Resource management

Latest news

Large freshwater find off Canterbury coast

Media Release

13 March 2020

Scientists have discovered an extensive body of freshwater off the Canterbury coast between Timaru and Ashburton.

Gone fishin'

Feature story

1 February 2020

If you want a healthy fishing industry, you need to know how healthy your fish stocks are. Sam Fraser-Baxter talks to a scientist who went to sea to find out.

New reports highlight flood risk under climate change

Media Release

21 August 2019

Two reports released today by NIWA and the Deep South National Science Challenge reveal new information about how many New Zealanders, how many buildings and how much infrastructure could be affected by extreme river and coastal flooding from storms and sea-level rise.

Come jump in a lake with NIWA

Media Release

5 June 2019

Visitors to NIWA’s stand at this year’s Fieldays are invited to go diving into the Rotorua lakes—without having to get wet.

Our work

NZ Water Model - Hydrology

Bringing together leading scientific organisations and regional councils, this project develops a sophisticated computer modelling framework that will enable users to accurately predict how much freshwater is available, where it has come from, and how quickly it moves in New Zealand catchments.

Plastic pollution processes in rivers

Most of the plastic in the ocean originates on land, being carried to the estuaries and coasts by rivers. Managing this plastic on land before it reaches the river could be the key to stemming the tide of marine-bound plastics. The aim of this project is to understand the sources and fate of plastic pollution carried by urban rivers using the Kaiwharawhara Stream as a case study.

New Zealand fish passage guidelines

The New Zealand Fish Passage Guidelines sets out recommended practice for the design of instream infrastructure to provide for fish passage.

The New Zealand Estuary Trophic Index

Excessive nutrient input (eutrophication) threatens many New Zealand estuaries causing ecological problems, such as algal blooms and poor physical and chemical conditions for estuarine life.

Large freshwater find off Canterbury coast

Media Release

13 March 2020

Scientists have discovered an extensive body of freshwater off the Canterbury coast between Timaru and Ashburton.

Gone fishin'

Feature story

1 February 2020

If you want a healthy fishing industry, you need to know how healthy your fish stocks are. Sam Fraser-Baxter talks to a scientist who went to sea to find out.

New reports highlight flood risk under climate change

Media Release

21 August 2019

Two reports released today by NIWA and the Deep South National Science Challenge reveal new information about how many New Zealanders, how many buildings and how much infrastructure could be affected by extreme river and coastal flooding from storms and sea-level rise.

Come jump in a lake with NIWA

Media Release

5 June 2019

Visitors to NIWA’s stand at this year’s Fieldays are invited to go diving into the Rotorua lakes—without having to get wet.

Plastic pollution processes in rivers

Most of the plastic in the ocean originates on land, being carried to the estuaries and coasts by rivers. Managing this plastic on land before it reaches the river could be the key to stemming the tide of marine-bound plastics. The aim of this project is to understand the sources and fate of plastic pollution carried by urban rivers using the Kaiwharawhara Stream as a case study.

Looking after water in our towns and cities

The Urban Water Principles report released this month is a first step in tackling some big issues in a collaborative way.

NZ Water Model - Hydrology

Bringing together leading scientific organisations and regional councils, this project develops a sophisticated computer modelling framework that will enable users to accurately predict how much freshwater is available, where it has come from, and how quickly it moves in New Zealand catchments.

A say on the sea shore

Feature story

16 October 2018

Coastal communities around New Zealand are getting a say on how to respond to sea-level rise, and NIWA is helping them.

Handwritten files provide sediment treasure chest

Media Release

2 October 2018

A NIWA scientist who spent years poring over handwritten scientific notes stored in about 50 large wooden drawers, has seen the fruits of her labour now being used in ways she never imagined.

‘Swimmability’ of New Zealand rivers

Swimming is a popular activity in Aotearoa-New Zealand. Two attributes of waters that strongly affect aesthetic quality and safety for swimming are visual clarity and faecal contamination. It turns out that these two attributes are fairly well-correlated (inversely) in New Zealand rivers, such that (easily seen) visual clarity provides a rough-but-useful guide to (unseen) microbial quality.

New NPS-FM periphyton guidance released by Ministry for the Environment

A technical guide to the Periphyton Attribute Note under the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management (NPS-FM) 2014 (as amended 2017) has been released, as a draft, this month by the Ministry for the Environment.

Councils get help to prepare for sea-level rise

Media Release

18 July 2018

A senior NIWA scientist is concerned many councils are having difficulty “getting off the starting blocks” when it comes to planning for coastal climate change.