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River Works – Annual Programme

Friday 19 October 2012, 1:54PM

By Tasman District Council

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TASMAN

The Council maintains 285 kilometres of the District’s X and Y “classified” Rivers in order to carry out its statutory roles to promote soil conservation and mitigate damage caused by floods and riverbank erosion. These classified Rivers are funded by a differential river rating system based on land value. The river works in the classified rivers, such as stopbanks and the removal of crack willow, are carried out by the Council.

There are many more rivers, streams and creeks that are on private, Council and Crown (Department of Conservation, Land Information New Zealand) lands, which are not classified. These unclassified rivers have associated river protection works such as rock walls, groynes and river training works that form part of the river system. These are known as River Z areas.

The Council’s annual Rivers operations and maintenance programme is available on the Council’s website, Rivers Annual Operation Maintenance Programme, and details the works planned for each year. River Care Group meetings (which the public are encouraged to attend) are held each year to set and develop the rivers programme. While the programme forms a basis for intended work, it can be subject to change as a result of flood events or unforeseen urgent works.

The Council undertakes the management of the “classified” rivers system using three levels of classification.

These are described as follows:

Class X – river sections with stopbanks maintained by Council
Class Y – river sections maintained by Council without stopbanks
Class Z – the balance of the district (considered to receive an indirect benefit).

For more information about rivers in the Tasman District, contact the Transportation Assets Engineer, Giles Griffith.