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  • Impact Connector
    • Issue #14 Impact assessment for infrastructure development >
      • Impact assessment for infrastructure development - an introduction
      • Place Matters: The importance of geographic assessment of areas of influence in understanding the social effects of large-scale transport investment in Wellington
      • Unplanned Consequences? New Zealand's experiment with urban (un)planning and infrastructure implications
      • Reflections on infrastructure, Town and Country planning and intimations of SIA in the late 1970s and early 1980s
      • SIA guidance for infrastructure and economic development projects
      • Scoping in impact assessments for infrastructure projects: Reflections on South African experiences
      • Impact Assessment for Pacific Island Infrastructure
    • Issue #13 Health impact assessment: practice issues >
      • Introduction to health impact assessment: practice issues
      • International Health Impact Assessment – a personal view
      • Use of Health Impact Assessment to develop climate change adaptation plans for health
      • An integrated approach to assessing health impacts
      • Assessing the health and social impacts of transport policies and projects
      • Whither HIA in New Zealand….or just wither?
    • Issue #12 Risk Assessment: Case Studies and Approaches >
      • Introduction
      • Risk Assessment and Impact Assessment : A perspective from Victoria, Australia
      • The New and Adaptive Paradigm Needed to Manage Rising Coastal Risks
      • Reflections on Using Risk Assessments in Understanding Climate Change Adaptation Needs in Te Taitokerau Northland
      • Values-Based Impact Assessment and Emergency Management
      • Certainty about Communicating Uncertainty: Assessment of Flood Loss and Damage
      • Improving Understanding of Rockfall Geohazard Risk in New Zealand
      • Normalised New Zealand Natural Disaster Insurance Losses: 1968-2019
      • Houston, We Have a Problem - Seamless Integration of Weather and Climate Forecast for Community Resilience
      • Innovating with Online Data to Understand Risk and Impact in a Data Poor Environment
    • Impact Connector #11 Climate Change Mitigation, Adaptation, and Impact Assessment: views from the Pacific >
      • Introduction
      • Climate change adaptation and mitigation, impact assessment, and decision-making: a Pacific perspective
      • Climate adaptation and impact assessment in the Pacific: overview of SPREP-sponsored presentations
      • Land and Sea: Integrated Assessment of the Temaiku Land and Urban Development Project in Kiribati
      • Strategic Environmental Assessment: Rising to the SDG Challenge
      • Coastal Engineering for Climate Change Resilience in Eastern Tongatapu, Tonga
      • Climate-induced Migration in the Pacific: The Role of New Zealand
    • Impact Connector #10 Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation >
      • Introduction
      • Is a “just transition” possible for Māori?
      • Adapting to Climate Change on Scale: Addressing the Challenge and Understanding the Impacts of Asia Mega-Cities
      • How responding to climate change might affect health, for better or for worse
      • Kanuka, Kereru and carbon capture - Assessing the effects of a programme taking a fresh look at the hill and high country land resource
      • Wairoa: Community perceptions of increased afforestation
      • Te Kākahu Kahukura Ecological Restoration project: A story within a story
    • Issue #9 Impacts of Covid-19 >
      • Introduction to Impact Connector Issue 9 – Impact assessment and Covid 19
      • Covid-19 fast-track consenting: climate change legacy key to success
      • Tourism – the long haul ahead
      • Making sense of the impact of Covid-19: planning, politics, and the public good
    • Issue #8 Social Impact Assessment >
      • Challenges for Social Impact Assessment in New Zealand: looking backwards and looking forwards
      • Insights from the eighties: early Social Impact Assessment reports on rural community dynamics
      • Impact Assessment and the Capitals Framework: A Systems-based Approach to Understanding and Evaluating Wellbeing
      • Building resilience in Rural Communities – a focus on mobile population groups
      • Assessing the Impacts of a New Cycle Trail: A Fieldnote
      • The challenges of a new biodiversity strategy for social impact assessment (SIA)
      • “Say goodbye to traffic”? The role of SIA in establishing whether ‘air taxis’ are the logical next step in the evolution of transportation
    • Issue #7 Ecological Impact Assessment >
      • The future of Ecological Impact Assessment in New Zealand
      • Ecological impact assessment and roading projects
      • EcIA and the Resource Management Act
      • Professional Practice and implementation of EcIA
      • EcIA in the Marine Environment
    • Issue #6 Landscape Assessment >
      • Introduction
      • Lives and landscapes: who cares, what about, and does it matter?
      • Regional Landscape Inconsistency
      • Landscape management in the new world order
      • Landscape assessment and the Environment Court
      • Natural character assessments and provisions in a coastal environment
      • The Assessment and Management of Amenity
      • The rise of the THIMBY
      • Landscape - Is there a common understanding of the Common?
    • Issue #5 Cultural Impact Assessment >
      • Introduction
      • Potential of Cultural Impact Assessment
      • The Mitigation Dilemma
      • CIA and decision-making
      • Insights and observations on CIA
      • Achieving sustainability through CIA
      • CIA - Enhancing or diminishing mauri?
      • Strategic Indigenous Impact Assessment?
    • Issue #4 Marine Environment >
      • Introduction
      • Iwi, Impact Assessment and Marine Environment
      • Sea-Bed Mining Application in Taranaki
      • The wreck of the MV Rena
      • High Court RMA Controls on Fishing
      • Initiatives in the Pacific Islands
      • SEA in an NZ context
    • Issue #3 Strategic Environmental Assessment
    • Issue #2
    • Issue #1
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Lives and landscapes: who cares, what about, and does it matter??
Clive Anstey

Undertaking landscape assessments to inform planning and resource management decisions is not new. With the passing of the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA), however, came a radical shift in focus, purpose, and language. Where the Town and Country Planning Act 1977 focused on the allocation of space, the Resource Management Act focuses on the management of effects. Within the landscape profession there was considerable optimism with the passing of the RMA; planning that separated uses and fragmented landscapes would be replaced by management that integrated uses and sustained landscapes.

While the Purpose and Principles set out in the RMA clearly reflect the need for communities to build relationships with their environments that are both sustaining and sustainable, much of the language and structure of the Act reflects a history of adversarial process and the separation, rather than integration, of interests. Landscape Architects have not been alone in struggles to interpret the language, mediate processes to apprehend the values and meanings communities attach to places, and provide direction to the management of resources. Our efforts have been subject to intense scrutiny, not least by the Environment Court. In spite of the evolving case law and the promulgation of guidelines in 2010, the profession continues to face criticism for a lack of consistency in assessing landscapes to ascribe values as well as in the assessment of the effects of activities. The various statutory processes attract increasing community interest, especially the qualitative dimension of resource management. The ‘landscape’ is now central to people’s concerns. The number of visitors to our country each year is fast approaching the number who live here.  Our landscapes frame a visitor’s experience of New Zealand, making a vital contribution to our economy as well as the wellbeing of New Zealanders generally.

In order to accommodate the increasing diversity of interests and perspectives, coherent and transparent processes of landscape assessment and management have become critical. In response to concerns raised by the Environment Court a review of assessment guidelines was initiated by Shannon Bray, NZILA president at the time, in 2016. In 2017 some 120 people attended a series of workshops around the country. They were asked to respond to a series of questions. The collated responses are informing a review of our guidelines. This task is being undertaken by two of the professions most experienced practitioners. A draft of the revised guidelines will be circulated among those who have engaged in the review process, as well as representatives of the various professional bodies and interest groups with whom landscape architects engage. This newsletter provides a series of ‘think pieces’ exploring some of the key questions the review process is addressing.

Landscape matters arise in both sections 6 and 7 of the RMA, as well as policies 13 and 15 in the NZ Coastal Policy Statement. While the overriding objective of the Act is to sustain the character and quality of all landscapes there is a requirement to recognise the significance of particular landscapes in distinct contexts, notably in coastal environments and in landscapes where the impacts of culture have been minimal. ‘Amenity’ tends to be an important consideration in the management of all landscapes; values attaching to amenity must be identified and sustained regardless of context. All too often our assessments are limited in both their scale and scope so that the effects of a proposal are evaluated within very limited frames of reference. There is a need for us to clarify the language in the Act and to recognise the relationships between the various statutory contexts in order to provide more comprehensive and coherent assessments. And while assessments may identify differences in the character and quality of landscapes, they do not always provide direction to their management.

It is now generally accepted, not least by the Environment Court,  that the  landscape attributes to be recognised in landscape assessments fall into three broad categories:  biophysical, perceptual, and associative. There is also general agreement on critical attributes, and to a lesser extent, how their significance is to be evaluated.  The evaluation of significance is often undertaken in collaboration with other experts and specialists, for example ecologists, social scientists, and those with the authority to weave the values and aspirations of indigenous communities into statutory processes. Landscapes are effectively ‘summary expressions’ of complex relationships, ecological and cultural.  Landscape management must therefore recognise and provide for critical attributes and ensure their relationships are sustained.  
              
Landscape assessments, like most resource assessments associated with the RMA, serve two primary purposes; they inform policy development and the establishment of ‘bottom lines’, and they inform decision makers on the likely effects of proposed developments, and how such effects can be managed. They may also need to address ‘cumulative effects’, effects extending through time and across space.

Most regions, and at least some districts, have completed landscape assessments in support of their policies. All too often however, assessments undertaken as part of consenting processes do not have the support of clear policy statements and mapped information; assessments are undertaken on a case by case basis in a limited context of effects. The capture and validation of values is often cursory, undertaken with limited consultation, either with other professionals or communities. Consenting processes tend to be adversarial. Development can be threatening for many individuals and their communities. Adversarial deliberations are not ideal for reaching a consensus on the values of a landscape’s character, quality, or amenity. The ‘effects’ of proposals are all too often overstated by affected individuals and communities, and underestimated by developers.

Landscape assessments to fully uncover the values and relationships across landscapes need to be collaborative and inclusive.  Humans and the places they inhabit are a reflection of the cumulative effects of activities. Climate change reminds us that we share a commons and our relationships with land, air, water, and one another shape evolving futures. Landscape assessments are becoming increasingly important in informing conversations about such futures. 
    
 
Papa-tu-a-Nuku (Earth Mother)
​
 

We are stroking, caressing the spine
of the land.
We are massaging the ricked
back of the land
with our sore but ever- loving feet:
hell, she loves it!
Squirming, the land wriggles
in delight. 
We love her. 

Hone Tuwhare
Download Article as PDF
Clive Anstey is a Registered Landscape Architect and a Fellow of the NZILA. For the past 20 years he has worked as a Landscape and Resource Planning Consultant. Before becoming a consultant he trained as a forester in the UK and after 25 years in the NZ Forest Service worked as Manager of Planning for DOC. He completed the post graduate diploma in Landscape Architecture at Lincoln College along the way.  As a result his focus shifted from environments of ‘things’ to landscapes of relationships.
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  • Home
    • Environmental Impact Assessment
    • Social Impact Assessment
    • Strategic Environmental Assessment
    • Community & Stakeholder Engagement
    • Management, Monitoring and Reporting
  • About Us
    • Core Group >
      • Core Group Meeting Minutes
    • Our Partners and Affiliates
    • AGMs
    • Ethics
  • Membership
    • Sign Up for NZAIA Membership
  • Conferences
    • Proceedings from Past Conferences >
      • 2022 - Wellbeing, Sustainability and Impact Assessment: towards more integrated policy-making
      • 2021 - Social Impact Assessment >
        • Posters
        • 2021 Students
      • 2019 - Climate Change >
        • Posters
        • 2019 Students
        • Conference Photos
        • Contact List
      • 2018 - Regional Development
      • 2016 - Strategic Environmental Assessment
      • 2015 - Where to for Impact Assessment?
      • 2014 - Transport Infrastructure
      • 2013 Fresh Water Management
      • 2012 - Mineral Extraction
  • Impact Connector
    • Issue #14 Impact assessment for infrastructure development >
      • Impact assessment for infrastructure development - an introduction
      • Place Matters: The importance of geographic assessment of areas of influence in understanding the social effects of large-scale transport investment in Wellington
      • Unplanned Consequences? New Zealand's experiment with urban (un)planning and infrastructure implications
      • Reflections on infrastructure, Town and Country planning and intimations of SIA in the late 1970s and early 1980s
      • SIA guidance for infrastructure and economic development projects
      • Scoping in impact assessments for infrastructure projects: Reflections on South African experiences
      • Impact Assessment for Pacific Island Infrastructure
    • Issue #13 Health impact assessment: practice issues >
      • Introduction to health impact assessment: practice issues
      • International Health Impact Assessment – a personal view
      • Use of Health Impact Assessment to develop climate change adaptation plans for health
      • An integrated approach to assessing health impacts
      • Assessing the health and social impacts of transport policies and projects
      • Whither HIA in New Zealand….or just wither?
    • Issue #12 Risk Assessment: Case Studies and Approaches >
      • Introduction
      • Risk Assessment and Impact Assessment : A perspective from Victoria, Australia
      • The New and Adaptive Paradigm Needed to Manage Rising Coastal Risks
      • Reflections on Using Risk Assessments in Understanding Climate Change Adaptation Needs in Te Taitokerau Northland
      • Values-Based Impact Assessment and Emergency Management
      • Certainty about Communicating Uncertainty: Assessment of Flood Loss and Damage
      • Improving Understanding of Rockfall Geohazard Risk in New Zealand
      • Normalised New Zealand Natural Disaster Insurance Losses: 1968-2019
      • Houston, We Have a Problem - Seamless Integration of Weather and Climate Forecast for Community Resilience
      • Innovating with Online Data to Understand Risk and Impact in a Data Poor Environment
    • Impact Connector #11 Climate Change Mitigation, Adaptation, and Impact Assessment: views from the Pacific >
      • Introduction
      • Climate change adaptation and mitigation, impact assessment, and decision-making: a Pacific perspective
      • Climate adaptation and impact assessment in the Pacific: overview of SPREP-sponsored presentations
      • Land and Sea: Integrated Assessment of the Temaiku Land and Urban Development Project in Kiribati
      • Strategic Environmental Assessment: Rising to the SDG Challenge
      • Coastal Engineering for Climate Change Resilience in Eastern Tongatapu, Tonga
      • Climate-induced Migration in the Pacific: The Role of New Zealand
    • Impact Connector #10 Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation >
      • Introduction
      • Is a “just transition” possible for Māori?
      • Adapting to Climate Change on Scale: Addressing the Challenge and Understanding the Impacts of Asia Mega-Cities
      • How responding to climate change might affect health, for better or for worse
      • Kanuka, Kereru and carbon capture - Assessing the effects of a programme taking a fresh look at the hill and high country land resource
      • Wairoa: Community perceptions of increased afforestation
      • Te Kākahu Kahukura Ecological Restoration project: A story within a story
    • Issue #9 Impacts of Covid-19 >
      • Introduction to Impact Connector Issue 9 – Impact assessment and Covid 19
      • Covid-19 fast-track consenting: climate change legacy key to success
      • Tourism – the long haul ahead
      • Making sense of the impact of Covid-19: planning, politics, and the public good
    • Issue #8 Social Impact Assessment >
      • Challenges for Social Impact Assessment in New Zealand: looking backwards and looking forwards
      • Insights from the eighties: early Social Impact Assessment reports on rural community dynamics
      • Impact Assessment and the Capitals Framework: A Systems-based Approach to Understanding and Evaluating Wellbeing
      • Building resilience in Rural Communities – a focus on mobile population groups
      • Assessing the Impacts of a New Cycle Trail: A Fieldnote
      • The challenges of a new biodiversity strategy for social impact assessment (SIA)
      • “Say goodbye to traffic”? The role of SIA in establishing whether ‘air taxis’ are the logical next step in the evolution of transportation
    • Issue #7 Ecological Impact Assessment >
      • The future of Ecological Impact Assessment in New Zealand
      • Ecological impact assessment and roading projects
      • EcIA and the Resource Management Act
      • Professional Practice and implementation of EcIA
      • EcIA in the Marine Environment
    • Issue #6 Landscape Assessment >
      • Introduction
      • Lives and landscapes: who cares, what about, and does it matter?
      • Regional Landscape Inconsistency
      • Landscape management in the new world order
      • Landscape assessment and the Environment Court
      • Natural character assessments and provisions in a coastal environment
      • The Assessment and Management of Amenity
      • The rise of the THIMBY
      • Landscape - Is there a common understanding of the Common?
    • Issue #5 Cultural Impact Assessment >
      • Introduction
      • Potential of Cultural Impact Assessment
      • The Mitigation Dilemma
      • CIA and decision-making
      • Insights and observations on CIA
      • Achieving sustainability through CIA
      • CIA - Enhancing or diminishing mauri?
      • Strategic Indigenous Impact Assessment?
    • Issue #4 Marine Environment >
      • Introduction
      • Iwi, Impact Assessment and Marine Environment
      • Sea-Bed Mining Application in Taranaki
      • The wreck of the MV Rena
      • High Court RMA Controls on Fishing
      • Initiatives in the Pacific Islands
      • SEA in an NZ context
    • Issue #3 Strategic Environmental Assessment
    • Issue #2
    • Issue #1
  • Resources
    • Webinars
    • IAIA Resources
    • United Nations Guidance
    • Donors Guidelines and Principles
    • Oceania and the Pacific
    • Natural Systems >
      • Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services
      • Agriculture & Food Systems
      • Water Management
    • Social Impact Assessment
    • Health Impact Assessment >
      • Climate Change & Health
      • Air Quality Impact Assessment
    • Cumulative Impact Assessment
    • Community and Stakeholder Engagement
    • Indigenous Peoples
    • Climate Change and Disaster Risk Resilience >
      • Adaptation Planning
      • Nature-based Solutions
    • Urban Development
    • Sustainable Development Goals
    • Strategic Environmental Assessment
  • Community
    • Membership Directory
    • News
    • Policy Submissions >
      • Past Submissions
    • Courses