Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Local Government Minister Simeon Brown announce details of the legislation to repeal Labour’s Three Waters reforms.
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Hamilton City Council’s online tool, Floodviewer, has crashed within 24 hours of a new data release that identified about 650 Hamilton properties that could experience a metre of flooding, on average, in a “modelled rare scenario”.
Hamilton City Council stormwater infrastructure engineer Andrea Phillips told the Waikato Herald that investigations into the tool’s crash were continuing.
“At this stage it appears to be primarily the volume of the data in the latest mapping information which became an issue as people began accessing the site,” Phillips said.
“The system was tested before the new data sets were public, and larger data sets have been added before, so this was an unexpected issue.”
An advisory on the council’s website said staff became aware of the issue on Tuesday morning and were working with technical teams to resolve it.
“Staff are manually processing requests for information, with information for current consents and LIM requests taking priority,” the note said.
“We understand this may be frustrating for people but please be patient while we work through this unexpected technical issue.”
Phillips said the council has had flood mapping data for many years but made the data sets publicly available through the Floodviewer portal from December 2020.
She said the council put the tool together for the public to be able to access flood data information at a property level.
“This system is also more easily updated and allows additional layers to be added as the latest data becomes available. Usage of the site over the years indicates it is useful for our community.”
Floodviewer crashed within 24 hours of a new data upload that identified about 650 Hamilton properties which could have an average metre of flooding in a "rare scenario”.
News of the crash comes after the council announced the availability of new data on Monday which added “flood depressions” to the city map, identifying areas around Hamilton that have the potential to fill up with water in “rare” events.
“Our flood depression mapping identified around 650 properties which could have a metre of flooding on average at a building footprint in the modelled rare scenario,” Phillips said.
“Most of these properties have already had flood risks identified through previous mapping.”
But Phillips said the council was writing to the owners of the 650 identified properties for added assurance.
“There will be cases where nearby properties, even in the same street, don’t receive a letter because the modelling is under the one-metre average.”
According to the council’s press release “around a third” of Hamilton properties have some of their land within a flood depression area.
“Most of the flooding in the modelled scenario is minor or restricted to only a part of the land.”
Hamilton City council staff are manually processing requests for information until Floodviewer is fixed.
“Think of [flood depressions] like bathtubs. If a pipe or culvert gets plugged by debris or other items, or there is simply too much water for the systems to cope with, the water will pond until it can be released or fills the depression.”
Phillips said the data was made available to the public to help residents understand rain effects on their property.
“Knowledge is power.”
Phillips said the council uses flood information as part of its building and consenting process, to make sure new development happens in a way that won’t make flooding worse or put people at risk.
“This is a chance for us to work together to learn from the experiences of other regions around the country and do what we can to protect each other and our city,” Phillips said.
“The data is what it is. It’s now how we use it that counts.”
Maryana Garcia is a Hamilton-based multimedia reporter covering live news in Waikato. She previously wrote for the Rotorua Daily Post and Bay of Plenty Times.
