effective initiative to help restore Lake Rotorua’s water quality.

Ms Adams visited the 4000-square metre floating wetland recently as part of a visit to assess progress made in the Rotorua Lakes Protection and Restoration Programme.

The floating wetland, launched in July last year, is part of the restoration programme to which the Government has contributed $72.1 million.

The wetland, which has been featured in past issues of New Zealand Local Government magazine, consists of 20,000 native plants and more than 400,000 recycled plastic bottles, and is reducing nitrogen and phosphorus in the water.

Once fully grown, the wetland will be able to remove four tonnes of nitrogen and one tonne of phosphorus from the lake each year.

Native plants are planted on the floating island of plastic bottles, which then form a new habitat for both the plants and wildlife. As the plants grow, their roots reach into the water and remove nutrients including nitrogen and phosphorous.

“The floating wetland is helping to improve Lake Rotorua’s water quality, provide a habitat for wildlife and offer an original tourist attraction. It is great to see such an innovative solution to an environmental problem,” Ms Adams says.

The restoration programme aims to restore four priority lakes – Rotorua, Rotoiti, Okareka and Rotoehu. The programme includes measures to address the different sources of nutrients entering the four lakes. Key components include sewerage works, treatment or diversion of nutrient-rich streams, capping lake sediments to lock up nutrients and construction of wetlands.

COASTAL MANAGEMENT

Global and local imperatives intersect at the coast

BY BRUCE C. GLAVOVIC

We live in the Anthropocene – a new geological era defined by the dominant influence humanity now has in shaping fundamental earth processes (Crutzen, 2002).

Human actions have altered global biogeochemical processes and transgressed critical planetary boundaries (Rockstrom et al, 2009), including the earth’s climate system (IPCC, 2007). Paradoxically, development practices imperil human well-being and essential lifesupport systems. This dire prognosis seems far removed from the dayto-day realities of local government and coastal communities. But global and local imperatives are closely coupled and nowhere more so

than at the land-sea interface. This interface extends from coastlands to the seashore and out to the continental shelf and slope. There is a cornucopia of opportunities for humanity in this narrow realm. The pre-eminent challenge of the 21st Century is to realise this potential while reducing disaster risk and building resilience and sustainability.

This challenge is front and centre for New Zealand as the archetypal coastal nation.

The coastal zone is home to the majority of the human population and is the locus of the world’s megacities and intensive economic and physical development. But coastal ecosystems have been over-exploited and impacted to the point that they are the most imperilled ecosystems on earth

Tonkin & Taylor is a specialist environmental and engineering consultancy with a reputation for excellence in Coastal Service including: • Natural hazard risk assessments • Planning and consent management • Marine ecology • Water quality • Coastal engineering, enhancement and protection

• Marinas and access design • Climate change effects • Biodiversity offset mitigation • Monitoring

For more information visit www.tonkin.co.nz ENVIRONMENTAL AND ENGINEERING CONSULTANTS

NEW ZEALAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OCTOBER 2012

29

COASTAL MANAGEMENT

(MEA, 2005). This predicament has dire consequences for local coastal communities and global human health and well-being, because of our dependence on food, energy and other vital resources from coastal margins. To compound matters, coastal disaster risk is escalating because more and more people are concentrated along the seashore with little to buffer them against an array of hazards, many of which are likely to intensify with climate change (Adger et al, 2005).

Recent coastal disasters tragically underscore this reality, e.g., the Japanese earthquake and tsunami; numerous hurricanes, with Katrina perhaps the most graphic reminder of the dangers of living in a locality exposed to coastal storms; the dismal prospect facing those living in low-lying deltaic regions or small island states in the face of sea level rise; and ‘technological’ disasters like the Fukushima nuclear disaster, and the BP and Rena oil spills.

The Rena oil spill reveals much about the connections between disaster risk, resilience and sustainability. At face value, the Rena oil spill is a story about a shipping accident and a difficult clean-up operation. But it is a far deeper and more profound story.

It raises fundamental questions about rights and responsibilities for creating, bearing and sharing risk on coastal margins. The Rena oil spill thus underscores the importance and complexity of the choices we make on coastal margins.

Much attention is focused on how to better manage coastal and ocean resources. But these efforts have done little to stem the tide of unsustainable practices. We need to reframe our understanding of coastal disasters, risk and recovery, and transform the governance processes that shape coastal

governance practices that promote sustainability (Glavovic, in press).

First, facilitate better public understanding of the complex and contested nature of coastal issues, and facilitate meaningful community participation in local planning and decisionmaking. Second, focus attention on community-oriented action, and develop institutional and decision-making capabilities for complexity, uncertainty and surprise. Third, develop community problem-solving skills to resolve conflicting interests. Finally, invest in collaborative ventures because collaborative communities are better able to chart sustainability pathways that reduce risk and build resilience in the Anthropocene.

BRUCE C. GLAVOVIC is the EQC Chair in Natural Hazards Planning, and Associate Director: Joint Centre for Disaster Research, Massey University. resilience and sustainability. An important point of departure is to recognise that coastal systems are complex and that our knowledge is incomplete. Risk analysis is an invaluable tool when uncertainty is measurable. But there is a tendency to use risk quantification techniques even when it is not possible to quantify probabilities and consequences – when ambiguity and ignorance or surprise prevail (Stirling, 2010). It is therefore important to recognise that knowledge about coastal risk and sustainability is contingent, plural and contested. This recognition has significant implications for how we make social choices on coastal margins.

There are four sequential building blocks for coastal

References • Adger, W.N. etal. 2005. SocialEcological Resilience to Coastal Disasters. Science, 309(5737), 10361039.

• Crutzen, P.J., 2002. Geology of Mankind. Nature, 415, 23.

• Glavovic, B.C. In press. The Coastal Innovation Imperative, Marine Policy.

• IPCC, 2007. Climate Change: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 976 pp.

• Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005. Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Synthesis. Island Press, Washington, D.C., 137pp.

• Rockstrom, J., etal. 2009. A Safe Operating Space for Humanity.

Nature, 461(24), 472-475.

• Stirling, A. 2010. Keep it Complex, Nature, 488, 1029-1031.

NAMS 4th International Asset Management Conference.

AUCKLAND. NEW ZEALAND. 19-20 November 2012.

For the first time, NAMS will deliver an interactive forum that allows asset management leaders to engage with a network of peers to stimulate and expand thinking around how to position asset management in the economic and social fabric of society over the next 5-10 years. The theme of the forum is Asset Management at the Crossroads, recognising that, in NZ at least, we are almost into the second generation of integrated asset management planning.

The time is right to take stock of where we have come from and rejuvenate our asset management efforts by choosing what path, or paths, NAMS and the general asset management fraternity should follow.

Make sure you don’t miss the opportunity to brainstorm, discuss and debate the future direction of the asset management industry with like minded industry thinkers and experts.

Register today at www.nams.org.nz

30

NEW ZEALAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OCTOBER 2012

COASTAL MANAGEMENT

Weighing the tsunami risk

BY CHRISTOPHER GOMEZ AND DEIRDRE E. HART

It can be argued that Japan has been and still is, by far the bestprepared country in the world when it comes to risks relating to seismicity.

Nevertheless, the destructive tsunami of March 11 2011 brought the Japanese system to the brink of collapse. This event took around 19,000 lives, cost the insurance industry the equivalent of trillions of US dollars and has left more than 300,000 people in shelters a year after the disaster began. A plethora of lessons can be gleaned from

analysis of such disasters, but some types of lessons are harder to learn since they cut to the foundation of what we do as planning and hazard professionals. Here we present two lessons that reveal an urgent need to seriously rethink the way we deal with disasters.

The first lesson concerns the challenge of designing evacuation plans that match the socioeconomic and demographic dynamic. Despite their aging demographic, Japanese evacuation plans in the event of a tsunami did not cater for elderly or those with reduced mobility. As a result, more than 60 per cent of coastal area casualties comprised people 65

A proven more effective way to clean & filter farm, urban and industrial waste water.

Filtercorp’s Hydrosil HS200 sets new standards in the treatment of processed and waste water – meeting or exceeding typical regulatory requirements.

American developed, it’s based on scientifically modified Zeolite based

organoclay - independently proven to clean up a wide range of environmental and industrial waste streams.

Contact us for a convincing demonstration of Hydrosil’s effectiveness in your region; visit our website or phone 0800 481 9999.

Zeolite is derived from naturally occurring volcanic minerals with unique scientific characteristics. More active ingredients per cubic metre; no swelling problems.

Filtercorp International Limited Filtration at its finest…world-wide Extensive use and independent testing demonstrated removal of a wide range of contaminants to non detectable levels.

Auckland, Christchurch, Brisbane and wherever you have a challenge.

www.filtercorp.biz

32

NEW ZEALAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OCTOBER 2012

COASTAL MANAGEMENT

years or older, many drowning at home. Having survived a number of challenging events during their lifetime, this section of the population could have been an invaluable social resource to help communities recover from the disaster. Such discriminate losses call into question the ethics of developing vertical evacuation structures without realistic measures in place to account for local populations.

A proponent of vertical evacuation

strategies speaking in New Zealand recently suggested that catering to those with reduced-mobility was a yet-to-be addressed challenge but that the strategy in question was useful for mobile population groups. Such thinking is more likely to put people at risk by encouraging diverse development in hazardous coastal areas while falsely allaying fears regarding wholesale escape from inevitable natural events. So should we keep habitation a safe distance from the reach of coastal

Tick

DR GOMEZ is from the National Hazards Research Centre, University of Canterbury; Deirdre E Hart is Integrated Coastal Research group leader and NZ Coastal Society chair. NZCS will hold its 20th annual conference in Auckland in November.

I would like to subscribe b to New Zealand YES Local Government magazine

Mr/Mrs/Ms:

Cheques payable to: to Mediaweb to Post to: Subcriptions Dept, p Mediaweb, e

J b Title: Title Job C mpany Company: Address:

processes or should we plan from the start to engage social structures that can take care of all sectors of the population in the face of potential disasters? Should we avoid building retirement homes or hospital complexes by the coast, or should we train a local workforce to provide the necessary assistance for a quick vertical evacuation?

A second lesson concerns the responsibility of researchers and practitioners in the field of natural hazards and disaster management.

Many such professionals in Japan have, since March 2011, confessed feelings of guilt around failing to provide and communicate the science for a safer living environment. This disaster sequence cannot, however, be understood as a series of failures by individual professionals but rather as a systemic failure. Despite late 20th century recognition of the transdisciplinary nature of hazard, risk and disaster-management problems, this field remains largely trapped within the purview of geology and engineering, where the real human, social, societal and legal issues are not well catered for, if at all. The 2011 earthquake, tsunami and (ongoing) nuclear disaster is not a story of how geologists and engineers failed, but rather evidence that these two fields should simply be peripheral nodes in a hazard response network that gravitates around the human being, with a strong ethical core.

FREEPOST 288,

uburb Suburb: Tel Tel:

Fa Fax:

E-mail address:

PO Box 5544, Wellesley St, t, 1141 Auckland 1141.

Fax (09) 529 3001 001 Fax:

En l sed is a cheque heque $ __________ orr debit my: my Enclosed

NZ Local Government

i ue incl GST and post $80 for 12 issues

Subscribe today

Master ard ● Visa ● Mastercard E piry: Expiry:

/

/

Number Card Number: Cardholders Name: Signature Signature:

NEW ZEALAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OCTOBER 2012

33

CONTRACTING

Defining

‘asset management’

NZCF started as the national representative body of civil, general and roading contractors in 1944

34

NEW ZEALAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OCTOBER 2012

I was very pleased to see the focus on Health & Safety in the September issue of New Zealand Local Government magazine. The Federation is committed to improving the industry’s Health & Safety performance, which is the reason we partnered with other construction industry bodies to initiate the Construction Safety Council.

It’s also why we have invested considerable time, money and resources into developing our proprietary Quality, Environment, Safety, and Training (QEST) integrated management system for contracting businesses.

More recently we have developed web portals where consultants and contractors can track their safety statistics and see them plotted against industry trends and against the 10th and 90th percentile of participating firms.

NZTA has now adopted both of these portals, with participation mandatory for all consultants and contractors working on the state highway system. We would be very pleased to discuss these systems with local authorities looking to further develop their H&S requirements for suppliers.

Over the past year that I’ve been involved in the NZTA Maintenance and Operations Review (M&O Review) and the Ministerial Road Maintenance Task Force (RMTF) there has been considerable debate and different interpretations on exactly what asset management is and how well it has been implemented in different parts of the country. I have just read with interest an article which discussed roading asset management being treatment selections and deciding supplier performance measures.

In my view, while essential, this is a very small subset of asset management. In a broader infrastructure sense, asset management could be seen as an

CONTRACTING

integration of management, financial, economic, engineering, and other imperatives applied to managing assets with the goal of providing the desired level of service in the most cost-effective manner over the life of the asset.

A key area of agreement in both the RMTF and the M&O Review has been that the asset owner should be the party leading asset management and retaining intellectual knowledge over this.

While some suggest asset management decisions should be passed down to suppliers, I – and I will probably get myself shot for this – observe that abdicating asset management to a party that is paid on the basis of the number and size of its interventions is potentially problematic for the client.

It has been pointed out to me several times that, rather than being asset management, the practice of deciding on contract models and letting contracts is a second-tier activity beneath which the process of selecting treatment types etc becomes essentially a facilities management function informed by requirements of the asset management plan.

This is an interesting distinction and perhaps explains one of the underlying causes of the variation in asset management practices around the country.

In simple terms, asset management is the highlevel planning of the management of the assets’ deterioration curves and anticipating economic points in time where these can be reset to extend the functional life of the asset. It also anticipates the nature of interventions and cost and decisions around how these are going to be funded.

A contextual issue for asset managers in doing this is to understand and manage the environment in which the asset is operating. One of the broad issues here is the health of the industries required to manage a facility, regardless of whether it’s a road, a wastewater plant or a library.

It’s important to be aware of the ability of those industries to provide service in the future, and the cost and nature of services. These are keys to understanding, planning and managing whole-of-life costs and therefore one of the keys to the extraction of value for money.

This area has caused considerable concern among submitters to the RMTF, especially local authorities, who expressed deep concerns about the health of the local civil contracting sector due to larger and longer maintenance contracts.

I’ve said before that approximately 70 per cent of submitters expressed concerns about this and cited loss of local businesses and competitive tension as primary concerns. (National contracting firms are in this respect an aggregation of local delivery teams; and they too are local contractors).

Our submission to the M&O Review identifies that a dynamic, competitive and innovative tendering environment flows from different-sized contracting businesses being able to operate with a high degree of certainty and confidence that contracts will come to market on a regular basis, and they will have a reasonable ability to compete for these. In this

environment they will invest in plant, people and systems, to ensure they are sufficiently resourced to bid for, win, and deliver on contracts with innovative ideas and cost effective solutions.

It’s also critical that clients demand strong investment in management, environmental and H&S systems to ensure contracting firms of all sizes have that extra inventive to invest in themselves, and that clients back this up with robust performance evaluation processes and a willingness and ability to act on outcomes.

I’ve expressed concerns for some time about an artificial distinction between large and small contractors in terms of efficiency, innovation and skill.

Really this discussion should not be about size but about quality systems and processes and investment in skill and about their ability to carry out the work.

This reorientation on its own would be sufficient to see a step change in value for money and performance outcomes – but couple that with strong governance and vision and enhanced asset management – then wouldn’t that be great?

BY JEREMY SOLE, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, NZ CONTRACTORS FEDERATION

SKILLS FOR SUCCESSFUL PROCUREMENT InfraTrain offers a specialist qualification which can help tender evaluation teams manage the procurement process more effectively.  Developed in partnership with the NZ Transport Agency and aligned to NZTA Procurement Manual.  Relevant to transport, transportation & public transport services contracts.

 Ideal for teams working on activities funded under the National Land Transport Programme.

Get your staff qualified, and get the competitive edge. Talk to us about how we can help you.

0800 486 626 askus@infratrain.co.nz www.infratrain.co.nz

NEW ZEALAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OCTOBER 2012

5x1 0 m

35

NZLG FOCUS

The expert in WATER ENVIRONMENTS

BOP may escape serious pollution

Give us your hardest problem!  Consulting and software services  Strategic advice  Expert technical advice  Model build and use  Peer reviewing  Software platform advice  Innovative solutions  Future proofing investments  A specialist one-stop-shop for all modelling jobs

DHI Water & Environment Ltd Email: info.nz@dhigroup.com Auckland: 09 912 9638

Christchurch: 03 377 5403

www.dhigroup.com 36

NEW ZEALAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OCTOBER 2012

Data collected from more than 30,000 samples has so far shown that levels of PAHs –Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons – from oil lost from the grounded Rena, appear to have dissipated in most areas in the Bay of Plenty.

However scientists say there is still a significant amount of work to be done before any final conclusions on long-term environmental impacts can be made.

Professor Chris Battershill of Waikato University who is overseeing the Rena recovery monitoring programme, said there are still thousands of samples expected to be collected and tested over the coming months to provide a full picture of any long-term effects from the Rena grounding in October 2011.

Samples of kaimoana species including tuatua, pipi, paua, kina, crabs and cockles have been tested from along the Bay of Plenty coastline including the east coast and from offshore islands to gain full coverage of the region.

“We want to be able to get a full picture of how the environment has been affected and pinpoint exactly what impacts are from the Rena grounding,” Professor Battershill said. “Shellfish are a key focus because they are one of the biggest concerns for the community.

They are also a good indicator of water quality because they sit on the sea floor and act as a filter. If there are contaminants in the water it is likely you would trace these in common shellfish.”

Professor Battershill said that it is important to note that these results are just the first pieces in the puzzle.

“It is important to understand that we need to process a large amount of data to make a complete analysis of the situation,” he said.

The Rena Long-Term Environmental Recovery Plan is nearly one-third of the way towards completion.

The multi-disciplinary partnership between four New Zealand tertiary institutes, iwi and a large contingent of other stakeholders is a unique aspect of this programme. The forthcoming summer programme involves dozens of students, volunteers and iwi-based projects to better understand recovery and on-going effects.

Professor Schiel said that while they would like to be able to give the community final results one year on, it is important to complete the sampling and tests over the summer period to gain a true understanding of the state of the environment.

EROAD = Peace of Mind Ashburton Contracting Limited (ACL) is a leading civil contractor in Mid Canterbury. Naturally ACL work both on and off the road. Since the implementation of the EROAD system Greg Bruce, ACL’s Fleet Manager found “the most advantageous aspect of the EROAD system for ACL is AutoRUC and automatic off-road claims. AutoRUC takes the hassle out of purchasing RUC licences and the automatic off-road claims save us a headache and time in claiming off-road refunds. Hubodometer based claims are tedious” The EROAD system is NZTA approved and fully compliant. Companies like ACL can be 100% confident with the information provided improving operational efficiency and giving fleet managers peace of mind.

Greg Bruce, Ashburton Contracting’s Fleet Manager

HELPING TAKE CARE OF YOUR BUSINESS. EROAD.CO.NZ

0800 4 EROAD (37623)

Keeping your Business on Track EROAD is your complete fleet management system with the value added tools to improve your operational efficiency, driver performance, fuel efficiency and much more! Julian Crawley, Tenix’s National Procurement Manager, said “the EROAD technology platform promised real and on-going savings and benefits to the organisation, and the system has certainly lived up to our expectations.” Crawley has outlined the key benefits behind the EROAD system including lower admin costs, complete compliance with the law and stakeholder requirements, improved transparency and control in all areas of vehicle fleet management, and automatic electronic RUC online 24/7.

TO FIND OUT MORE VISIT WWW.EROAD.CO.NZ OR CALL PAUL, EROAD’S NATIONAL LOCAL GOVERNMENT MANAGER, ON 021-808-987

KiwiRail, Tenix and Delta Utilities are amongst EROAD’s wide range of infrastructure customers.

NZLG FOCUS

Data cloud’s silver lining More and more, local government bodies are required to operate with transparent systems and tighter budgets, and to manage costs and improve processes at every opportunity.

However, many city council executives may not realise that a major cost-reduction strategy is sitting right underneath their cursor.

Recalling saved documents, printing and scanning emails to save to file and reproducing lost material takes precious time away from other value-adding activity – time that quickly eats into budgets.

Streamlined digital document management systems offer resource savings and increased operational efficiency. Documents can be lost not only because of human error, but natural disaster, poor security (electronic and physical) and inappropriate disposal methods.

Digital document storage is set to double to two zettabytes by next year, and much of the stored information will need to be retrieved or relocated at some point. (Put into context, one zettabyte is estimated to be the equivalent of 57.5 billion 32GB ipads which, if stacked on top of each other would be 25 times higher than Mt Fuji. Source: http:// tinyurl.com/8sx4ael).

Many New Zealand businesses are made vulnerable by the storage of important documents in paper form, or electronically in informal structures, with limited or no back-up. Many digital documents are stored in email form, which is outside of the document management loop. Email is one of the most frequently used software systems and contains key information, much of it pertaining to or referencing other documents.

Significant to the local government business environment is the Public Records Act 2005, which mandates the type of records public offices must keep and for how long.

38

The disposal of information is also covered by the Act. Likewise, our justice system has increased its expectations; organisations must retain records for longer than before, and courts require organisations to be able to produce documents on request.

Leading in innovative document management and print solutions, Konica Minolta‘s Software as a Service (SaaS) uses New Zealand-based cloud computing technology and is the first in the country to specialise in document management processes that include habit-forming techniques within them, ensuring efficient and accurate data storage.

All Konica Minolta customer data is retained in New Zealand, providing a highly secure means of storage previously unachievable with international clouds, which can invite a greater risk of data loss.

The face of local government changes frequently, but it’s imperative that the foundation of business operations remains sound.

Using SaaS to build efficient data storage behaviour in the fabric of the council environment is a silver lining in what could otherwise be a cloudy data position.

(Further information: www.konicaminolta.co.nz)

By JOSH BYERS, Konica Minolta National Marketing Manager

NEW ZEALAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OCTOBER 2012

Pride shown in a tough year The Bay of Plenty Regional Council is giving itself a modest pat on the back because in a year that saw an increased workload for council and the grounding of the MV Rena off the Tauranga coast last October, council still delivered on its major projects.

Major programmes for the Rotorua Lakes and Tauranga Harbour, as well as adopting a new Ten Year Plan and a new Regional Policy Statement were achieved, and the Regional Council ended its financial year with a surplus.

The council adopted its annual report last week, recording an operating surplus of $3.4 million, compared with a budget deficit of $4.3 million, a variation of $7.7 million. However, it increased its overall non-cash surplus to $29.7 million due to an accounting adjustment following a revaluation of the liability the council has for shares issued in a previous year.

Considerable progress has been made in protecting and restoring the Rotorua lakes, including research, monitoring and on-the-ground measures, policy development and stakeholder consultation.

Achievements include land management and land use change policies, provision in the Ten Year Plan for rates remission to encourage forestry and bush, good results from annual lake health reporting showing stable and improving water quality. Lake Rotoehu is the healthiest it’s been for nearly two decades.

Work also continued on protecting and enhancing Tauranga Harbour. A number of policies have been implemented to improve harbour health, including nutrient management plans on the catchment’s dairy farms, progressing catchment action plans and a Tauranga Harbour Coastal Margins Project to look at coastal biodiversity and erosion.

how Safe Are your documents?

We’ve got the answer. Document Management Solutions from Konica Minolta can help your business to store all of your records electronically in a safe and secure system which will reduce the need for paper files.

Documents can be intelligently scanned and filed directly from your MFPs into electronic storage systems and retrieved within seconds whenever you need them. Save Space, Save Time and Save Money with Konica Minolta.

Call 0800 933 008 Today To find ouT hoW MuCh We Can Save you.

konicaminolta.co.nz

NZLG FOCUS

Minister’s powers under scrutiny

BY MATTHEW OCKLESTON

A recent Court of Appeal decision (Minister for Land Information v Seaton [2012] NZCA 234) has provided welcome clarification around acquisitions under the Public Works Act 1981.

It confirmed that interests in land which are only indirectly required can still be acquired, even if they will ultimately be vested in third parties. This is directly applicable to local authorities, especially when dealing with works in increasingly crowded road reserves.

In the case, the Minister needed to acquire land from Mrs Seaton to allow the NZ Transport Agency to widen State Highway 1 in Christchurch, including relocating electricity pylons onto her property. The Minister sought easements to transfer to the electricity companies, as an indirect requirement of the project.

Mrs Seaton wanted the right to negotiate with the companies directly, apparently hoping for higher compensation. She sought judicial review of the

NZ’s Professional Tender Specialists Writing winning bids since 1998 Experienced engineers / writers work alongside your team Tender improvement courses and bid team coaching RFT Tools that cut evaluation time and costs

Talk to us about how we can help with your next tender

www.plana.co.nz | 0800 PLAN AA | info@plana.co.nz

40

NEW ZEALAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OCTOBER 2012

Minister’s exercise of his statutory powers.

In the High Court Mrs Seaton argued that since the definition of ‘Government Work’ does not include the same reference to “anything required…indirectly” as the definition of ‘Public Work’, the Minister’s powers were limited and he could not acquire the easements, which were only indirectly required.

In a change from the accepted understanding of the Act, Justice Gendall found the Minister did not require the easements at all, because they benefited the electricity companies and not the NZTA. He declared the Minister’s actions unlawful.

The Court of Appeal took an entirely different view, providing helpful clarification and commentary. It adopted a broad interpretation, and held that “the Minister is empowered by the PWA to acquire land required directly or indirectly for a Government work” because an overly restrictive interpretation “would thwart rather than advance Parliament’s intention” and “significantly reduce the PWA’s effectiveness and workability”.

The Court found the easements were required — because they were the most feasible option and “reasonably necessary” to relocate the electricity lines.

It could “see no reason why the Minister cannot acquire land for transfer to another party in a case such as the present, provided that the land can properly be said to be ‘required for a Government work’.”

Modern roads now include a range of third-party installations, such as utilities, signage, and alternative forms of transport like walkways and cycle ways, and relocation is inevitable. The Court noted there are real benefits in the road-controlling authority taking control of dealing with these existing third parties. This helps “ensure a timely, orderly and comprehensive process for the relocation of affected services generally.” In doing so, the authority is not acting for those third parties’ benefit, but for itself as part of the public work.

The key point is that the trigger for relocation is the public work.

The Supreme Court has granted Mrs Seaton leave to appeal on the “interpretation and application” of the PWA provisions. We will have to wait to see whether the Court of Appeal’s pragmatic and practical approach remains the law.

MATTHEW OCKLESTON is a partner at Kensington Swan, and advised the NZ Transport Agency on aspects of the High Court decision and subsequent appeal. www. kensingtonswan.com

NZLG FOCUS

‘Art deco’ at risk in HB Increasing insurance costs and concerns over the earthquake strength of their buildings are worrying some owners of Hawke’s Bay’s famous art deco properties.

The various issues surrounding these buildings, which were built following the 1931 Hawke’s Bay earthquake, have been the subject of a meeting in Napier this month.

Concerns about the future of some art deco buildings were aired at the event, which focused on earthquake strengthening and was hosted by the Art Deco Trust.

It is thought potential amendments to the Building Act arising from the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Christchurch earthquakes could affect everyone who owns or occupies a heritage building and Sally Jackson, general manager of the Art Deco Trust, says the ways in which owners can adapt and strengthen their buildings has become a crucial issue in Hawke’s Bay. “There is a lot of concern amongst property owners in Hawke’s Bay about the earthquake strength of their buildings, what it may cost to strengthen them, and if it is economically viable to do so,” she says.

“There are also major concerns about tenants vacating buildings in the inner city that are now considered unsafe to occupy, and the increasing insurance costs building owners and tenants have to face.”

A public meeting to explore these issues has been held and property owners, the public and other interested parties heard from two of New Zealand’s leading experts in the area of structural engineering – Jason Ingham, associate professor of structural engineering at the University of Auckland and Win Clark, executive officer of the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering.

“Both speakers are leaders in the field of earthquake strengthening and have been involved with submissions to the Royal Commission of Inquiry on the subject of retrofitting masonry buildings as well as giving advice to property owners, councils and the New Zealand Historic Places Trust in the aftermath of the Canterbury earthquakes,” says Ms Jackson.

The New Zealand Historic Places Trust (NZHPT), the New Zealand Institute of Architects and local councils have all joined in support of the meeting. Ann Neill, the NZHPT central region general manager, says in light of the lessons learned from the Canterbury earthquakes it is crucial for all key stakeholders to develop response strategies as well as work together on the assessment, management and preservation of buildings at risk.

“The challenges and opportunities associated with strengthening, insurance and preservation is one of the biggest issues facing New Zealanders. We hope the forum will demonstrate that while many issues are challenging, they are not insurmountable, and there is a future for our treasured heritage buildings that prioritises public safety, as well as issues of affordability,” Mrs Neill said.

Sally Jackson says the meeting was also an important opportunity for local government in Hawke’s Bay to receive clear and reasoned information to help with policy responses to buildings at risk. It was also a starting point to provide accurate information for building owners, tenants and the general public.

Picture by Russell J Smith

“Thousands of people flock to Hawke’s Bay each year to enjoy our wonderful heritage buildings – particularly the art deco architecture. Our unique townscape was born of earthquake, fire, and courage, and is of huge value historically and culturally, as well as economically to the region. We hope the forum will provide confidence that this legacy can survive another major seismic event, and continue to be enjoyed for its social and economic benefits.”

The Art Deco Trust has been operating for more than 27 years in Hawke’s Bay and is committed to the preservation, restoration and celebration of Art Deco buildings.

NEW ZEALAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OCTOBER 2012

41

www.ipso.co.nz

− Email us at: info@ipso.co.nz − Web address: www.ipso.co.nz

To arrange a demonstration or to discuss your own specific requirements…

Eliminate hard copy documents and manual data entry.

Learn more about how PSI:Capture can help you!

Let PSI:Capture help you tackle the paper mountain…