Weather hazards

Following extreme weather events in 2023, NIWA reprioritised research to help affected communities recover and prepare for the future.

NIWA is developing a national river flow forecasting tool for New Zealand that aims to support and strengthen our planning for and response to extreme rainfall events.

NIWA and the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) are working together to develop a new drought forecasting tool.

RiskScape is a software application for analysing natural hazard consequences.

This five-year NIWA-led research programme is developing a system to map flood hazard consistently across the whole country. It will reveal how our flood risk might change over the next 100 years because of changes to rainfall and sea level from climate change, as well as due to land-use changes.

NIWA’s research into forecasting weather systems aims to increase the resilience of New Zealand communities to weather-related hazards.

Floods are New Zealand’s most frequent and costly natural disaster. Fast and accurate forecasting of flood impacts is crucial for reducing the risk to life, property, and infrastructure.

Developing a snowmelt forecast system to enable more accurate and confident forecasts of river flow and alpine hazards.

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

This project aims to establish connections between weather and river flow forecasting, inundation prediction and risks to people and assets.

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.

University of Canterbury’s Professor Matthew Wilson, one of the Mā te haumaru ō te wai research team, gives us some insight on uncertainty.weather