Improving resilience: a longitudinal analysis of land-use policy and planning for earthquakes in Aotearoa New Zealand, 2000–16

Given New Zealand’s susceptibility to a range of natural hazards, reducing exposure is an important step towards strengthening community resilience and reducing potential social, environmental and economic consequences. Land-use planning has long been recognised as a contributor to achieving this goal. Focusing on earthquake hazards, this paper examines the evolution of risk reduction measures in local government land-use planning documents for 3 earthquake-prone regions of New Zealand in 2000 and again in 2016. While some progress has been made in planning for earthquake hazards, overall the planning documents in these regions remain inadequate. As such, resilience from a land-use planning perspective has not significantly improved. This is surprising in the context of major seismic events in New Zealand over the last decade that have caused considerable damage and loss of life. Future anticipated changes to the planning systems in the country provide opportunities for improvements to be included in documentation.