By Lianne Dalziel, Mayor, Christchurch

I was recently asked what elements of preparation pay off most when a crisis occurs. I gave several examples, but ended with the Greater Christchurch Partnership and the Greater Christchurch Urban Development Strategy, which existed before the earthquakes. 

The Greater Christchurch Partnership is a partnership with the two districts to our north and south (Waimakariri and Selwyn), and the Greater Christchurch Urban Development Strategy is a planning framework developed with the Canterbury Regional Council (Environment Canterbury) and Waka Kotahi. After the earthquakes, we brought Ngāi Tahu and the District Health Board to the table, as well.

The existence of the Christchurch Urban Development Strategy (UDS) at the time of the 2010/11 earthquakes enabled the government to act quickly to introduce fast‑track changes that brought forward the planning framework that had already been agreed, albeit with a longer horizon in mind. 

Depopulation is a massive risk following a disaster like the one we experienced; however, we saw more lifting and shifting of population within the infrastructure boundaries set by the UDS three years before we saw people abandoning the city. 

This has enabled Christchurch to continue to grow. Collectively, we are the second-largest urban centre in the country, with around half a million people. For the past decade, Christchurch has been the fastest-growing urban centre outside Auckland. Over this time, we have not only had to face the challenge of responding to this growth with fit-for-purpose infrastructure, but we have also had to rebuild and recover from the earthquakes. 

That in itself has had its pros and cons. Greater Christchurch has benefited from significant investment in modern, resilient infrastructure and urban assets beyond what you would expect in a city of our size. I have sat on both sides of the table – as a cabinet minister and now as Mayor – so I know how hard it is to engage the community in discussions around resilient infrastructure. The debate often focuses on the higher-profile urban assets, as opposed to what needs to be done underground. 

Although the anchor projects still attract a lot of attention, it was the horizontal infrastructure rebuild, led by an alliance called the Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team (SCIRT), that was the crucial element in getting our city back on its feet. I still think SCIRT is the unsung hero of the post-earthquake public sector commitment to the rebuild of the city, and a great model for future events.  

The irony of the public discourse on the Three Waters Reform Programme that is focused on who owns these ‘assets’ is not lost on me, when I know it is the need for resilient infrastructure from one end of the country to the other that should be the focus of the debate. You don’t have to agree with the model the government has proposed to know that the current arrangements are simply not fit for the future.  

My first term as Mayor was very much focused on the immediacy of the post-earthquake recovery phase. It was my second term that enabled us to think more about the future with our strategic partners. In terms of a joined-up relationship with central government, the need to focus on the connection between transport and urban development became our collective objective.

We have now signed up to a new, strengthened partnership to drive planning for Greater Christchurch. Minister of Housing the Hon. Megan Woods, and Minister of Local Government the Hon. Nanaia Mahuta have joined members of the existing Greater Christchurch Partnership to establish the Urban Growth Partnership for Greater Christchurch – the Whakawhanake Kāinga Committee.   

The committee’s priorities are decarbonising the transport system; increasing resilience to natural hazards and the effects of climate change; accelerating the provision of quality, affordable housing; and improving access to employment, education and services.   

At our inaugural meeting, the committee agreed on the next steps for its first project: the development of a joint Greater Christchurch Spatial Plan, which will integrate with work already underway on an Indicative Business Case for high-capacity and high-frequency public transport (mass rapid transit).  

The draft plan will set out how Greater Christchurch will develop to accommodate a larger population and respond to other challenges, including housing affordability and reducing emissions.  

The ability to respond quickly to growth through clear and coordinated long-term land use, and infrastructure planning, alongside the responsive provision of infrastructure, is the lesson we have learned about the way to accommodate demand while maintaining relative housing affordability.

The challenges we face today, while not as immediately disruptive as the earthquakes, are no less seismic in their impact on our urban area, our people, our environment and our economy. They are:

• Greater Christchurch continues to experience strong population growth. If Greater Christchurch continues to grow at the rate of the previous 15 years, then our population will double to one million people within the next 60 years. (I personally think we could be far more deliberate about growing our population much sooner than that and to a larger number.)

• Greater Christchurch is the most exposed urban area in Aotearoa New Zealand to coastal inundation and flooding due to climate change – affecting people, businesses, communities and infrastructure, and this will affect some of our most vulnerable communities more significantly. 

• Our urban form has amongst the highest dependency on private motor vehicles for transport of the main urban areas in Aotearoa New Zealand. This is partly due to our employment and housing being relatively dispersed, with this becoming more acute following the 2010/11 earthquakes. 

• Our economy is highly dependent on carbon-emitting industries, such as logistics and agriculture. 

Consistent with the national infrastructure strategy, Greater Christchurch’s response to these challenges is not just about building more infrastructure – it is about better utilisation of our existing infrastructure.

Infrastructure must provide a platform for adaptive change, and New Zealand faces an urgent need to transition to low-emitting ways to transport people and goods, and to live and do business more sustainably. 

To do this, we need to learn from the post-earthquake response and consider how, as a country, we can unlock infrastructure projects that significantly contribute to emissions reduction at pace. We need to look at how we can be bold, and how we can remove the barriers to prioritise these projects in renewable energy and alternative transport options, for example. 

We proved, in the immediate post-earthquake environment, that infrastructure can be delivered quickly with strong private and public collaboration, an openness to innovation, and a healthy approach to shared risk-taking. The challenge is to achieve this in the context of a slower disruption, like climate change.

We are absolutely prepared to be a testbed for new ideas. We’ve proved ourselves open to pilots, and to making our systems and infrastructure available for others to develop new technologies and innovations. At the same time, we must seek to integrate behaviour change with our infrastructure solutions.

A national strategy that looks at where we are best placed to absorb and distribute growth in a sustainable way is key to national resilience. Our national housing and infrastructure deficit crisis requires us to think at this level. 

Greater Christchurch has a strong platform to absorb growth and provide for it in a sustainable way – if we can unlock infrastructure solutions that support a transformation of our urban form through reduced car dependency, and alternative energy solutions, as well as addressing the exposure we face to coastal inundation. 

Our post-earthquake journey has enabled us to leapfrog infrastructure investment, and to create a more resilient and attractive urban environment that will take Greater Christchurch well into the 21st century. We are very keen to play our part in assisting the rest of New Zealand to achieve those goals.