Me pēhea te tuku rīpoata mō ngā mōrearea kei tātahi

How to report coastal hazards

What are coastal hazards?

Auckland is characterised by 3200km of dynamic coastline, bounded by the South Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea, and encompassing the Kaipara, Manukau and Waitemata harbours.

This environment can result in a range of hazards, including:

beach erosion
cliff instability
coastal flooding
tsunami.

We have a team of experts in coastal hazards, processes, management and engineering.

You can contact us on coastal@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz (non-urgent requests) or 09 301 0101 (urgent matters).

Report an imminent coastal hazard regarding a building, road or public asset

If you are concerned about a coastal hazard affecting your home, a road or public asset including coastal structures:

ensure you and your family are safe
evacuate, warn your neighbours and dial 111 if there is an immediate risk to life or an occupied building
call us on 09 301 0101 once you are in a safe location
report broken utilities (water, gas, electricity) to the appropriate companies
stay away until authorities give the all clear.

Report a non-urgent coastal hazard

If a coastal hazard has affected public land or if you are not sure how urgent the situation is, contact our coastal team on coastal@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz or call 09 301 0101.

Tip

Having an accurate location and photographs to email will greatly help our assessment.

If there is damage to private land but no immediate risk, you can contact us for guidance or directly contact a local engineering consultancy to provide detailed and specific advice. Ask for a professional, chartered coastal engineer.

Find out more about coastal hazards

You can find out more on Auckland’s coastal hazards on the Auckland Emergency Management page, the tsunami evacuation maps website, or in these specialist reports for Auckland:

Coastal inundation by storm-tides and waves in Auckland

PDF download 33.9 MB

2020 Predicting Auckland’s exposure to coastal instability and erosion

PDF download 10.9 MB

2006 Assessment of area susceptible to coastal erosion Volume 1

PDF download 1.4 MB

2006 Assessment of area susceptible to coastal erosion Volume 2

PDF download 5.1 MB

Coastal data

We collate and share as much data as possible. Useful information sources include:

Auckland Council GIS for coastal inundation mapping, topography and historical aerial photographs
King Tides Auckland for dates of next predicted king tides and records of past events.

Coastal development

The Auckland Unitary Plan outlines the policies and rules to enable safe and environmentally sustainable development of our region.

Key sections relating to appropriate coastal development are:

B8 Coastal Environment
E36 Natural Hazards and Flooding
Chapter F Coastal.

Coastal planting

Planting is an effective way to reduce the risk of coastal erosion while helping to restore and support our coastal ecosystems.

We have published a range of coastal planting guidelines which include details of suitable species.