Entry received from: Hurunui District Council
Category: The Department of Internal Affairs Award for Excellence in Community Engagement
The Hurunui District Council Coastal Conversations Project focuses on 6 small beach communities and how each community in the District will take control of their future and how, as a community, they will adapt to the changing hazard risk over the next 100 years.
For Amberley Beach the project responds to coastal erosion, coastal inundation, rising groundwater, fluvial flooding and pluvial flooding considering the impacts of climate change.
Council wanted to engage with the entire Amberley Beach community, giving every individual an equal voice in the conversation . It was important to Council that the plan was owned by the community. Often, we get caught in engineering our way out of problems. The multidisciplinary team approach allowed us to step back and consider the full range of options available through different lenses.
This method of engagement required the team to develop and use engaging and innovative ways of communicating technical information to foster understanding, engagement and empower the community to make decisions founded on science. Engagement was embedded into every phase of the project.
Since the adoption of the Amberley Beach (CAP) the Council has also worked with the Leithfield Beach Community and Motunau Beach community to develop and adopt their CAP's.
Thank you to our category sponsor