16.4 Where to from here?

The following are key areas to reduce and manage the risks associated with natural hazards in Northland:

· Continue with River Management Plan development and implementation as set out in the Long Term Community Council Plan (NRC 2006).

· Prioritise flood and erosion management for all river and significant stream catchments in Northland. Assess factors such as threats to human life, buildings, access, infrastructure and farming for each of the identified waterways, and give them suitable weighting to be able to establish a final ranking for the prioritisation of river management work in Northland. This prioritised ranking will be presented to the Environmental Management Committee of the Regional Council and will be made available to the public for comment in 2008.

· Collection and storage of landslide and meteorological data to enable accurate identification of the landslide hazard and associated risk in Northland.

· Further work to improve volcanic hazard assessment in Northland such as age testing of Northland volcanic fields.

· Evaluation of the current status of all mine shafts and drives, with their locations marked in District Plans. The risk of mine subsidence in other areas of Northland other than Kamo and Hikurangi needs to be carried out.

· Work with communities to develop community response plans to ensure that communities collectively understand how they will manage in any future event, particularly by identifying roles, responsibilities and resources before an event occurs. Approximately 40 communities in Northland would benefit from a community response plan, for which about half have been started or completed. Effort will be placed on finishing the community response plans for all communities that have been identified as benefiting from one.