Four ways cities can adapt to extreme weather

Because comments about houses where they shouldn’t be aren’t really helpful.

Feb 01, 2023

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Swales drain from the East Auckland Stonefields subdivision into a wetland – an example of “invisible infrastructure” to mitigate floodwaters. Image credit: Margaret Stanley.

It’s been another trying night as wind and rain lashed the upper North Island. Homes have been red-stickered, people displaced, lives lost. This record-breaking downpour is the reality of living with climate change. Warmer air leads to heavier rainfall, Professor James Renwick explains on The Conversation.

So as we emerge from the flood wreckage, how can we adapt? I turned to Dr Tom Logan, an urban systems and civil engineering researcher from the University of Canterbury, for answers. “I’ll caveat this by saying, when you get as much rain as Auckland did, you're kinda stuffed,” he says. But there are still things we can do to blunt the impact, and here are four of them.

Stop building in hazard zones

The most obvious solution: “don’t build there in the first place”. However Logan “really didn’t appreciate” Auckland mayor Wayne Brown’s comment about houses that shouldn’t be there. “We should be thinking about that in terms of new developments. Existing developments, we need to figure out how to support people.” Unfortunately, a variety of factors means that we’re still building in flood prone areas and avoiding tricky conversations about managed retreat.

Embrace the sponginess

You can upgrade a city’s stormwater pipes and make them bigger. But the “ideal city” for stormwater management is actually one that retains moisture, Logan explains. This is the rationale behind the “sponge city” concept, which means less impermeable concrete and more absorbent greenspace. Rain gardens and wetlands are enlisted to soak up all that water and filter it; invisible infrastructure that keeps floodwaters away from houses. In fact, Auckland is already fairly spongy – 35% spongy, to be exact – and came out on top in an analysis of nine cities last year. But we could do better.

Save the trees and free the rivers

First, we could stop chopping down all our urban trees, which act as moisture traps. And second, we could free the rivers from their concrete prisons, allowing them to flow naturally. For example, did you know that the Waihorotiu Stream once ran freely down the space now occupied by Queen Street? Concreting up our waterways like this stifles their natural propensity for wandering and blocks their soak-up superpowers. “They're basically just big drains – but then any blockages cause a catastrophic flood. And when it does rain like this, funnily enough, that’s where the water wants to go.”

Foster social cohesion and diversity

Environmental and social justice are super important for resilient communities that can weather the storm, according to Logan. “Social capital and cohesion strengthens recovery and our ability to prepare for and anticipate disasters,” he says, as well as highlighting the importance of diversity at the decision-making table. “If you have a bunch of old white men sitting around saying ‘what are the problems with our community?’, well, they're not going to think of all the problems.”

As Tāmaki Makaurau embarks on its recovery journey, here’s hoping decision-makers embrace the way of the socially-connected sponge.

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EVs made up 10% of global car sales last year

The electric vehicle takeover continues, with EVs making up 10% of global car sales. Experts reckon this could quadruple by 2030. This follows a big year for EVs in New Zealand too – but is the transition fast enough? Newsroom’s David Williams rightfully points out our nation of car hoarders is still buying a lot of gas guzzlers. Meanwhile, data scientist Hannah Ritchie crunches the numbers and finds that EVs emit less CO2 than fossil fuel-powered cars over their lifetime, despite a bigger upfront emissions cost.

Climate policies becoming more ambitious

Over the last three months, climate policy announcements from governments and the private sector are more ambitious than ever, according to a climate transition forecaster. This wave comes off the back of the Inflation Reduction Act in the US (which we covered here) and clean energy action in the EU. However, most policies weren’t aligned with the 1.5 degree Paris agreement goal, instead locking in 1.8 degrees of warming. As for homegrown climate policy, Inside Climate News examines the mismatch between former prime minister Jacinda Ardern’s world-leading policies and New Zealand’s growing carbon emissions.

We have a recycling problem

As a diligent recycler, it’s pretty disappointing to learn just how crap New Zealand’s recycling systems actually are. On the Stuff Explained podcast, Philippa Tolley finds out why our recycling infrastructure doesn’t cut it, and what we can do about it. Over on Newsroom, Nikki Mandow investigates why it’s so hard to recycle big things like cars and refrigerators, and how we might move toward a circular economy.

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Future Proof

Four ways cities can adapt to extreme weather

Because comments about houses where they shouldn’t be aren’t really helpful.

EVs made up 10% of global car sales last year

Climate policies becoming more ambitious

We have a recycling problem

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