Atlantis is rising: The suburb that’ll meet sea level, and thrive
The myth of South Dunedin going underwater in the next 100 years is just that, a myth. One that a scientist, community leaders and councils have tried to bust with limited success. So why are people still convinced? Sinead Gill reports.
The news article is available HERE.
When it rains in South Dunedin, it’s not just flooding people are concerned about, but what the flooding represents.
Much of the community, made up of multiple suburbs, was built on swampy terrain, now called “the Flat”. It is infamous for having the most homes 50cm or less above sea level in the whole country – more than Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch combined, according to a 2015 report.
Website Seawise tracks sea level rises and vertical land movements in New Zealand. Dr Simon Cox, a principal scientist at GNS Science, based in Dunedin, said if levels continued to rise at the current rate, parts of South Dunedin would be at or below sea level by 2050. Some 2700 homes would be at or below by 2100.
The climate time limit on New Zealand real estate
As large companies, banks and insurers adapt to the first stages of climate-disclosure legislation, many are see it as an opportunity rather than a hindrance
The news article is available HERE.
The ongoing impacts of extreme natural events, the need to plug gaps in climate data and the reaction of the business world to new climate-reporting rules.
These were all topics of discussion in yesterday’s climate change panel hosted by property data company CoreLogic, which saw experts from the overlapping ground between climate science and finance sift through some of the meatier implications of the changing climate for the financial stability of Kiwis, businesses and the broader economy. Continue reading
Answers to climate risk and housing getting closer
As climate risks increase, a long-term project has been launched to look for answers into the link between house prices and climate change.
The news article is available HERE.
As a lot of capital is raised through the country’s banks, climate change it is probably the biggest risk because about 80% of wealth is tied to people’s homes.
Most Kiwis live close to the coast and 60% of bank assets are in domestic real estate.
Taking a materiality perspective it seems to be the biggest risk the country faces and while New Zealand does not have uninsurable pockets of property near coastal areas, it is not far away.
The risk of flooding has long been a fact of life in many coastal communities, but increasingly volatile conditions due to the changing climate may mean more serious, and more frequent, floods.
CoreLogic Climate Change Panel: Addressing climate change, financial stability and property in New Zealand
On Thursday 7th of July, several climate experts, including CEFGroup Director Ivan Diaz-Rainey, discussed the increasing impact of climate change on New Zealand property, and the implications for the financial stability of Kiwis, businesses and our broader economy via CoreLogic New Zealand‘s Climate Change Panel.
Details below:
Addressing climate
change, financial stability and property in New Zealand
Thursday, 7th July 2022
12.30pm – 1.30pm
(including 15 mins live Q&A)
Research from STRAND Marsden Fund Project is covered on Newshub Live
Nick Goodall, Head of Research at CoreLogic and Member of the Advisory Group at CEFGroup’s STRAND Marsden Fund
Project, was interviewed by Rebecca Wright on Newshub Live at 8pm last night (Monday the 2nd of May). Nick talked about the impact of sea-level rise flooding hazards on house prices – one finding from a preliminary research from the STRAND Project.
The news article is available HERE.
GNS Seminar Thursday March 31st 11am: Simon Cox: Models of Groundwater Inundation as a consequence of Sea Level Rise
Dr Simon Cox, one of the team members of the STRAND Project, will deliver a discussion entitled “Empirical Geometric Models of Groundwater Inundation as a Consequence of Sea Level Rise” via Team Meeting on Thursday March 31st 2022 at 11:00 am NZDT.
Link to Team Meeting: HERE
Abstract 
The impacts of sea-level rise include rising shallow groundwater in coastal areas, which produces cascading and cumulative hazards. Subsurface stormwater and wastewater networks are vulnerable and potentially prone to system collapse. Groundwater infiltration reduces network capacity and can result in sewerage overflows, with associated public-health and environmental costs. With large infrastructure redesign/renewals in mind, or possibility of managed retreat, we need to quantify the shallow groundwater hazard to inform and optimise investment decisions throughout New Zealand. Continue reading
Climate change pulls strings on coastal property values
Otago University researchers examine property values and insurance premiums along the coast to reveal just how worried Kiwis should be.
The flat plains south of central Dunedin are one of the city’s main living quarters, but the sea also rolls in and takes up residence from time to time.
Eleanor Doig, chair of South Dunedin Community Network, said the last big flood was back in 2015, when she watched her community deal with a water level threatening to rise up and flow into more than 1000 homes and businesses.
“A lot of the houses where people we were supporting were living went under,” she said. “It was disastrous.”
CoreLogic Press Release: Property data to power significant Otago University research into climate change
For immediate release 20 January, 2022
Property data to power significant Otago University research into climate change
University of Otago researchers have launched a vital study into climate change that will leverage CoreLogic NZ’s property database to learn how future coastal flooding could impact residential property values.
CoreLogic joins the Reserve Bank of New Zealand as key partners on the three-year inter-disciplinary Strand Marsden Fund Project, which will help the top-tier research institute fill a knowledge gap around geographical information systems, geology, climate change, real estate and potential banking losses. Continue reading
A Shore Thing: NZ housing market unfazed by sea rise but Reserve Bank preps for change
Reserve Bank partners in investigation of the impact of climate risk on property prices.
Strand Marsden is Royal Society-funded and also counts the Reserve Bank among its partners.
The project is trying to establish how prices will change once the market does react, and how exposed the banking sector is.
For the last seven months, Ivan Diaz-Rainey and a team of hydrogeologists, climate scientists, and financial experts have been quietly working away on the project.
Māori research projects land Marsden Fund support
University of Otago researchers this week learned they have secured $17.5 million in funding for 30 projects, including three with a unique Māori perspective.
Funding for climate change research
The newly-formed Climate and Energy Finance Group received $869,000 to explore to what extent, and when, increasing floods would affect property values in coastal cities.
