Restoration opportunities assessment for the Avon Ōtākaro Red Zone using a local knowledge approach.

Abstract

Following the Canterbury earthquake sequence of 2010-11, a large and contiguous tract of vacated ‘red zoned’ land lies alongside the lower Ōtākaro / Avon River and is known as the Avon-Ōtākaro Red Zone (AORZ). This is the second report in the Ecological Regeneration Options (ERO) project that addresses future land uses in the AORZ. The purpose of this report is to present results from an assessment of restoration opportunities conducted in April 2017. The objectives of the assessment were to identify potential benefits of ecological restoration activities across both land and water systems in the AORZ and characterise the key options for their implementation. The focus of this report is not to provide specific advice on the methods for achieving specific restoration endpoints per se. This will vary at different sites and scales with a large number of combinations possible. Rather, the emphasis is on providing an overview of the many restoration and regeneration options in their totality across the AORZ. An additional objective is to support their adequate assessment in the identification of optimum land uses and adaptive management practices for the AORZ.Participatory processes may play a useful role in assessment and stakeholder engagement by providing opportunities for social learning and the co-creation of new knowledge. We used a facilitated local knowledge based approach that generated a large quantity of reliable and site specific data in a short period of time. By inviting participation from a wide knowledge-holder network inclusivity is improved in comparison to small-group expert panel approaches. Similar approaches could be applied to other information gathering and assessment needs in the regeneration planning process.Findings from this study represent the most comprehensive set of concepts available to date to address the potential benefits of ecological regeneration in the AORZ. This is a core topic for planning to avoid missed opportunities and opportunity costs. The results identify a wide range of activities that may be applied to generate benefits for Christchurch and beyond, all involving aspects of a potential new ecology in the AORZ. These may be combined at a range of scales to create scenarios, quantify benefits, and explore the potential for synergies between different land use options. A particular challenge is acquiring the information needed within relatively short time frames. Early attention to gathering baseline data, addressing technical knowledge gaps, and developing conceptual frameworks to account for the many spatio-temporal aspects are all key activities that will assist in delivering the best outcomes. Methodologies by which these many facets can be pulled together in quantitative and comparative assessments are the focus of the final report in the ERO series.

Integrated assessment frameworks for evaluating large scale river corridor restoration

“…This creates additional scenarios to consider in those areas but not elsewhere in the AORZ. Results presented in Orchard et al (2017) also illustrate that there may be more than one implementation strategy for a given opportunity. For large parts of the AORZ there are considerable opportunities to apply passive 'work with nature' style approaches over longer periods of time although this may not suit all sites or objectives.…”

“…This report is the third and final report in the Ecological Regeneration Options (ERO) project series. Its purpose is to complement the previous two reports (Orchard, 2017;Orchard et al, 2017) by providing a review of appropriate frameworks for the development of assessment methodologies to address the previous findings. These findings, and a brief introduction to the ERO project, are summarised in the following sections.…”

“…To assist these needs a classification of 12 ecosystem types specific to the AORZ was prepared by Orchard et al (2017). These offer a potential framework for mapping the site and may be useful in assembling different combinations of ecological regeneration options to suit the conditions that are present ( Table 5-2).…”

Floodplain restoration principles for the Avon Ōtākaro Red Zone

“…Postquake studies have shown further more subtle changes in a variety of drivers important to ecological structure and function. These include substrates (Cochrane et al, 2014;Zeldis et al, 2011), river bank and channel profiles (Allen et al, 2014, Orchard & Hickford, 2016 and alterations to the salinity regimes of the lower rivers (Orchard, 2016a;Orchard & Measures, 2016). The magnitude of these effects has been sufficient to drive long-term ecological changes in the distribution of species and habitats.…”

“…The objective of developing and implementing optimum restoration and regeneration activities lies at the centre of this process and is a dependent on it. To address this further, information on the potential opportunities and benefits offered by innovative restoration processes were among the topics addressed at the ERO workshop (Orchard et al, 2017).…”