The Hutt City District Plan B sets out how we manage our natural and physical resources to;
- meet the needs of future generations
- safeguard the life-supporting capacity of air, water, soil, and ecosystems, and
- avoid, remedy, or mitigate any adverse effects of activities on the environment.
The main difference between this plan and the district plan produced by the Hutt City Council is that this plan takes the risks and possible adverse effects of Climate Change and Peak Oil seriously and plans for the future accordingly.
In this plan, Peak Oil refers to the risk that the finite petroleum resource is currently being used up at a rate internationally which would see petroleum prices and supply fluctuate wildly within the next few decades. As at mid November 2007, oil is close to $100 US a barrel, with some 84 million barrels being consumed daily worldwide (150,000 barrels per day in NZ) and that demand is conservatively expected to increase to around 117 million/day by 2030. (US Government Energy Information Administration: http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/international/oilconsumption.html and see also the International Energy Agency forecast at http://www.iea.org/Textbase/npsum/WEO2007SUM.pdf).
In this plan, Climate Change refers to human induced climate change through emissions of greenhouse gases, whose nature and effects are authoritatively discussed in the published reports of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC: www.ipcc.ch/).
The major effects (of moderate probability) of these twin phenomenon include:
- Sea level rises along the Petone foreshore
- Urgent need for arable land close to urban centres of population
- Contraction of suburbs
- The risk of runaway climate change.
Students at the School of Architecture, Victoria University of Wellington have modeled possible impacts of climate change for Petone and Lower Hutt in the coming decades with sea levels rises of between 1 and 4 metres. Their scenarios include the creation of a sea wall at Petone, inundation of the Hutt River mouth and Seaview industrial area, and the creation of salt flats over what is now residential Petone -:
While rudimentary, these studies provide a useful pictorial starting point for thinking about the dramatic changes that are expected to occur due to climate change.
A geographic definition of Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt City (the City) is made up of the area bounded by the coast between Korokoro and Windy Point (Palliser Bay), by the western hills of the Hutt Valley, the ridge of the Rimutaka Ranges and ending just beyond the Taita Gorge.
The area totals some 37,998 hectares.
Lower Hutt is surrounded by Wellington City, Porirua City, Upper Hutt City and South Wairarapa District.
This Plan refers to the land above Mean High Water Springs as defined in the Resource Management Act 1991 (Act).
The Resource Management Act 1991
Regional and central government context
Related Hutt City plans
Other related plans
How this Plan was prepared
Interesting studies
How this Plan is structured
Area wide issues