Climate risk assessment and adaptation planning for councils
Climate risk assessments help councils and public sector organisations turn data, scenarios and uncertainty into practical decisions. Tonkin + Taylor helps clients understand risks to communities, infrastructure and essential services, identify priorities and develop adaptation pathways for local needs.
Councils must decide where communities grow, how infrastructure is maintained and when to invest in adaptation. These decisions must balance changing risks, community expectations and affordability.
New Zealand’s planning system and proposed climate legislation place greater emphasis on local adaptation. The Planning Act provides for the identification of priority locations through regional spatial plans, while the Climate Change Response Amendment Bill would require territorial authorities to prepare adaptation plans for those locations.
We help councils build evidence, assess options and engage communities.
Tonkin + Taylor delivers climate risk assessments throughout New Zealand. Our work spans national programmes, regional and district assessments, community adaptation planning, and critical assets and infrastructure networks.
We helped deliver New Zealand’s first National Climate Change Risk Assessment. We also advised the Ministry for the Environment on the methodology for the second assessment and adaptation plan.
We assess climate risk at multiple scales, including:
> Regions and districts, identifying risks to people, the environment, the economy and public services
> Towns, neighbourhoods, coastal settlements and rural communities
> Council property portfolios, community facilities, parks and reserves
> Critical assets and infrastructure networks, including roads, water supply, wastewater, stormwater and flood protection
Our integrated GIS, geotechnical, and water engineering capabilities show how natural hazards and climate change may affect places, assets, networks, and services. We consider how disruption can spread across connected infrastructure and affect dependent communities.
Our advice is practical and evidence-based, drawing on hazard science, engineering, planning and engagement. We work with councils, mana whenua, communities and infrastructure providers to understand local priorities and assess the costs, benefits and wider implications of adaptation options.
We help clients move from climate risk assessment to action, connecting adaptation priorities with spatial planning, asset management, infrastructure strategies and long-term plans. Our approach supports decisions about what to do now, what can be staged over time and when a change in direction may be needed.
What we do
- Regional, district and community climate risk assessments
- Identification and prioritisation of locations for adaptation planning
- Climate scenario development, analysis and resilience testing
- Adaptation strategies, frameworks and local adaptation plans
- Dynamic adaptive pathways planning, including monitoring signals and decision triggers
- Funding and finance strategies for adaptation investment
- Natural hazard modelling, mapping and spatial risk analysis
- Infrastructure vulnerability, criticality and interdependency assessments
- Adaptation options assessment, including protection, accommodation and managed retreat
- Transition planning
- Financial impact, loss and damage assessment
- Cost-benefit analysis, investment prioritisation and business case support
- Integration with spatial planning, asset management and long-term planning
- Community, mana whenua, iwi and stakeholder engagement
- Elected member, executive and staff workshops
- Monitoring, evaluation and reporting frameworks
We also support engineering feasibility, flood and stormwater resilience, nature-based design, cultural advisory, data and digital tools, emergency management and continuity of essential services.
