A resilient land transport system is critical for keeping people, products, and places connected for a thriving Aotearoa New Zealand. Resilience for NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) is about keeping roads open and the transport system available so people and businesses can rely on the transport system to get to where they want to go despite unplanned events or disruptions.
Natural hazards can include storms, earthquakes, tsunami, volcanic eruptions and climate-related hazards. Climate change is increasing the severity and frequency of climate-related hazards, such as flooding, landslides, and coastal inundation and erosion. This will affect the ability of people, communities, and freight to move about the country.
We work proactively to ensure the transport system can absorb and withstand disruptive events, that there are planned alternatives, and that we reopen closed roads as soon as possible.
We regularly assess, monitor, and report on state highway damage and network resilience to identify risks and, where necessary, we invest in resilience improvements that protect the transport network and keep our people, products, and places connected, now and in the future.
In line with the National Emergency Management Agency’s ‘4 Rs’ framework, NZTA takes an integrated approach to resilience and follows the ‘4 Rs’ cycle, which includes (risk) reduction, readiness, response, and recovery. Risk reduction and readiness are proactive approaches to minimise potential impacts to a community, whilst response and recovery are reactive actions to ensure that, following a natural hazard event, communities can return to normal (or better) as quickly as possible.
