New Zealand’s weather and stunning landscapes contribute significantly to its appeal as a place to live.
However, the country is also vulnerable to natural hazards, including floods, landslides, earthquakes, and storms, as well as the impacts of climate change.
Infrastructure New Zealand indicates that much of the country’s critical infrastructure was designed and built based on historical climate conditions, making it inadequate to address the challenges posed by future climate change and more severe weather events.
The organization emphasizes the need for the country to plan and allocate funding to address climate-related infrastructure risks, including more intense floods, landslides, erosion, and coastal inundation.
The Infrastructure Commission released New Zealand’s first National Infrastructure Plan in February 2026.
The document, commissioned by the government in 2024, outlines the country’s infrastructure needs over the next 30 years, planned investments over the next 10-15 years, and recommendations for priority projects.
However, according to the report, while New Zealand invests around 5.8% of its GDP annually in infrastructure, one of the highest in the OECD, over the last 20 years, it ranks towards the bottom for efficiency and fourth to last in the OECD for asset management.
Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop commented on Stuff on how poorly the country’s infrastructure has been managed. “Many people will be quite shocked” at how badly public assets have been managed, and how costly the maintenance bills will be, Bishop says (Ricketts, 2026).
To keep infrastructure costs manageable, the Commission recommended focusing on maintaining existing assets rather than rushing to build new ones.
According to a WSP article, New Zealand is currently spending up to $1 billion annually on emergency, targeted, and preventive maintenance. While this is a good investment, it is often hard to quantify the return on investment.
The article advocates for investing in the resilience of the country’s infrastructure. It presents strategies to achieve this goal, emphasizing that enhancing resilience is now necessary in light of the growing threats posed by flooding, heatwaves, and rising sea levels.
The article discussed the following concepts: the resilience lifecycle and a comprehensive risk management approach that involves mapping the historical impacts of extreme events, projecting future risks, and applying preventive measures.
The text emphasizes the importance of integrating resilience into infrastructure and of clearly communicating acceptable service levels for assets that may not be deemed critical, such as access roads. It highlights the necessity for a prompt restoration of access after a disaster.
Additionally, it discusses implementing measures such as Trigger Action Response Plans (TARPs) to encourage proactive risk management across both critical and vulnerable infrastructure, rather than leaving outcomes to chance.
The infrastructure management strategies and measures discussed in the article can help ensure that infrastructure remains functional during extreme events caused by climate-related hazards.
Additionally, they can guide decisions on how much to invest in maintaining and renewing existing assets.
Sources
Infrastructure New Zealand Position Paper: Climate Resilient Infrastructure. Infrastructure New Zealand. Retrieved from https://infrastructure.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Infrastructure-NZ-Policy-Postions-Climate-Resilient-Infrastructure-v2.pdf
National Infrastructure Plan Delivered. (2026, February 16). Beehive.govt.nz. Releases. Retrieved from https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/national-infrastructure-plan-delivered
Ricketts, E. (2026, February 17). This report on NZ’s state of repair will ‘shock’ people, Chris Bishop said. Are you shocked? Stuff. Retrieved from https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360939242/where-nz-failing-infrastructure-and-what-its-10-year-priorities-could-be
Road to resilience: navigating climate challenges in transport. (2025, March 2). WSP. Retrieved from https://www.wsp.com/en-nz/insights/road-to-resilience
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