The soggy start to 2023

Weather and climate issues have dominated the start of 2023 here in Aotearoa. The Coromandel and East Cape regions are still counting the cost of the environmental damage brought by tropical cyclone Hale and we are being warned of further volatility ahead this summer.

A marine heatwave is also being experienced with revelations in the past few days that ocean temperatures along the South Island’s south-western coast are reaching new records. MetService oceanographer Dr Joao de Souza, sea surface temperatures may reach an incredible 6 degrees higher than normal – an ‘extreme’ marine heatwave – and the elevated temperatures will last for at least a week.

Morning at Mount Maunganui Beach. Not a typical scene this summer so far.

He has been tracking marine heatwaves as part of the Moana Project for years and says he has never seen temperatures reach 6 degrees above normal before.

And NIWA has confirmed last year was Aotearoa's warmest on record and was also the 8th most unusually wet year on record – meaning lots of rain fell in unusual places.

All this serves to highlight the increasing imperative for the landscape architecture profession here and overseas to continue and step up its work on mitigating the effects of the climate emergency.

Damian Holmes in his World Landscape Architecture 2023 trends article says climate change will have an increased influence on design firms this year.

“As governments, clients and organisations have moved from discussing and debating climate change over the past decade to supporting various initiatives through financial support and procurement requirements. Landscape architects will continue to address various problems (flooding, drought, biodiversity decline, heat island effect, and many others) with solutions based on science, art and nature,” he writes.

New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architects President Henry Crothers says good progress was made around climate change initiatives within in the institute in 2022 and that work will continue this year.

Climate change will also no doubt be on the agenda for the 2023 NZILA Firth Conference in Nelson in May. Planning is well underway for that event.

We at LAA are always keen to hear from you with story ideas, projects to profile and the issues which are affecting the landscape architecture profession. You can email us here with all your ideas. Happy New Year.