Hazards

Understanding what happens above and below ground during a flooding event, and how it is different from normal rainfall conditions

River floods occur when water spills from a river channel onto land that is normally dry, and are one of New Zealand's costliest natural hazards.

Dog Island levels

The scientific records of palaeotsunamis to have affected New Zealand shores can now be accessed in a new one-stop information shop.

Scientists will be knocking on doors in Edgecumbe next week seeking to survey the damage done to buildings from recent flooding caused when a stopbank on the Rangitaiki River breached.

The sounds of whales and dolphins rarely seen in New Zealand waters have been recorded by a NIWA scientist in a pioneering underwater sound project.

A new tool to monitor drought conditions across New Zealand has been launched today by NIWA.

Huge mudslides from November’s earthquakes have wiped out all organisms living in the seabed of the Kaikōura Canyon.

NIWA scientists on board RV Ikatere have been surveying the coastal area around Kaikoura for the first time since November's magnitude 7.8 earthquake.