Glossary
A guide to acronyms (and abbreviations), words and phrases used throughout the Environment Canterbury website. Look in the 'By Subject' tab to find groups of terms relevant to a specific topic.
Some terms might have definitions in addition to those in this glossary.
Use the online Māori Dictionary to help with translating words between Te Reo Māori/English.
- Pā
- fortified village.
- Patiki
- flounder.
- Peketa Phenomenon
- nickname for a smelly, oily substance found on the surface of water in Peketa drains, believed to be a result of natural causes.
- Pest
- an organism specified as a pest in a pest management strategy.
- Pest management
- the control of plants and animals that are having a negative impact on our natural environment.
- Piezometric survey
- a survey of groundwater levels across an area at a single given point in time.
- Planktonic cyanobacteria
- free-floating algae that are suspended in the water column of slow-moving waters such as a lake or lagoon.
- Pollution Prevention Guide
- step-by-step through identified environmental risk areas and assists with putting measures in place for businesses to reduce the risk associated with these.
- Profile Available Water (PAW)
- is the difference between field capacity and wilting point, and represents the total water available to a depth of 1 m expressed as millimetres of water.
- Public notification
- when a resource consent application is received by the council, we conduct an assessment of its environmental effects. If the environmental effects are more than minor, the resource consent will require public notification under Section 95A of the Resource Management Act 1991.
- P
- Phosphorous
- pa
- per annum = each year
- PAH
- Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons
- PAW
- Profile Available Water
- PB
- Planter Bag
- Pb
- Lead
- PC
- Personal Computer
- PC
- Proposed Change
- PC
- Plan Change
- PCBs
- polychlorinated biphenyls
- PCE
- Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment
- PCP
- Pentachlorophenol
- PDF
- Portable Document Format
- PDP
- Pattle Delamore Partners Limited
- PFD
- Personal Flotation Device
- Ph
- Phone or Phone number
- pH
- potential Hydrogen, a measure of acidity or basicity
- Ph. D
- Doctor of Philosophy
- PIC
- Potential Impact Classification
- pic
- picture
- PIM
- Project Information Memorandum
- PIM
- Public Information Manager
- PM
- Particulate Matter
- pm
- post meridiem = afternoon/evening
- PNRRP
- Proposed Canterbury Natural Resources Regional Plan
- PO
- Post Office
- POPs
- Persistent Organic Pollutants
- pp
- pages
- pp
- per person
- PPG
- Pollution Prevention Guide
- ppm
- parts per million
- PPO
- Pollution Prevention Officer
- ppt
- parts per thousand
- PR
- Public Relations
- PRINZ
- Public Relations Institute of New Zealand
- Prof.
- Professor
- PSH
- Probabilistic Seismic Hazard
- PSRA
- Phosphorus Sediment Risk Area
- Pt
- Part
- Pt
- Point
- PT
- Passenger Transport
- PVC
- Polyvinyl Chloride
Environment Canterbury © 2023
Retrieved: 9:34am, Fri 01 Dec 2023
https://www.ecan.govt.nz/info/glossary/