Hazards

New Zealand’s coast is sculpted by ocean waves. Some wave conditions bring joy to surfers and beachgoers, but, at other times, waves can cause major hazards at sea or along the shore.

To prepare for changes in climate, our freshwater and oceans decision-makers need information on species vulnerability to climate change.

This weekly update helps assess likelihood of extremely dry weather preceding a drought. Regions experiencing severely to extremely drier than normal soil conditions are deemed “hotspots”

Understanding how hazards impact people and the environment provides the foundation for informed decision making for a resilient Pacific.

The New Zealand Drought Monitor is a system for keeping track of drought conditions across New Zealand based on a standardised climate index.

New Zealand faces a variety of hazards associated with undersea geological activity.

Generally speaking, a drought is defined as a rainfall deficit which restricts or prevents a human activity – for example, farming or power generation.

This system combines daily sea-level data from NIWA, regional councils, port companies, Antarctica NZ, Bureau of Meteorology and territorial authorities.

Heavy rainfall is one of the most frequent and widespread severe weather hazards to affect New Zealand.

Water Levels: Our Cam-Era installation on the Ashburton River overlooks a hapua or coastal lagoon. We know the exact location of several posts in the front of the image, and we can use these and the position of the camera to back-calculate the water level.
What Cam-Era can do for you
Every day we come up with new things that Cam-Era can monitor.

Due to its position in the 'Roaring Forties', a belt of strong winds in the Southern Hemisphere which generally occur between the latitudes of 40 and 49 degrees, as well as its small size, New Zealand is a windy country.

NZ has a range of different types of coasts, and so very different coastal erosion and sediment systems.