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.

Wāhi taonga: places of sacred or extreme importance.

Wāhi tapu: sacred places.

Waitaki RAP: Waitaki Regional Allocation Plan newsletter.

Wastewater: means sewage, toilet wastes and grey water (household wastewater from kitchens, bathrooms and laundries), but excludes stormwater, trade wastes, livestock processing wastes, and other industrial or trade process wastes.

Water user group: defined in the Land and Water Regional Plan as a group of users with existing authorisations to take water, voluntarily grouped together to collectively manage the water resource allocated to them, primarily during times of restriction.

Wave buoy: the Canterbury wave buoy is moored in about 76 metres of water, 17 kilometres east of Le Bons Bay, Banks Peninsula at Latitude 43° 45ʹ South, Longitude 173° 20ʹ East. It sends Environment Canterbury information about the waves off the coast every half hour.

Well interference assessment tool: a web application that can create a PRN file directly from our well and resource consent database.

Wetlands: wet margins of: lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, estuaries, lagoons, bogs and swamps.

Whakatauki: proverb(s).

Whānau: family (extended).

Wrybill Trophy: each year, the winners of the Environment Canterbury School Award, in both the junior and senior categories at the Christchurch and Timaru fairs, present their exhibits at special council meeting at Environment Canterbury, Christchurch. The overall winner is awarded the Wrybill Trophy, the best of the best.