Review of spatial planning models

Report: TR 2023/10

Authors: Hedwig van Delden (Research Institute for Knowledge Systems), Robert Cardwell and Garry McDonald (Market Economics Ltd)

The New Zealand government is introducing new legislation to replace the Resource Management Act (RMA). The new legislation is intended to address shortcomings attributed to the RMA, specifically: an insufficient affordable housing supply, exceeding of environmental limits, and variation in effectiveness and inconsistency of spatial planning at a regional level across the country.

One of the ways the new legislation intends to do that, is to require more integrated assessment of policies developed under the various new Acts. Integrated modelling will be one of the tools to do so.

This report investigates concrete pathways to operationalising integrated modelling to meet the future requirements of said legislation.
Waikato Regional Council approached MEResearch and the Research Institute for Knowledge Systems (RIKS) to identify spatial modelling tools suitable to inform the development of the Waikato Regional Spatial Strategy (W-RSS), a mandatory requirement of the proposed Spatial Planning Bill. This report describes the main findings of the study and addresses the following objectives:

1. Identify, prioritise, and evaluate suitable existing (overseas and NZ) models – against the likely requirements of the Spatial Planning Act.
2. Recommend a preferred approach, including assessing the suitability and role of the current WISE model, and
3. Identify key datasets and indicators and how they link to each other.