A key report released by Environment Canterbury contains mixed news about the state of the region’s environment. The Regional Environment Report 2001-2008 shows that people in Christchurch are breathing cleaner air in winter and more have switched to the upgraded metro bus system. However, the report also highlights the detrimental effects of land use intensification.

Environment Canterbury’s chief executive Dr Bryan Jenkins said “The report clearly shows that intensification of land use in Canterbury has had a significant impact on the state of the region's environment over the last decade, leading to a decrease in the availability of water and deterioration in water quality.”

It is no coincidence, said Dr Jenkins, that the Regional Environment Report is being published in the same year that Environment Canterbury and other local authorities are preparing their Long-Term Council Community Plans, which are their proposed work programmes from July 2009 to June 2019.

“We intend this report to help inform debate about where Environment Canterbury should be putting its efforts over the next ten years. We want the community to read this report, reflect on it and tell us where to focus our efforts for the next decade,” said Dr Jenkins.

The Regional Environment Report uses a sustainability framework as a basis for analysing the state of the Canterbury environment. “The framework has been developed to increase understanding of the relationship between human and natural processes, consider how this impacts on the environment and then reflect on how Environment Canterbury responds to the need to manager resources in a sustainable way,” said Dr Jenkins.

The Regional Environment Report is a scientific report which describes environmental trends from 2001-2008. It is divided into 13 different topic areas, including water, air, land and public transport, and illustrates the benefits of active intervention in environmental management, with the obvious benefits to the quality of Christchurch air.

The report shows a significant reduction in open fires in Christchurch and an improvement to the city’s air quality. Public passenger transport trips for Canterbury have increased significantly over the last decade and in 2006/07 the total trips reached 15.89 million.

Other topic areas covered in the report are biodiversity, pests, the coastal environment, energy, hazardous substances, contaminated sites, solid and hazardous waste and natural hazards.
The report is available on the Environment Canterbury website www.ecan.govt.nz/regionalenvironmentreport , and hardcopies will be available in early 2009.

Key facts and trends:
Water:
• Ecosystem health is generally high in alpine and hill rivers, intermediate in intermontane and Banks Peninsula rivers, and poor in lowland streams. High country lakes and inland reaches of rivers have good water quality while shallow coastal lakes and the lower reaches of rivers are nutrient-enriched. Many lowland and urban streams have particularly poor water quality.

• Groundwater levels in parts of the region (e.g. Central Plains) have declined to levels where the reliability of supply for existing domestic and irrigation users has been compromised. The decline in groundwater levels has meant that in-stream or ecological values in spring-fed streams have been low at all times. Current and historic abstractions of groundwater, coupled with a general drying of the climate over the past 30 years, have caused a number of rivers in the Canterbury Plains to exhibit record periods of low flow or lengths of dry reaches.

• Monitoring has shown that flows in spring-fed streams have declined over the report period. Lowland streams around Lake Ellesmere/Te Waihora, including the Selwyn River at Coes Ford and Doyleston Drain for example, have recorded mean flows around 35% less than their long-term mean.

Land:
• Monitoring results indicate that soil quality generally is at acceptable levels at monitored sites.
• Dairy farming is the most notable change in rural land use activities in the region, and has almost tripled in area since monitoring began in 1995.

Air:
• Solid fuel burning from home heating remains a major contributor to poor air quality in Christchurch and other urban centres in Canterbury. Concentrations of suspended particulate (PM10) exceed national guidelines during winter months in seven towns, most frequently in Christchurch and Timaru. Calculated PM10 emissions in Christchurch have, however, declined. The number of open fires in the city has fallen significantly and the number of solid fuel burners is predicted to decrease.

Regional land transport:
• Public transport patronage has grown significantly over the last decade in Canterbury, but private vehicles are still the main transport mode. Congestion is a problem in many urban areas. Deaths from road crashes have decreased, but the number of hospitalisations with serious injuries remains about the same.