Coasts

Temperatures around Aotearoa New Zealand are increasing, and not just on land. Amid a changing climate, significant marine heatwaves have impacted Aotearoa over the past decade and are expected to become more frequent and intense.

NIWA is leading a New Zealand partnership to map the South and West Pacific Ocean's seabed as part of a worldwide initiative to map the entire globe’s seafloor.

This project aims to increase our knowledge of aquatic ecosystems and their restoration, and apply this to degraded streams, rivers, lakes and estuaries.

Transforming coastal lowland systems threatened by sea-level rise into prosperous communities

Observations of a Pacific atoll mangrove forest by a NIWA-led research team suggests mangrove systems on oceanic atolls may lose the race to keep pace with sea-level rise.

NIWA and Surf Life Saving New Zealand are working together to develop a state-of-the-art, rip current identification tool underpinned by artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning technologies.

Marsden-funded research investigating how erupting volcanoes can cause deadly and damaging tsunamis.

Constructed wetlands, detention bunds, woodchip denitrification filters and planted riparian buffers are examples of a growing suite of edge-of-field and farm-scale mitigation systems that are being trialled across rural New Zealand to reduce the impact of diffuse pollution on freshwater quality

Te Nehenehenui (previously Maniapoto Māori Trust board) and NIWA are working collaboratively to support Ngāti Maniapoto whānau to reconnect with and participate in the assessment of their freshwater according to their values.

Fine sediment is the most pervasive and significant contaminant in New Zealand’s rivers, estuaries, and coastal areas.

Braided rivers are an arena where woody weeds and floods are in constant competition with each other.
Braided rivers naturally flood frequently, repeatedly mobilising their bed sediments and shifting their multiple channels.

A combination of field surveys and on-site observations are being used along with laboratory-based experiments to determine the effects of seabed disturbance on benthic life.