The river corridor is probably the largest area of managed retreat in an urban centre worldwide. How can our experience inform processes of managed retreat elsewhere? The question is central to this project, which has developed a model of ‘retreat’, ‘relocation’ and ‘re-imagining’. Re-imagining asks how can the land be re-used for projects that further lower environmental and social risks.
Ōtākaro Avon River Corridor
Over 5,000 homes occupied the Ōtākaro Avon River corridor before the tragic earthquakes of 2010 and 2011. Sitting on poorly consolidated estuarine soils, the shaking from over 14,000 earthquakes caused liquefaction and lateral spread, leading to severe damage to many of these houses.
The land subsided by over 1 meter, and rebuilding those homes would have meant large scale area wide earthworks. In an example of large scale managed retreat, the Crown made the decision to buy the houses in what is has become known as the Ōtākaro Avon River Corridor. The homes were purchased through a controversial process, and then demolished and the land cleared of all but the major trees and bushes.
At 600 hectares, the river corridor is nearly twice the size of Manhattan's Central Park and four times bigger than Christchurch’s own Hagley Park. It presents a never seen before opportunity for the people of Christchurch. To shape future use of the land, Regenerate Christchurch, a joint Crown-Council agency, was charged with developing the Ōtākaro Avon River Regeneration Plan.
Based on extensive public consultation and technical investigations between 2016 and 2018, the Plan received government approval in 2019. The Plan sets aside about half the area as a ‘green spine’ either side of the Ōtākaro Avon River, allowing for native forest and wetland regeneration, and facilitating pubic access to the river. The balance of the corridor is intended for projects that are consistent with the objectives of the Plan, including visitor attractions, food resilience, and further ecological restoration.
A key objective of this Plan is to establish the area as Living Laboratory.
The ownership of land has now been transferred to the Christchurch City Council with a process underway to establish an enduring co-governance entity between the community and Ngāi Tūāhuriri.
The Residential Red Zone (RRZ) as Futures Lab: Placemaking in the Anthropocene
As one of the most urbanised, unequal and disaster-prone nations in the world, this country is often seen as a global laboratory. Ōtautahi Christchurch is important here. The 2010 earthquake gave the city’s poorest suburbs the equivalent of half a century of sea-level rise in a single hit. The future has already arrived. Managed retreat has taken place. We look at the Residential Red Zone that was created by it as a space of hope. Drawing on critical futures perspectives we ask: Whose futures will win out here?
From worst-practice disaster recovery to best: Lessons from Ōtautahi Christchurch
Matthewman, S. (2023)
Standing upright here: critical disaster studies viewed from the Antipodes
Matthewman, S., & Lambert (Tūhoe, Ngāti Ruapani), S. J. (2024)
Research team
Steve Matthewman | Co-Principal Investigator | s.matthewman@auckland.ac.nz
Luke Goode | Co-Principal Investigator | l.goode@auckland.ac.nz
Raven Cretney | Associate Investigator | raven.cretney@lincoln.ac.nz
John Reid | Associate Investigator | john.reid@canterbury.ac.nz
Peter Simpson | Associate Investigator | pj.simpson@auckland.ac.nz
This project is funded by the Royal Society of New Zealand’s Marsden Fund, 22-UOA-018
Red zone interviews
We are growing a series of interviews with those involved in red zoning, regeneration planning and activation in the Otākaro Avon river corridor. We are creating a documentary record of how this unique landscape of managed retreat has been evolving since the earthquakes in 2010-13.
Click on the names below to access interview transcripts. The recordings are available in our data hub and the CEISMIC online post-earthquake archive.
Colin Meurk
community ecologist and environmental advocate
Rob Kerr
red zone manager, Regenerate Christchurch 2016-18
Tanya Didham
environmental advocate, manager of Avebury House
Chris Mene
community partnerships manager, Regenerate Christchurch 2016-18
Hugh Nicolson
design Lead, Ōtākaro Avon Regeneration Plan 2016-18
Rephotography
The Living Lab seeks to capture change through time as the river corridor adapts to environmental change since the earthquakes. We have set up a network of 31 sites, chosen for their historical, social, environmental or cultural significance. Photographs are taken at each site at each quarter of the year, replicating the location, orientation, aspect and composition of the first photograph in the sequence.
Over time, this project will yield a record of change in the landscape, both as a documentary sequence and as a means of engaging social memory. We partner with the Avon Ōtākaro Network to encourage public participation in the project at a small number of photo frames in the corridor.
The photo pairs here illustrate how some of the sites have changed since the final Google Street Views before the earthquakes.
Chimera Crescent
Nov 2022 - May 2024
Otakaro Place
Nov 2022 - Feb 2024
Brooker Ave
Aug 2022 - May 2024
Ching Gardens
July 2022 - May 2024
2022
2024
Alternative display option (overlay can be better aligned):
Nov 2022 - May 2024
Experiments for climate change adaptation and mitigation
Chesterman, A., Farrugia, E., Kingston, K., Syme, L., & Clarke, S. (2022)
The carbon sequestration potential for the Ōtākaro Avon River Corridor
Rattray, C., Kelly, G., van de Velden, G., & Condon, L. (2022)
Re-imagining the city: climate change adaptation in Southshore and New Brighton
Rattray, C., Kelly, G., van de Velden, G., & Condon, L. (2022)
Rattray, C., Kelly, G., van de Velden, G., & Condon, L. (2022)
Blakie, T., & Pawson, E. (2024)
Abandoned red zoned street in Avonside, October 2018
‘From red zone to green zone: abandoned streets in Bexley, October 2021
River Corridor Projects
Interviews
A growing series of interviews with those involved in red zoning, regeneration planning and activation in the Otākaro Avon river corridor.
Invertebrate Monitoring
CCC, Nature Lab and the Living lab, Lincoln and Canterbury universities collaborate to establish long-term terrestrial invertebrate monitoring in the river corridor.
Exploring alternative approaches to street furniture in the river corridor, using recycled plastic instead of carbon-heavy materials like steel.
Rephotography
Capturing change through time as the river corridor adapts to environmental change since the earthquakes.
Open Data Portal
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A 2022 University of Canterbury geography undergraduate project developed a framework for climate change mitigation and adaptation experiments in the river corridor, based on stakeholder interviews and literature review.
This database of published and primary work undertaken in the River Corridor was completed in October 2021 by University of Canterbury graduate students, Alison Bodmer and Evelyn Charlesworth as part of their internship with the Living Laboratory.
Interactive Biodiversity Map
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