Flood protection work on the Cam River in Kaiapoi uncovered native mussels living among decades-old debris, supporting river health and flood risk reduction.
News
Flood and river resilience
Last updated: 13 May 2026
Reporting frequency: Quarterly
Core service: Community Preparedness and Response to Hazards
We are reducing river flood risk to people and property through building and maintaining high quality flood protection, land drainage and erosion control infrastructure.
This work provides an opportunity to maintain and enhance the natural character of our braided rivers through accelerated planting, weed control, wetland enhancement and other nature-based solutions to create healthy river berms or margins.
Along our river corridors we own and manage approximately 25,000 hectares of land, some of which is managed as Regional Parks – Waimakariri Regional Park, Ashley Rakahuri Regional Park and Takapō Regional Park.
In the second half of 2025, we advocated for central government co-investment for flood resilience projects, and we secured co-funding of $21.5 million for nine projects across the region.
How are we tracking on our service measures?
Service measure 19: Percentage of stopbanks, river berms and fairways on our six major flood protection and control schemes that are inspected annually
Target: 92% or more
How are we doing: 43% – there will be significant push to complete physical stopbank inspections, as well as desktop fairway and berm inspections, by the end of quarter four
At risk
Service measure 19B (new): Percentage of flood protection and control work maintenance and repair annual budget invested on our major flood protection and control schemes
Target: 90% or more
How are we doing: 60% - expenditure of maintenance and repair budgets is on track to be spent this financial year.
On track
Service measure 19C (new): Percentage of renewal projects on our major flood protection and control schemes that commenced on or ahead of schedule
Target: 100%
How are we doing: 100% - all three renewal projects scheduled in 2025/26 have commenced. The three renewal projects are the Orari River - Stopbank repair SH1 - Railway (north side), North Branch Ashburton River – capacity restoration and Opihi River – Nursery development
On track
Service measure 20: Percentage of flood protection work that implements nature-based and/or multi-benefit flood and river resilience solutions
Target: 15%
How are we doing: 14% - a total of 205 river works jobs have been completed year‑to‑date. Of these, 56 were completed during quarter three, with eight incorporating nature‑based or multi‑value solutions. All nature‑based solutions delivered during the quarter related to native planting or the protection of existing planted areas
On track
More information
Manmade and natural infrastructure is a key line of defence for our communities during flooding events. There are 58 schemes in the region, and they all have different levels of service agreed with their community.
The major flood protection and control schemes covered by service measure 19 are Kaikōura Rivers, Rakahuri Ashley, Waimakariri-Eyre-Cust, Ashburton Rivers, Orari-Waihi-Temuka, Opihi and the lower Selwyn Waikirikiri.
We are assessing the opportunities for using nature-based solutions that work with and enhance the environment, providing environmental, cultural, social and economic benefits.
Examples of nature-based solutions include giving rivers room to move and using soft engineering solutions (e.g. vegetation). Examples of multi-benefit and river resilience solutions include improving recreational and biodiversity values, mahinga kai, fish passage and access.