State of the Environment Report

You can read the full State of the Environment Project Plan

What the report will tell us

• The key objectives of the proposed 2009 State of the Auckland Region report are:
  to provide access to scientifically credible, robust, timely and relevant information on the current environmental conditions and trends in Auckland;
• to identify driving forces and direct pressures influencing environmental change and quality of life in Auckland;
• to identify the possible implications of environmental trends;
• to evaluate where possible the effectiveness of current management responses to environmental issues;
• to assist decision-making in policy development, implementation and resource management;
• to raise public awareness and understanding of environmental issues in order to improve the way we use, manage and value the environment; and
• to make recommendations on specific actions and future directions required to advance Auckland's progress towards meeting objectives of the Auckland Sustainability Framework (ASF)

It is proposed to align the State of the Environment with the Auckland Sustainability Framework, using the eight goals as the overarching framework. Doing this leverages the consensus obtained during the development of ASF and avoids duplication of time, effort, and resources.

Why we create this report

Under the Resource Management Act 1991, local, regional and central levels of government in New Zealand must prepare and make publicly available a review of the results of their monitoring the efficiency and effectiveness of policies, rules, or other methods in its policy statement or its plan at least once every five years.

Previous State of the Environment Reports

The ARC publishes extensively the results of its monitoring programmes, typically on a biennial frequency. These technical publications provide an invaluable data analysis and reporting tool but tend to be highly specific and quite complex. Three reports on the efficiency and effectiveness of the Regional Policy Statement have been published in 2003, 2004 and 2007, each focusing on a different chapters of the Auckland Regional Policy Statement. The State of the Auckland Region report was last published in 2004.