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    • Issue #16 SIA for rural resilience and wellbeing >
      • SIA for rural resilience and wellbeing: Intro
      • The drivers and agents of on-farm change in Aotearoa New Zealand
      • Social-ecological assessment for remote and island communities
      • The Impact of Substandard Rural Housing on Resilience and Wellbeing in Te Tai Tokerau
      • Success factors for planning regeneration in rural areas
    • Issue #15 Economic methods and Impact Assessment >
      • Economic methods in impact assessment: an introduction
      • The Nature of Economic Analysis for Resource Management
      • The State-of-the-Art and Prospects: Economic Valuation of Ecosystem Services in Environmental Impact Assessment
      • Economic impact assessment and regional development: reflections on Queensland mining impacts
      • Fonterra’s policy on economic incentives for promoting sustainable farming practices
    • 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
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      • 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
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      • Tourism – the long haul ahead
      • Making sense of the impact of Covid-19: planning, politics, and the public good
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The Assessment & Management of Amenity
Stephen Brown

Since 1991 and the advent of the Resource Management Act (RMA), resource management practitioners have struggled with the seemingly arbitrary split between ‘landscape’ and ‘amenity’. Both involve human perception of the physical environment, the attachment of values to different locations and places, and the shaping of both values and identity by cultural mores and associations.  Yet, one is a Section 6 Matter of National Importance and the other – amenity – has remained the ‘little brother’ as part of Section 7 addressing Other Matters. This resulting division between these concepts is made to appear even more arbitrary when one looks at the meaning of Amenity Values in the RMA, which describes them as follows:
 
Amenity values means those natural or physical qualities and characteristics of an area that contribute to people’s appreciation of its pleasantness, aesthetic coherence, and cultural and recreational attributes.

 
Arguably, all of these factors are just as relevant to the appreciation of different landscapes and the forging of their identity. Moreover, since the decision J A Campbell vs Southland District Council of 1991, it has generally been accepted that amenity values relate to much more than just visual perception of a landscape or environment: they also relate to such factors as noise, lighting, smells and awareness of activity and movement. In other words, they can encompass the full spectrum of sensory factors that contribute to perception and appreciation of an area’s character, pleasantness, aesthetic coherence and identity.
 
So where does the point of division between landscape and amenity actually lie? My own view is that it primarily relates to two matters: scale and the appreciation of identity or sense of place. Whereas landscapes can encompass a wide range of scales – from the most grand and all-encompassing, such as the Southern Alps or Canterbury Plains, to the quite modest – scale at the amenity level focuses much more on human perception of the known, the familiar, even the ‘domestic’. Inevitably, this brings into play values associated with more personalised spaces and environments: residential environs, the neighbourhood, the local community and the landscapes that frame and contribute value to those places in all respects. Similarly, identity and sense of place – evolved from the Greek concept of the ‘genius loci’ – largely relate to the familiar and known: the idea of a place that offers comfort, succour and aesthetic value derived from a certain harmony of physical elements and their composition.
 
Unsurprising, therefore, amenity value, as interpreted under the RMA, has long retained a strong connection with residential environs and the values either associated with individual properties or local communities. Naturally, not all places are perceived as being equal in either regard. Some reveal an acute sense of intimacy and connection that is profound, whereas others seem fragmented, disjointed and disrupted – whether because of the outlook and landscape(s) that they are exposed to, or because of noise, activity, and the concatenation of all of the above.
 
Nor is this focus on residential environs exclusive: Section 7(c) of the Act refers to “cultural and recreational attributes”, which also takes us to places that we ‘play in’ and that have cultural meaning. For many New Zealanders, such places will extend from the local playground and domain, or beach, to far-flung fishing spots, while for others it may well encompass the local church, community hall, marae or urupa. Each of these places and spaces will have specific values, from just peace and quiet to an abiding sense of spirituality and historical meaning.
 
Consequently, even though a basic level of amenity underpins most environments that provide the focus for residential occupation and recreation, amenity values also remain highly specific to individual locations. They encompass both the various attributes, and their composition, that contribute to the sense of identity and place associated with an area – for locals and visitors alike – and the quality of life that this engenders for those occupying or working and playing within it.
​              
In relation to the management of amenity values and effects on them, this situation hardly engenders a great deal of comfort. The sheer variability of amenity values and their site specific, nature makes both the assessment of amenity values and their management fraught with complexity – much like landscape. At a basic level, amenity values are maintained via district plan standards and controls that we are all familiar with: zoning, bulk and location requirements, noise limits and other controls which set out to achieve a minimum level of amenity and to minimise nuisance effects – for residential, open spaces and other sensitive areas.
 
Beyond this, however, resource management takes us into a world of cumulative effects and nuance: of values and effects that have less to do with measurable thresholds and more to do with the way in which environmental factors – such as noise – contribute cumulatively (in combination with other factors) to changes in the perceived character, demeanour and pleasantness of a particular location and environment. Both the baseline that these existing values and sense of place establish, and the effects that a development proposal might have on them, can only be assessed at an entirely site specific, level. Moreover, as the recent Blueskin Bay decision[1] highlighted, the measurement of such values and effects must take into account local perceptions and values – not just those of ‘outside experts’.  In other words, engagement with local communities and individuals is a ‘must’; it is a prerequisite to sound decision making in this highly complex arena.
 
Consequently, much as amenity remains continues to be regarded by many as the ‘little brother’ of landscape, this is not reflected in the importance of amenity values for most New Zealanders. Amenity is indeed fundamental to the day to day quality of life that nearly all New Zealanders enjoy. It is equally critical to the wider values and sense of place that they associate with the various places that they live in, recreate in, and that have cultural, social and spiritual meaning. In other words, they are critical to the well-being of all of New Zealand’s communities.
​

[1]    Blueskin Bay vs Dunedin City Council decision ([2017] NZEnvC 150): addressing a wind farm above Blueskin Bay in north Dunedin
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Stephen Brown is a Fellow and past president of the NZILA, and has specialised in landscape assessment and planning for the best part of 36 years – working in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. He has undertaken strategic, landscape and natural character assessments from Whangarei and Auckland to the South Island’s West Coast, and developed the methodology for a study of Hong Kong. Stephen has also been involved in a large number of major development projects – dating back to involvement in the Channel Tunnel project in the UK, then evaluation of the initial proposals for development of a port at Marsden Point. More recently, he has been involved with projects ranging across marina applications, new harbour crossing options for Auckland, the Waterview Connection Project and East West Link, and numerous wind farm projects. He frequently appears, as an expert witness, in the Environment Court and at council hearings, and has a small, but busy, practice, that addresses ‘landscape’ issues – including effects on amenity values – across the country.     
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  • Home
    • Environmental Impact Assessment
    • Social Impact Assessment
    • Strategic Environmental Assessment
    • Community & Stakeholder Engagement
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  • About Us
    • Core Group >
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    • Constitution changes 2025
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    • Conference 2024 >
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      • Conference 2023 >
        • Pacific Day 2023
        • 2023 Students
      • 2022 - Wellbeing, Sustainability and Impact Assessment: towards more integrated policy-making >
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      • 2021 - Social Impact Assessment >
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      • 2019 - Climate Change >
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      • 2018 - Regional Development
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    • Sign up for occasional updates from NZAIA
  • Impact Connector
    • Issue #16 SIA for rural resilience and wellbeing >
      • SIA for rural resilience and wellbeing: Intro
      • The drivers and agents of on-farm change in Aotearoa New Zealand
      • Social-ecological assessment for remote and island communities
      • The Impact of Substandard Rural Housing on Resilience and Wellbeing in Te Tai Tokerau
      • Success factors for planning regeneration in rural areas
    • Issue #15 Economic methods and Impact Assessment >
      • Economic methods in impact assessment: an introduction
      • The Nature of Economic Analysis for Resource Management
      • The State-of-the-Art and Prospects: Economic Valuation of Ecosystem Services in Environmental Impact Assessment
      • Economic impact assessment and regional development: reflections on Queensland mining impacts
      • Fonterra’s policy on economic incentives for promoting sustainable farming practices
    • 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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