Recovery
Coordination Office Update
File No.: CP2023/04542
Te take mō te
pūrongo
Purpose of the report
1. To
update the Governing Body on the recovery programme from the January Floods and
Cyclone Gabrielle.
Whakarāpopototanga matua
Executive summary
2. Earlier
this year Auckland experienced two significant emergency events, initially
declared as a local State of Emergency and subsequently within the area for
which a National State of Emergency was declared. A National Period of
Transition Notice is currently in place for the Auckland region.
3. This
report is the first update on progress rather than specific matters. A more
comprehensive overview of the forward programme and associated reporting
measures will be provided to the Governing Body at the 23 May meeting. .
4. Interim
objectives have been developed to guide and coordinate recovery activities in
the short term, which will be refined and confirmed through the development of
the Tāmaki Makaurau Recovery Plan these are:
· Impacted communities
are reconnected and resilient, enabling regeneration
· Mana whenua and
Māori are active partners and participants in the recovery programme for
Tāmaki Makaurau
· Repaired and
reinstated housing, infrastructure, facilities, and services are more
resilient, and our natural environment is regenerated
· Sustainable economic
activity is re-established enabling equity and economic prosperity.
5. Recovery
is a collaborative endeavour. Recovery efforts are being integrated through
four whenu, or workstreams, which correspond to the objectives:
i) Community
and Social Wellbeing
ii) Māori
Partnership and Participation
iii) Natural
and Built Environment
iv) Economy.
6. The
Recovery Coordination Office (Office) has been established to lead coordination
within and across the workstreams. Under the leadership of the Group Recovery
Manager and Deputy Group Recovery Manager the Office is lean, relying on the
activities of participating agencies and resources of the Auckland Council
group.
7. Progress
highlighted in this report includes progress and information on:
· Healthy
Waters’ risk-based programme, ‘Making Space for Water’
· Auckland
Transport and Watercare projects updates
· geotechnical
investigations
· Regulatory
management of the issued Rapid Building Assessments
· recovery
planning and the recovery coordination office
Ngā tūtohunga
Recommendation
That the Governing Body:
a) whiwhi /
receive the update on the recovery programme from the January Floods and
Cyclone Gabrielle.
b) tuhi ā-taipitopito / note that
the May 2023 Recovery Office update will provide interim recovery objectives
and a performance dashboard for the four workstreams, until the final Recovery
Plan has been approved.
Horopaki
Context
8. The
Auckland region experienced two emergency events in quick succession with the
record-breaking rainfall event on 27 January 2023 and Cyclone Gabrielle in the
second week of February 2023. Almost the entire region of Auckland was impacted
through widespread flooding, landslips, high winds, trees down, extensive power
outages, localised flooding and further slips. People were evacuated from
flooded homes, west coast communities isolated, infrastructure damaged and loss
of life.
9. A
local State of Emergency was declared on 27 January 2023 and extended, first to
10 February, and then to 17 February 2023. Cyclone Gabrielle had significant
impacts across six regions of New Zealand including Auckland, resulting in a
National Emergency being declared for the third time in New Zealand history.
10. The
scale of these emergencies and their impacts require coordinated recovery
efforts to address their consequences in the immediate, medium and long-term.
11. The
Auckland Council Civil Defence Emergency Management Committee (CDEM Committee)
held two extraordinary meetings to consider recovery matters on 9 February and
23 February 2023. The Governmeny Body received an update report on 23 March
2023.
12. A
National Notice of Transition Period signaling the transition of the response
to recovery was issued on 3 March 2023 and included the Auckland region. Valid
for 90 days, the National Notice may be extended, or a local Notice of
Transition Period may be issued by the Group Recovery Manager or Deputy Group
Recovery Manager for Tāmaki Makaurau. Notices of Transition make certain
powers available to manage, coordinate or direct recovery activities in the
public interest, where necessary or desirable to ensure a timely and effective
recovery. The powers are like those available to a Controller under a
Declaration of Emergency in a response.
13. The
mayor has written to the Chief Executive outlining a number of initiatives to
develop more resilient infrastructure, land use planning and building
regulations. These initiatives include build back [infrastructure]
better; address landuse planning and building regulations; and initiate a
number a stormwater actions to improve effectiveness of stormwater assets and
overland flow paths. The matters raised will be addressed across the
recovery initiatives and have been referred also to the Chief Planning Office
and Regulatory Services. As noted in the attached letter the Cyclone
Recovery Taskforce has also received a copy of the letter. (Attachment 1)
Tātaritanga me ngā
tohutohu
Analysis and advice
Progress Update
14. The
report also provides information on the coordination of recovery efforts
through the Recovery Coordination Office. More importantly, the report
highlights a sample of progress across recovery activities.
Recovery in Tāmaki Makaurau
15. The
recovery to the combined events is of a scale not previously implemented in
Auckland. Affecting most of the Auckland region, the recovery needs to address
impacts and consequences across the region from the north to the south,
including rural, urban, residential and business areas.
16. Establishing
and maintaining the recovery will be a significant commitment, necessitate the
reprioritisation of expenditure and generate a significant workload for some
parts of Auckland Council group operations in addition to business as usual. It
will require the coordination of resources across the council group and
oversight from the Governing Body.
17. To
support and guide the coordination of recovery effort in the initial stages,
interim objectives have been developed. The objectives of the recovery will be
refined and confirmed through the development of the Tāmaki Makaurau Recovery Plan:
i) Impacted
communities are reconnected and resilient enabling regeneration.
ii) Mana
whenua and Māori are active partners and participants in the recovery of
Tāmaki Makaurau.
iii) Repaired
and reinstated housing, infrastructure, facilities, and services are more
resilient, and our natural environment is regenerated.
iv) Sustainable
economic activity is re-established, enabling equity and economic prosperity.
18. Collective
recovery efforts are dedicated to these objectives through the inclusion of
participating organisations in the relevant whenu, or workstreams. The four
whenu have been tailored to meet the needs of Tāmaki Makaurau and are like
the concept of recovery environments.
Figure 1. Tāmaki Makaurau
recovery whenu
Community and Social Wellbeing
19. This
whenu includes temporary accommodation, aspects of housing, displacement of whānau from their homes and other concerns and circumstances that
impact wellbeing. Key partners include Auckland Council, the Temporary
Accommodation Service and Ministry of Social Development.
20. The
future programme will include place-based community initiatives and
facilitating community engagement in recovery planning and delivery.
Māori Partnership and Participation
21. This
whenu recognises the need for effective engagement with Māori and for
Māori to be engaged as Treaty of Waitangi partners. Iwi and Māori
have interests across each of the other whenu such as marae, businesses,
housing, tamariki and the natural environment. Establishing connections and
relationships with iwi and marae is a priority.
Natural and Built Environment
22. This
whenu includes impacts on water supply, wastewater, stormwater and transport
infrastructure, geotechnical and ground stability, placarded buildings,
building and planning regulations. The work programme for this whenu will both
inform and support the development of policy positions that may be required as
a part of decision making on solutions to both the impacts of the events of
early this year, and for subsequent events.
23. Key
partners include Auckland Council, Auckland Transport, Watercare Services,
Healthy Waters, Toka Tu Ake/EQC, Insurance Council of New Zealand, insurance
companies, Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment and the New Zealand
Infrastructure Commission / Te Waihanga.
24. The
Auckland Recovery Office’s is coordinating a workshop with asset owners,
the Infrastructure Commission / Te Waihanga and the Construction Sector Accord
to establish a comprehensive understanding of the infrastructure programme for
existing programmes and recovery construction spend over the next three years.
The intent is to integrate the programme of works to ensure the efficient
procurement and project delivery.
‘Making
Space for Water’ - Healthy Waters
25. Healthy
Waters is rapidly advancing development of a flood recovery programme, known as
‘Making Space for Water’, specifically:
· the volumes of water
and its velocity and higher than previously recorded
· areas that flooded
in late January were predominantly in known flood plains
· flood prone areas or
overland flow paths and confirmed with modelling
26. Managing
risk is central to stormwater management. The Making Space for Water programme
is risk‑based and includes a range of interventions:
· locality based blue-green network projects, including daylighting
and floodplain management opportunities
· targeted interventions for high-risk properties
· enhanced response for rural settlements
· stream rehabilitation, including community led programmes for
private streams
· management of overland flow paths
· increased network maintenance
· upgraded infrastructure, such as culverts and stormwater detention
in parks
· building
community resilience
· continued
development of flood intelligence capabilities, in order to improve storm and
emergency response
27. The reactive part of the work programme has been identified through
requests for service, drone surveys and site assessment. Work is underway on
over 100 reactive projects involving work on natural assets (for example
streams) and built assets (for example catchpits and culverts). Further work is
being identified and these projects will continue as needed as detailed work
programmes are finalised.
28. Making Space
for Water is a significant programme of work. The Recovery Office plans to
workshop its scope, benefits and implications with the Governing Body, and the
proposed programme will be presented to the Governing Body for consideration.
Auckland
Transport
29. Auckland
Transport (AT) is responding to community needs. To keep communities informed:
· the
AT website is updated with the latest information on open roads and road closures
on an ongoing basis
· coordinated
communications to across the region, including to elected members, local
community groups and partners are being coordinated on an ongoing basis
30. To
respond to communities needs for roading repairs around 40 key projects are
being tracked and managed across eight areas. Due to over slips, under slips
and geotech issues, many projects require restrictions on access or road
controls. Some projects are more complex involving multiple slips and or
multiple utilities. Projects progress through Scoping, Investigation, Planning,
Design and Construction, as shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Auckland Transport recovery
projects
|
Area of
Auckland Region
|
#
Projects / Status
|
|
West
|
12 under
investigation
2 in
scoping phase
|
|
North rural
|
22 under
investigation
4 scoping
2 design
|
|
North urban
|
1 scoping
2 design
|
|
South rural
|
16 investigation
2 scoping
|
|
South urban
|
1 completed
3 investigation
|
|
Central
|
1 investigation
1 scoping
|
|
Great
Barrier
|
5 investigation
|
|
Waiheke
|
5 investigation
1 scoping
|
|
Scour
protection works
|
multiple
sites
detailed
repair options in preparation
packages of
work to be project managed when ready
|
Geotechnical
investigations
31. Work
is continuing to assess geotechnical hazards. Council staff are working with a
panel of geotechnical suppliers established to:
· review the process for removal or downgrading of placards where the
risk has reduced or remedial measures have been undertaken
· to quantify the risk in the hardest hit west coast communities to
aid future decision making.
Rapid
Building Assessment
32. Continued
responsive administration of the placards attached to damaged buildings has
processed many requests for reassessment following completion of remedial work.
The current number of placards is set out in Table 2 (as at 17 April 2023) with
the arrow indicating the change since recorded status (as at 22 March 2023).
Table 2.
Number of placards – April 2023
|
Placards
|
March 22
|
April 18
|
|
Red
|
681
|
334 (↓347)
|
|
Yellow
|
2357
|
1905 (↓425)
|
|
White
|
4326
|
4100 (↓226)
|
Economic Growth
33. This
whenu includes impacts on business, in both urban and rural settings. Central
government has provided grant funding by the Ministry of Business Innovation
and Employment and Ministry of Primary Industries with the intent of ensuring
businesses can be fully operational quickly, production shortfalls are
addressed and businesses can be more resilient.
34. Key
partners include Auckland Council, the Ministry of Business Innovation and
Employment, Auckland Chamber of Commerce, Employers and Manufacturers, Ministry
of Primary Industries, Rural Support Trust, Northern Adverse Events Team and
the Waikato Primary Industries Adverse Event Cluster.
Recovery Planning
35. An
Interim Recovery Plan has been prepared to guide the operations of the Office
in the initial period. Content on the interim recovery objectives, recovery
whenu and structure of the Office have been drawn from that Plan.
36. The
focus is now on the Tāmaki
Makaurau Recovery Plan (TMRP) with the development of a detailed work
programme, encompassing the process for its development, community engagement,
deliverables, timeframes and alignment with processes for the Annual Budget and
Long-term Plan. The TMRP is envisaged as being two tiered; with a region
wide-section and sections that are more place-based, aligned to individual or
clusters of local board areas. Indicative content is set out in Table 3.
Table 3. Tāmaki Makaurau Recovery Plan indicative
content
|
Region-wide section
|
Local section
|
|
· Vision and objectives
· Policy context
· Introducing the recovery whenu
· Recovery Coordination Office
· Governance
· Funding
· General information – Rapid Building
Assessment processes, links etc
· Indicators and metrics
· Exit
|
· Place-based context (impacts, consequences,
Local Board Plans etc)
· Place-based plans / place-based recovery
activities
· Indicators and metrics
|
37. Inevitably
there will be recovery activities that overlap to some degree with the policy
work (scope of work) agreed to by the Planning, Environment and Parks Committee
(PEPCC/2023/25) and policy development by central government. The TRMP is also
related to the work of the Cyclone Recovery Taskforce, whose role is to bridge
local recovery and advise central government. The Taskforce is to provide
advice on what is required for recovery and how to improve resilience to
climate change and severe weather in future, as well as priorities and
sequencing in each region.
38. The TMRP will include reference to parallel policy processes as
relevant. It noted that there remains an inherent tension between the time
required of policy development and timely recovery efforts. The Severe Weather
Emergency Recovery Legislation Bill being progressed may assist in navigating
these issues.
Recovery Coordination Office
39. The
Recovery Coordination Office (Office) has been established, based on portfolio
management principles and disciplines to provide integration across recovery,
business as usual and change. The Office is lean and supported by a matrix
structure, leveraging the business of participating organisations to deliver
recovery efforts.
40. The Office reports into the Deputy Recovery Manager and is made up
of staff from across the recovery whānau. The
structure of the Office, with four functions, each with subfunctions, is set
out below:
Figure 2. Recovery Coordination Office functions.
Tauākī whakaaweawe
āhuarangi
Climate impact statement
41. The update on
the recovery from the January Floods and Cyclone Gabrielle does not impact on
greenhouse gas emissions or approaches to reduce emissions, though may identify
opportunities to provide additional benefit in the context of climate change.
42. A
core goal of Te Tāruke-ā-Tāwhiri: Auckland’s Climate Plan
is to adapt to the impacts of climate change by ensuring we plan for the
changes we face under our current emissions pathway. The Recovery Coordination
Office’s activities will contribute to delivery of actions within Te
Tāruke-ā-Tāwhiri, in particular, Action C1. "Work together
to strengthen the resilience of our communities, people and places" which
includes the sub-actions:
· Establish a
prioritised programme of support for communities and individuals who are most
impacted.
· Engage and educate
communities and industries to be aware of current and future climate risks and
consequences of hazards.
· Identify how mana whenua, communities and their places can be more
resilient.
43. The
Recovery Coordination Office’s work with the team from the Chief Planning
Office on the “Report back on the scope of work: flooding impacts,
implications and improvements” (PEPCC/2023/25) referred to above is noted
in this regard
Ngā whakaaweawe me
ngā tirohanga a te rōpū Kaunihera
Council group impacts and views
44. In
recognition of the council group’s constrained financial position, the
recovery is based on portfolio management approaches and delivered under a
distributed model. Coordination will be undertaken by a lean Recovery
Coordination Office, with dedicated workforce provided, and recovery efforts
undertaken, by business units across the Auckland Council group.
45. Auckland
Transport and Watercare Services Limited have participated in discussions
informing the design of the Recovery Coordination Office, the whenu,
workstreams and participation in the Office. Working together will increase as
the Office is established and commences coordinated delivery of the work
programme. Extension of these arrangements to other members of the Council
Group will arise out the work programme.
Ngā whakaaweawe
ā-rohe me ngā tirohanga a te poari ā-rohe
Local impacts and local board views
46. The impacts
of the January Floods and Cyclone Gabrielle were experienced across the
Auckland region and are of significant interest to local communities and their
local boards. The recovery will involve significant local board involvement and
engagement.
Tauākī whakaaweawe
Māori
Māori impact statement
47. Mana whenua
and mataawaka living in Auckland were impacted by the January Floods and
Cyclone Gabrielle as individuals and whānau and through impacts on marae
and sites of cultural significance. Many marae acted as community hubs
providing support to those impacted by the weather event.
48. The recovery
is an opportunity to partner with iwi, mataawaka, marae and Māori businesses.
Areas for consideration could include the use of marae and Māori-led
organisations in delivering recovery activities to their communities,
responding to impacts on the natural environment, including native species and
ecosystems, and changes to land use and stormwater systems to enhance the mauri
of waterways in Tāmaki Makaurau.
Ngā ritenga
ā-pūtea
Financial implications
49. There are no financial implications
arising directly from this report as it provides an update to the Governing
Body for their information. Future funding implications are being worked
through along with potential funding sources, including from central
government. Year one funding is anticipated to be covered by reprioritised
existing budgets
Ngā raru tūpono me
ngā whakamaurutanga
Risks and mitigations
50. The office is
designed on programme management principles and disciplines including risk
management. The Office’s Management, Integration and Planning function
specifically includes the Risk and Assurance Management subfunction. Work
programming is subject to risk assessments and risk management controls and
systems and appropriate assurance and monitoring of the overall portfolio will
be undertaken.
Ngā koringa ā-muri
Next steps
51. The Governing
Body will receive the next update at its 23 May 2023 meeting.
Ngā tāpirihanga
Attachments
There are no attachments for
this report.
Ngā kaihaina
Signatories
|
Authors
|
Wayne Brown - Principal Recovery Advisor
Mace Ward - General Manager Parks, Sports and
Recreation
|
|
Authorisers
|
Phil Wilson – Group Recovery Manager (Acting)
Jim Stabback - Tumu Whakarae / Chief Executive
|
