Community held values of rivers, lakes and streams in the Waikato and Waipa River catchments
Report: TR 2013/31
Author: Sandra Barns, Jacqueline Henry, Emma Reed
About this report
The Waikato Regional Council (the council) has a statutory role under the Resource Management Act 1991 to control the use of land for the purpose of maintaining and enhancing water quality. In order to meet more recent legislative requirements the council has decided to make changes to its Resource Management Act planning documents to improve the management of water quality in the Waikato and Waipa rivers. Therefore, an understanding of how the community values water quality in the Waikato and Waipa catchments is required. Existing regional research was reviewed and two further pieces of primary research were commissioned on community values in respect to water bodies in the Waikato region. Additional research, which was underway at the time of writing this report, has also been included for reference. Key themes have been summarised.