How our website information is organised
The site has been divided into 6 sections on our main menu – Advice & Info, Services, Our Responsibilities, News & Notices, Get Involved and About Us
Advice & Info
Information and advice on a diverse range of subjects, from energy efficiency to boating safety.
In this section you will find: Resource Consent advice, Home heating rules for Canterbury, info about recreation & parks, Outdoor burning, Plant pests, Education for sustainability, Advice for farmers, Businesses waste management and more...
Services
From issuing resource consents to environmental monitoring and testing, find out how we can help you.
In this section you will find: Monitoring data for your use such as Irrigation restrictions, River flows, Rainfall, Air pollution, Groundwater allocation, Groundwater levels, Wave buoy, Beach cam and Swimming water quality. GIS Mapping, Consent Search and Property Information such as Land Information Request and Contaminated land request forms. You can also use other Tools, Calculators & Forms such as Tank removal form, Well card details search and our database of Authorised Solid Fuel Burners to heat your home.
Our Responsibilities
These pages show you the main activities into which our work is divided.
In this section you will find: Information about following plans Annual & ten year plans, Natural Resources Regional Plan, Regional Policy Statement, Waimakariri River Regional Plan, Transitional Regional Plan, Greater Christchurch Urban Development Strategy. Also information about Regional Strategies and Regional Reports as well as pages about our main areas of responsibility including Environmental Enforcement & Regulation, Public Passenger Transport, Emergency Management, Water Quality & Quantity and more.
News & Notices
In this section you will find: All media releases, council agendas, website announcements about website content updates, public notices and events are bought together in one news area. You can also utilise our new RSS newsfeeds so that you can receive notifications of Environment Canterbury News and Events. Find out more about how to use our RSS News Feeds.
Get Involved
Our get involved section contains information for groups and individuals who are involved or would like to collaborate with us on initiatives and projects within the Canterbury region.
In this section you will find: Have your say, information on Consent projects such as the Rakaia-Selwyn reviews, Central Plains Water, Waitaki consents, Hurunui Water Project and South-West Christchurch stormwater discharge.
You can also find information on the following Water projects; Integrated catchment management, River flow reviews and Waimakariri flood protection.
Our other projects and initiatives include Enviroschools and Working groups & committees such as the Canterbury Regional Transport Committee.
You can also read our issues of our Environment Canterbury Newsletter, Living Here.
About Us
Find out who’s who at your regional council, including contact details for your councillors, information on the structure of the council and doing business with us.
In this section you will find: Information about Your Council. Details about Our Structure and What We Do as well as information about how to Work For Us and do business with us in our Tenders & Contracts page.
Helpful website features
Homepage
Flexibility is key to the design of our homepage. Our main “Information about” and “Information for” menus list main areas of interest, pages that call for prominence, and the most used online services such as Rainfall and River flows data are also featured in our “Get it done online” area.
An image slideshow is used to promote our events and important announcements, and there are also automated news, events, announcements, public notices and latest publications listings.
Online services
All of our applications are bought together in one place. You can use our Irrigation, Water monitoring, Air monitoring, Consent information search, Woodburner database, GIS and many more online services that we provide.
Publications Library
Is a comprehensive library of Environment Canterbury publications divided into categories such as Plans, Reports, Strategies, Leaflets etc it is also searchable by subject and highlights new publications that have recently been produced.
Quick Answers
Quick Answers brings together answers for many of the frequent questions that we receive from customers. It is managed by our Customer Services section so that you can get the information you need in a format that is easy to use.
Our website navigation
When a menu item is selected, a new page will be displayed. An additional side navigation menu bar may appear at the left of the screen, themed to the subject matter being displayed.
The Environment Canterbury logo that appears in the top banner on each page can be clicked to access a direct link back to the website's home page. Alternatively, click on "Home" in the 'breadcrumb trail' menu.
“Breadcrumb trail”
At the top of each content page on this site (except the home page) a “breadcrumb trail” provides links to all levels of the website hierarchy above the current page location.
Breadcrumb trails serve to show the context of the current page and allows users to interpret the page better and to go directly to a higher level of the site in case a similar page to the current one is wanted.
The reason it is called a breadcrumb trail is because Hansel and Gretel (in the fairy tale of the same name) left one as they walked through the forest in order that they could retrace their steps.
Related pages, documents and quick answers
At the top right of most pages is a panel of related information. Use these links to access other "related" pages, documents and quick answers in our website.
Searching our website
You can use several methods to find information in our website including our search, A-Z index and sitemap.
Search
The site search facility will usually provide the easiest, fastest way of locating information on our site. Type in your search phrase and click the “search” button. Alternatively, click the “advanced search” page link to access a dedicated site search page.
The main search also allows you to just search specific areas of the website, you can select to search All of the site or get search results from either Publications, Quick Answers or News & Notices sections.
A to Z index
Our comprehensive A-Z index is an alphabetical index of information on the Environment Canterbury website. If you know exactly what you’re looking for, the A-Z index may well be the easiest way to find it! You can access the A-Z index from the top menu at the top left of every page.
Site map
The site map can be accessed directly from the top menu at the top left of every page. The site map lists the primary levels of navigation for the whole site. Use the site map if you would like to find out more about how the website is structured.
Printer-friendly pages
Due to the way we have developed our website, pages that you print directly from your browser will be in a special printer-friendly version. A content-only version of the page, stripped of our website design (including the principal navigation elements of the web page), will be printed rather than the full design you see on-screen.
RSS feeds - get news and events sent to you!
Environment Canterbury is making it easier for our visitors to view some of our frequently updated content.
We now provide 4 Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds for our which include council media releases, public notices, agendas and minutes and event announcements. See our RSS page or News and Notices page to access our RSS feeds.
What is RSS?
RSS is a format for publishing web content using a technology called XML. It does not provide an alternative to 'real' web pages, but instead provides enough information for you to decide whether or not to visit the page that the full content is on. This information typically consists of a title, brief description, and a web link to the full page.
How to use an RSS feed
If a website has provided an RSS feed that is available to the public, your web browser may indicate that it has detected the RSS content. Recent browsers such as Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 display a 'feed detected' icon similar to this: 
Your browser software may allow you to add a bookmark, or favourite, so that can read our RSS newsfeeds and allow you to visit a page containing more information about the news, event, agenda or public notice. Alternatively the newsfeed can be displayed and updated in Email software such as Microsoft Outlook. See our RSS page or News and Notices page to access our RSS feeds.
Need help?
Please tell us if you’re experiencing difficulties finding your way around the site and need some help. Email us at ecinfo@ecan.govt.nz - we will respond to your query as quickly as possible.
Feedback about our website
We are very interested in any comments or feedback you may have about our website. Please email ecinfo@ecan.govt.nz providing as much detail as you can.
The web team read - and act upon - every message received and will arrange for you to receive a reply if appropriate. You may wish to comment about, for example the layout, ease of use or design of our site, or give us detailed comments about specific pages. We’d particularly like to hear from you if you've spotted an error which needs correction (quoting the relevant page address will help us to pinpoint the error).