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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
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      • 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?
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      • Introduction
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Landscape Management in the new world order: 
time to lift our game

Martin Williams

The King Salmon decision has forced a reset of our approach to landscape management under RMA. The question now raised is whether we as resource management practitioners either fully appreciate the implications of the decision, or are equipped to deal with them.  This article explores some of these implications, and poses a challenge to the profession, landscape experts in particular, to assume a lead role in taking landscape evaluation and management forward into the new ‘post King Salmon paradigm’.

When the New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement 2010 (NZCPS) came into force, it was undeniably within a setting whereby the requirements of any one policy, including Policies 13 and 15, were weighed in the mix. They did not set an absolute bottom line, prevailing over all other factors, whatever the cost. It was this ‘overall judgment’ approach that was applied by the Board of Inquiry in the King Salmon case, and it reflected nearly 20 years of case law. Now that the Supreme Court has rejected that approach, and Policy 13 and 15 do set bottom lines, in my view the profession needs to lift its game as to landscape assessment and management.

Local authorities are also not always distinguishing between areas ‘with and without’ the coastal environment (to which Policy 13 and 15 of the NZCPS actually and only apply), as to the level of landscape protection afforded under their policy statements and plans. For example, the now more stringent policy approach reflecting King Salmon applies both to the 16% of mainland Auckland rated as an ONL under the Unitary Plan, and to ONLs on the Hauraki Gulf Islands. In both areas, even farm buildings above 50m2 on rural land rated ONL need resource consent, which may be refused.  From my reading of the decisions version of the Queenstown Lakes District Plan, the same can be said of this district located within Central Otago, some 97% of which is rated as outstanding.  Express policy makes it clear that subdivision and development is inappropriate “in almost all locations in” ONL areas, and only the exceptional case will be approved. In my view, this reality only makes meeting the challenge posed, all the more important.

In Man O’ War Station v Auckland Council, the Court of Appeal confirmed the “factual” nature of landscape evaluation, divorcing the policy or planning implications arising from an ONL rating, from the rating exercise itself. While outstanding landscapes may therefore simply be “what they are”, regardless of the planning consequences that follow, those consequences cannot be ignored in real world terms.  I respectfully suggest that the landscape profession has an obligation in this regard, and not just to secure the protection of landscapes for their intrinsic sake or their value to wellbeing and tourism. The profession needs to also take land owners, infrastructure providers, farmers, developers, mana whenua and indeed all stakeholders affected by the policy implications of landscape rating, with it on the journey. To do that, in my opinion, greater consistency and transparency of approach at all the relevant stages referred to in the NZILA 2010 Best Practice Note is required, i.e. landscape identification, characterisation, evaluation, and perhaps most important- change management. 

One undeniable fact is that the word “outstanding” appears only once in Part 2 of the RMA.  It does not appear in s6(a) (as to natural character of the coastal environment), nor in s6(c) addressing areas of significant indigenous flora and fauna.  Something greater than “significant” was envisaged from the outset.  The term “outstanding” was deliberately employed by the drafters of the RMA to draw upon case law surrounding water conservation orders in the previous legislation. Readers will be aware of the line of case law reflecting that approach, including the seminal WESI decision, confirming that landscapes may be “beautiful or picturesque” even “magnificent” without being outstanding. I do wonder whether the Practice Note definition of an ONL as being “particularly notable” fairly reflects the intended threshold, or (with respect to Court of Appeal) should do any more in the new paradigm.

The Environment Court has also several times noted that outstanding landscapes are generally so obviously exceptional, as to not require expert appraisal (Man O’ War v Auckland Council, for example).  Yet case law is legion with divided expert opinion dominating disputes over the nearly two decades since WESI, as to whether landscapes vast and small should be rated outstanding, and if so, whether the effects of a given proposal (wind farm, dwelling, subdivision or quarry) are appropriate and so consistent with the requirements for ONL protection set by s6(b) of RMA.

It is now well established that the WESI or Pigeon Bay criteria can be grouped into biophysical, associative and perceptual attributes (see, for example, Upper Clutha Tracks v Queenstown Lakes District Council). What seems considerably less clear is the methodology by which the rating of each attribute is determined, and how the various attributes are themselves then ranked or combined to obtain the final result.

The NZILA Best Practice guidelines were no doubt carefully prepared with a view to standardising the approach to landscape evaluation and management, and this is to be applauded.  But as the responses to the survey recently conducted by former NZILA President Shannon Bray reveal, there is still much work to be done in this respect, including as to how landscapes are both characterised and rated.

In my respectful opinion, this is manifestly an area of resource management practice literally demanding a national policy statement or standard, directing a more uniform and consistent approach to how landscapes are identified,  what attributes must be considered,  and  how the rating of each attribute is then to be determined. In my view, such national guidance should also address issues of weighting between attributes (biophysical versus perceptual for example) and as to how the final or overall evaluation and synthesis should be made to decide whether the threshold of outstanding is met.  It should also cover process issues such as to what extent a multi-disciplinary exercise is required for the task, and the requisite degree of community and stakeholder engagement.

But as touched on earlier, this is when the potentially even more vexed question of landscape change management then arises, and how to determine whether a given development proposal is appropriate in particular.  To that end, clearly and concisely framed records of the landscape evaluation, identifying in objective terms the characteristics and qualities that led to the rating, would aid the cause.  Whether a given development is appropriate consistent with protecting the specific landscape characteristics and qualities can then be more predictably and transparently assessed. While no doubt we all have our own war stories, landscape attribute descriptions as nebulous as “the interface of sea, bush and sky” simply beg the question, how on earth do you decide whether a given development proposal is appropriate in that context?
​
We should not as the Practice Note says, simply “freeze landscapes”. My overriding concern is that at present, the current landscape policy setting may direct that very outcome, without reference to the wider sustainable management implications of the decisions being made.

I would fully endorse any initiative taken by the landscape profession towards meeting the challenge ahead, and taking leadership in the preparation of national guidance regarding the critical aspects of landscape evaluation and management in particular. To be clear I am not proposing a straitjacket here disposing of the need for expert evaluation. But I am proposing a framework, which all experts in all districts and regions would be required to follow. Its time has come, if not overdue.
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Martin Williams has over 20 years’ experience practising in resource management and local government law. He has represented a wide range of private and public sector clients at local authority and appeal hearings, appearing as counsel in a number of leading Environment and High Court cases as well as in the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court. Martin was also counsel in the Man O’ War cases referred to in this article. Martin is a former President of the Resource Management Law Association of New Zealand (Inc) serving on the National Committee of that Association for nine years. Additionally, Martin is an accredited Mediator (Resolution Institute) and Hearing Commissioner (Ministry for the Environment).
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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 >
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