Helping assess river landscapes.

Water allocation decisions need to be informed by well-founded considerations of human perceptions. It is important to understand what particular attributes of a river are affected by changes in flow regimes, how people perceive these changes, and what levels of water allocation they consider as appropriate.

Boffa Miskell was asked by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) to address the issue of river flow perceptions and landscape as part of a Foundation for Research Science and Technology-funded research programme called the ‘Water Allocation and Protection of Instream Values’.

The findings of this research project have informed the Riverscape and Flow Assessment Guidelines, prepared by the Boffa Miskell project team. The purpose of these guidelines is to assist those investigating the perceptual aspects of environmental flows in regulated rivers, and the establishment of flows that sustain instream values. The guidelines address ‘landscape’ issues raised by flow rate, flow duration and other flow regime changes. They are designed to further the understanding of managers, decision makers and landscape specialists involved in water allocation investigations.

Location

National

Worked with

NIWA

Project date

2009

Awards

Silver Award | Landscape Planning - Research Category | NZ Institute of Landscape Architects / Resene 'Pride of Place' Awards
Sustainability Award of Excellence | NZ Institute of Landscape Architects / Resene 'Pride of Place' Awards

The first stage of research advanced the understanding of the perception of rivers under a variety of flow conditions. The work explored the variables of river type, reach, flow rates and viewer group, based on results from an online survey. It explored the perceptions of and preferences for instantaneous low flows (a single flow at a given time), as would be experienced by a one-time visitor to a river.

The second stage of the research addressed the perceptual significance of changes resulting from extended low flow duration and other flow regime changes. This is an area of landscape research that had received little attention previously. The effects of modifying flow regimes and particularly extending the period that rivers would naturally sit at low flow levels are major considerations in flow allocation decisions with significant implications for ‘landscape’ values.

In this second stage of the research focus groups with river experts from different fields were used to explore the relevance of natural character attributes and the effectiveness of graphic material to serve as a proxy for on-site assessment of natural character. The research objective was to identify effective methods for visually representing the natural character of rivers, and to inform decision-making based on perceptions of natural character.