In 2018/19 and 2017/18, four resource consents, were approved on land subject to fire. In 2016/17 three resource consents were approved. These consents were granted subject to conditions to mitigate potential adverse effects. No resource consents were approved for either year on land subject to instability.

Since 2008/09 there has been a decreasing trend in the number of building consent applications within the flood protection area. This trend is representative of a decrease in building consents district wide. The most likely cause would originally have been the economic recession of the late 2000’s, although resource consent figures on land subject to flooding have remained low since then, despite the overall increase in consents, especially in 2015/16.

Erosion can also be a potential problem on the steeper slopes of the district. According to data taken from the 1992 Regional Indigenous Vegetation Inventory, there is approximately 20,686 hectares of vegetated land classified as having severe erosion potential in the district.

Rural Fire

Local Authorities no longer have any financial or operational responsibility for rural firefighting, as of 1 July 2017. The New Zealand Fire Service Act and the Forest and Rural Fires Act have been repealed and replaced by the Fire and Emergency New Zealand Act. 

Consequently, the data collection and reporting formerly completed for rural firefighting is no longer carried out.

Earthquakes

The table below shows the number of earthquakes recorded in the district each year, at a depth of 70 km or less. The 2010 District Plan Effectiveness Report notes that the District Plan includes an objective to minimise the risks of earthquakes affecting people and property in the district, but that research is not sufficiently advanced to permit detailed land use management and planning controls to be implemented to mitigate these risks. Data for 2012/13 was not available from GeoNet due to a changeover in their recording systems

 Source: http://www.geonet.org.nz/
*Geonet now depicts earthquake information in map form over specified time periods so the numbers and magnitude of earthquakes is an approximate figure.