A number of Technical Reports were produced to provide adequate information around decision-making.

Hurunui-Waiau Zone Implementation Programme

The Zone Implementation Programme is a suite of water-management recommendations to Environment Canterbury, Hurunui District Council, developers and other parties. It is not a statutory plan under the Resource Management Act.  However, the Programme expects the Hurunui-Waiau River Regional Plan to give effect to the recommendations through an integrated approach to the development and management of the district’s freshwater resources.

Hurunui River: instream values and flow regime

This report provides a holistic description of the values present within the Hurunui Catchment and the current hydrological regime. The report goes on to make recommendations of a preferred flow and allocation regime to better protect non-economic values.

Waiau River: instream values and flow regime

This is the companion report to the Hurunui River: instream values and flow regime and like the Hurunui report it provides a holistic description of the values present within the Waiau Catchment and the hydrological regime that is currently present. The report goes on to make recommendations of a preferred flow and allocation regime to better protect non-economic values.

Hurunui River Management Regime

This report was prepared by Environment Canterbury prior to the notification of Variation 8 to the proposed Natural Resources Regional Plan to set minimum flows and allocation block sizes to protect values in the Hurunui River. Variation 8 was used as the basis of the minimum flows in the Hurunui River, however some changes have been made to the flow and allocation regime notified in Variation 8 to reduce the impact on reliability of supply in the short term but better protect environmental, social and cultural values in the long term.

Waiau River Hydrological Information

This report summarises a range of hydrological information on the Waiau River. It was prepared at the conclusion of the Waiau River flow and allocation discussions, and as such contains all of the relevant working papers which were presented to the Community Advisory Group.

Land Use and Water Quality Project

The Land Use and Water Quality Project 2010 case study in Hurunui addressed the need to manage water effectively and address the effects of land use changes on the region’s groundwater, streams, rivers and their associated ecosystems. The project included activities at three levels: with land users working on-farm; people living and working within the catchment; and with people working at a regional level to look at the links between economic, social and environmental factors. The project was designed to ultimately result in a more effective policy framework for establishing limits for nitrate and other contaminants, and management/implementation strategies for improving water quality. The project involved Canterbury Regional Council working with the primary sector, and other stakeholders in a collaborative style to ensure solutions are workable and sensible while being science informed. For further information and reports on this project, see www.ecan.govt.nz/LUWQ.

Technical Reports

View the list of Technical Reports (pdf 87 kB).