A group of individuals walk across a stream on a sandy beach. A dog stands in the foreground. In the background is a rocky seawall above which cars and a small building can be seen. In the distance an exposed cliff can be seen above the ocean. Sea-level rise is causing changes to our coastline.

We know the sea around Aotearoa is rising and that our coastal communities must adapt.

However, there’s still a lot we need to know about how the hazards and risk along Aotearoa New Zealand’s long and winding, highly variable coastline will evolve and shift.

In this project we are bringing together actionable knowledge on how our coastal areas and the communities that call them home will be affected by climate change. There are risks that we can no longer avoid, due to locked in climate change, even if we do abate carbon emissions in line with the Paris Climate Agreement. There is time to plan and adapt effectively, sustainably and fairly to the impacts of sea-level rise, but we must prepare now.

To be fore-warned is to be fore-armed. The award-winning NZ SeaRise Programme took a step towards understanding sea-level rise in this country by integrating vertical land movement every 2 km around our coastline and developing a national sea-level rise projection tool kit. These outputs can be used by local councils to plan, manage, and regulate. However, consultation with end-users and partners has highlighted critical knowledge gaps that still need resolving to effectively manage and adapt to sea-level rise impacts across our ~15,000 km of coastline.

This website is under construction.

Te Ao Hurihuri: Te Ao Hou – Our Changing Coast

The Te Ao Hurihuri Te Ao Hou: Our Changing Coast programme is a $13 million, five-year (2022-2027) research programme funded by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. It is hosted at the Antarctic Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington and led by Professor Richard Levy and Professor Tim Naish. It follows on from the NZ SeaRise Programme, which was also a five-year research programme.

Our aim is to ensure New Zealanders can access actionable scientific knowledge to effectively anticipate sea-level rise and its impacts. We are bringing together researchers, Iwi, Māori, government agencies, private sector, and community groups to develop and implement sustainable adaptation and management approaches.

Our research will use the latest datasets and models and our team’s world-leading science track record to:

  • enhance equitable, sustainable, and healthier communities
  • develop a new suit of “state of the art” SLR projections
  • develop tools to identify evolving coastal hazards
  • develop tools and decision-making procedures that:
  • facilitate risk assessment processes
  • limit social and economic disruption

NZ SeaRise

Our previous project, The NZ SeaRise: Te Tai Pari O Aotearoa programme released location specific sea-level rise projections combined with information on where the land is subsiding or uplifting (vertical land movement). These projections go out to the year 2300 for every 2 km of the coast of Aotearoa New Zealand. These projections are accessed through an online tool developed by Takiwā, a data management and analytics platform. 

Using this tool, New Zealanders can see how much and how fast sea level will rise along ‘their own’ stretch of coast and in their neighbourhood. The tool allows users to click on a particular location on the coast and see how much sea level is expected to rise, and by when, under different climate change scenarios.