Boffa Miskell's multi-disciplinary team of climate change, landscape design, landscape planning, urban design, planning, ecology, and technical services, with the support of GHD’s hydrology modelling, conducted a comprehensive analysis of NbS for flood management.
As part of the study, several NbS interventions were evaluated to establish their flood hazard management capabilities, their alignment with global standards for NbS best practice, and their relevance to the catchment and its characteristics. A Rapid Flood Hazard Model was also developed to assist with understanding how the proposed NbS could affect the existing flood events in the catchment.
Five key findings were identified:
- Nature-based Solutions are feasible: Nature-based Solutions can be effective methods for managing flooding and associated hazards.
- Landcover management in the upper catchment is important: Landcover management solutions in vulnerable upper catchment areas will reduce flooding hazards in the long-term.
- Economic support is needed: Innovative economic approaches are needed to address the current financial barriers that might stop landowners using Nature-based Solutions.
- Scale is important: To effectively manage flooding hazards, Nature-based Solutions work best when used over large areas.
- Integrated planning of solutions: Nature-based Solutions can provide the greatest benefits when they are joined up across a catchment, connected to each other and supporting other land uses.
Five actions are recommended to support the practical use of Nature-based Solutions in Te Hakapupu | Pleasant River catchment and other similar catchments across Otago:
- Strengthen governance: Form partnerships amongst governments, landowners, and communities to ensure challenges and benefits of Nature-based Solutions are shared.
- Provide economic incentives: Introduce grants, tax incentives, and payment schemes for land used for Nature-based Solutions to support private landowners.
- Promote credit markets: Enable landowners to gain revenue from land used for Nature-based Solutions by supporting access to biodiversity and carbon credits.
- Develop standards and policies: Create regional Nature-based Solutions guidelines to build a common understanding of their use and streamline implementation.
- Integrate Nature-based Solutions into planning: Embed Nature-based Solutions into catchment management plans so they can be strategically planned for at large scales.
As part of Boffa Miskell's multi-disciplinary approach to NbS, we developed a ‘Nature-based Solutions Technical Specification’ to enable plausible NbS interventions to be assessed against a diversity of required co-benefits. Built upon international best practice and emerging international NbS standards, our Technical Specification ensures NbS are designed to be high quality and deliver significant benefits for biodiversity and cultural values.
Throughout the project, we worked closely with the ORC project team and alongside the Toitū Te Hakapupu community partnership group, comprised of local residents and rūnaka. We regularly engaged with the partnership group to gather their insights, test outputs, and ensure the project supported the local restoration initiatives.
