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Gaps relating to alerting and warning infrastructure projects were identified after trialling new technology for tsunami sirens installed in Ōrewa.
The trial is part of Auckland Council’s Tsunami Work Programme including ensuring the region has an effective tsunami warning and alerting network, raising tsunami risk understanding and resilience, and delivering the associated capital and operational works and programming.
Questioned about the gaps, council’s principal science advisor Angela Doherty said there was no provision in the current Auckland Unitary Plan for the installation of public warning infrastructure apart from fire sirens. The council had to come up with “creative ways” to address the gap previously such as installing sirens on buildings. “The options assessment suggests that we need more capital works such as sirens, such as signage, such as investing in a better telecommunications network,” Doherty said.
“The provision for alerting infrastructure that creates noise or alerts the public in some other way will be included in the revision of the unitary plan,” Doherty said. With regard to costs associated with the changes, Doherty indicated that this sat with council’s Civil Defence and Emergency Management Committee. “If we have a different approach that would require funding above we would be coming back to the committee to ask for more money but in any case this committee will be the one that decides how that investment will be made.”
