Living with Urban Rivers: Perspectives on the 2023 Rivers Group Conference

Landscape planner Liz Gavin, landscape architect Jo Kearney, and ecologist Kate Hornblow share their reflections and learning from the 2023 Rivers Group Conference.

Why did you want to attend the Rivers Group Conference? Is there an aspect of your project work that is particularly relevant to what the Rivers Group Conference is about?

Liz Gavin (LG): I am very interested in the response of Councils to the pressures and problems of climate change and am very keen to build my knowledge in this area. I am interested in the potential for landscape planners to be involved in policy direction, spatial planning and identification of values relating to rivers, and the potential to help communities understand what values they hold when it comes to river health and amenity. 

Kate Hornblow (KH): I took a lot from the 2022 conference, so looked forward to attending again. Lots of my work as an ecologist is in urban rivers, so I was interested in hearing discussions around urban flood remediation and nature-based solutions.

Jo Kearney (JK): I was a student when I attended in 2022, and now as a graduate and new to the area, the conference being in Whakatū was a big attraction for me. I was looking to know more about the local area and the waterways: both the remedial work from last year’s floods- but also the perspective and the direction to accommodate making room for the river with future growth of the city and changing climate.

What speaker or session had the most impact on you – was there something you saw or heard that really stood out? In terms of your work at Boffa Miskell – is there anything you’ll do differently, or think about in a different way now?

LG: Two speakers stood out for me, one being Professor Ian Rutherfurd. He stated that while globally “daylighting streams” was becoming more common, he sees this as a small subset of urban waterway projects, with the daylighting approach generally occurring in big cities where they have more funding. It is a very expensive process, and that in his opinion there may be more opportunity for biodiversity gains through enhancing land above the cities in the upper catchment. 

He pointed out that the real opportunity occurs before cities expand, and that forward looking communities will create room for rivers in the greenfield sites before cities built up to or over them. Other opportunities that he saw as “low hanging fruit” related to brownfield sites, where ecological gains and amenity can be created in urban environments on sites that can hold stormwater before it enters the main river path.

Speaking on this after the conference in the managed retreat sector group, we had a discussion that the value of daylighting comes down to the metrics being measured. I am interested in the ongoing debate on this topic, as I see real value in daylighting or enhancing streams in cities that connect people to their environment.

KH: I agree, Liz. Ian Rutherfurd’s keynote was great for the reasons you mention. His key points for design principles for new development -- preserving wide waterway margins, reducing stormwater run-off, and allowing for community reconnection -- resonated with my work.

Dr Mahina-a-rangi Baker spoke to the need for understanding the cultural and historical legacies that come with working with water, and that session was a highlight for me. Projects should give full effect to Te Mana o te Wai, with the goal of facilitating reconnection of mana whenua with their ancestral waterways.

JK: The “Living with Nelson Rivers” field trip was a highlight for me, it was an opportunity to hear the first-hand experience directly from people who’ve lead remedial work around Whakatū. In the case of the upper Mahitahi, the presenter lived directly beside the awa and was involved in emergency response.

The six sites we visited all showed different urban typologies and different challenges and opportunities. I found the walking tour of the Mahitahi super-impactful. We were given handouts with cross-sections through the sites where we stopped for discussions, along with images from the 2022 floods and from Cyclone Fehi in 2018.

 It was interesting to hear how SH6 acts a berm and how the surround topology of The Wood meant that some areas - although close to the river - sustained minimal damage. The cross sections also showed heights of river flow and different sea level rise scenarios. This was interesting to see this graphed with elevation of streets, existing housing and floor levels of new developments and this sits alongside current discussions of plan changes for density in the city.

LG: Toby Kay, the Flood Protection Activity Engineer from Nelson City Council, was a local speaker who talked to us about the local problems facing Nelson. I found this really interesting, given I’m a Nelsonian. 

I appreciated his honesty regarding some hard conversations that are needed around the urban flooding caused by the Mahitahi (Maitai) River. There are houses that simply sit too low, relative to the river and the Council stated that for some of these houses, they are going to discuss relocation options, which I thought was very honest and open. 

Toby also discussed the need to identify and provide for secondary overflow paths and said that some of the flooding caused in the August 2022 floods was created by flood berms holding surface flooding back from the river. He also said that the Council are looking at attenuation options in the upper catchment of the Maitai above the city to help reduce stormwater effects during peak flows which sounds like an opportunity for involvement.

 KH: The “What’s next for urban rivers?” panel discussion session was a great way to wrap up the conference, there were questions and discussions around what constitutes an urban river, where remediation should be focused, and how to facilitate reconnection.

What was your ‘big take-home message’ from the conference – and what insights did you bring back that are important to share with the wider Boffa Miskell team?

LG: For me, it’s the realisation that, right across the world, an awful lot of urban infrastructure is reaching the end of its life. New Zealand’s infrastructure is dated and unfit for the increase in stormwater capacity that we need as a result of changing climatic conditions.  

It’s a big challenge, but it’s also perfect opportunity to reconnect communities with their urban waterways, and a real opportunity for Boffa Miskell to become leaders in the field of nature-based solutions as these relate to stormwater and river design.

JK: There were two take-home messages for me. The first is around the difference between temporary or rapid-response solutions that protect lives, whenua and homes, and often reinstate infrastructure to the same after a flood event; as opposed to pro-actively and intentionally planning and designing differently in response to future uncertainty.

As Liz says, this is an opportunity for nature-based solutions relating to water sensitive design to be integrated with infrastructural solutions for risk reduction.

My second take-home was from a panel of speakers from Hawke's Bay, Tairāwhiti, Nelson, and Auckland. The session was called “What have we learnt from recent events?” and it was a pretty sobering two-hour discussion as they shared the effects of the early 2023 storm events.

At a session the following day, Alex Cartwright, who was talking about pre-emergency management and resilient communities said, “Imagine if the session yesterday could have been presented as ‘this is how well we were protected’?”

Did you learn something new, or did what was presented reinforce your current knowledge and thinking?

KH: I learnt a lot from Jo Hoyle’s presentation on New Zealand braided rivers around the geomorphic definition of a riverbed, as opposed to the legislative definition. She is a River Geomorphologist with NIWA, and she and her team successfully worked to have an item included in the Natural and Built Environment Act that allows for movement of the rivers.

Jo also asked the audience for suggestions of ‘what should we look at next?’; and that was a great moment showing collaboration and actions from practitioners in the Rivers Group. 

LG: One of the most interesting facts I learnt is that at the time of the Conference (November 2023) Auckland soil is still saturated from the February 2023 floods, which I found amazing.

But I feel like a learnt a lot before I even got to Nelson. I had the opportunity to work with Vanessa Le Grand Jacob and Dave Hill, to pull together the StoryMap of projects that we used in the Boffa Miskell booth at the conference. To do this, I needed to get up to speed with the nature-based projects that the company has been involved in, related to river catchments; and I realised just how much work Boffa Miskell has already done in this field, and it was a great opportunity to learn about projects across the country. 

We’re going to continue to pull these projects together, as there is a real resource there. For me, that was a fascinating process, and it was good to see that the StoryMap and posters that we created were really well received.