Improving the Health of Christchurch’s Avon/Otakaro and Heathcote/Opawaho Rivers

Following the diesel spill into Christchurch’s upper Heathcote River on 11 February 2005, Environment Canterbury began working to raise community awareness about the need to protect Christchurch’s urban waterways.

As a result, the ‘river guardians’ reports were undertaken with Environment Canterbury working alongside key community representatives, Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu, the Christchurch City Council (CCC), and the Waimakariri District Council. The project gained support from councillors and as a result, was included in Environment Canterbury's long-term council community plan. The future success of the project is now reliant on the support of all parties and local communities.

Achievable and measurable outcomes became key principles of the project’s development.

Objective

The objective of the Improving Urban Waterway Health project is to improve the ecological health of urban waterways by:

• Increasing the level and effectiveness of urban community involvement in management and care of urban waterways.
• Increasing community knowledge, environmental awareness and responsibility with regards to the effect of individual and cumulative actions on urban waterways.
• More effective and proactive agency management of urban waterways through increased co-ordination and appropriate regulatory enforcement.

Reports

The following reports are available:

Improving urban waterway health: Okeover Stream Focus Group report (June 2010) (PDF 2.75MB)

Haytons Stream catchment water quality investigation (Report R09/105 October 2009) (PDF 5.7MB)

Sources of sediment input into Cashmere Stream (Report R10/6 January 2010) (PDF 12MB)

Improving Urban Waterway Health: local public perceptions of stormwater and the Okeover Stream, Christchurch (Report R10/40 June 2010) (PDF 1.3MB)

Market Research Report for The River Guardian Project - Perceptions among the General Public (Report No. U07/102) (pdf 665 kB)

Approaches to Public Involvement in the Management of Urban Rivers and Estuaries: Education, Behaviour, Change, Participation (Report No. U07/101) (pdf 798 kB)

Literature Review - Urban River Contaminants (Report No. U07/100) (pdf 1.23 MB)

Avon/Otakaro and Heathcote/Opawaho Rivers analysis of water quality data from 1992-2006 (Report No. U07/42) (pdf 1.55 MB)

Studies Completed for River Guardians - 2007 (pdf 297 kB)

Ngai Tahu - State of the Takiwa Report (pdf 6.24 MB)