Flood resilience, reimagined through people and place

Flooding is becoming a bigger challenge for many rural communities in Aotearoa New Zealand and particularly for marae, the ancestral meeting grounds at the heart of Māori communities.

This article explores a fresh, human-centred approach to flood resilience, guided by Māori principles and grounded in community insights. Drawing on insights from multiple engagements and research, it shows how select deliverables like a high-level options assessment are suited to helping communities navigate multiple flood risks, boost long-term resilience and support future development.

Flooding is a growing risk for rural New Zealand, and marae are disproportionately affected. Traditionally built near waterways for resource access, trade, and defence, one-third of all marae are now vulnerable to flooding, according to recent research by University of Auckland PhD student Haukapuanui Vercoe. Solving the problem has hurdles too, such as:

• Diverse experience: Trustees may have deep local knowledge but limited technical or engineering expertise.
• Resource constraints: Funding is often limited, and applying for grants can be complex and time-consuming for volunteer-led groups.
• Access to advice: Navigating the professional services sector can be daunting, with uncertainty about who to contact and what services are available.

For asset owners, trustees and industry professionals, the challenge goes far beyond the technical. Marae are more than sites and buildings – they’re vibrant cultural hubs, safe havens in times of need, and a legacy passed between generations. Solutions need to look beyond just the physical and integrate the unique cultural, social and operational realities of the community into their design.

Traditional engineering approaches often fall short when applied to the marae context. Design-thinking practices and the human-centred design (HCD) philosophy offer a proven alternative, placing people, culture and context at the heart of every decision.

Key benefits of HCD for marae flood resilience include:

• Indigenous knowledge: Centres mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) in the discovery phase, so that cultural priorities and lived experiences are captured and integrated into delivery.
• Trust and cultural values: Builds kotahitanga (unity, cohesion and collaboration) and whanaungatanga (kinship) through empathetic engagement and genuine inclusion.
• Suitability: Solutions are co-designed with trustees and community members, resulting in actions that are feasible, maintainable and supported, and communication that is suitable for the audience.
• Capability building: Brings local decision-makers on the journey of solution development and equips them with knowledge and frameworks they can continue to use.
• Sustainability: Prioritises options that work with, not against, the natural environment and kaitiakitanga (guardianship).

Delivering an options assessment as part of flood resilience planning is one example of how multiple community needs can be addressed with your choice of deliverable:

• It can serve as a roadmap and enable people to plan for implementing multiple solutions on their own timeframe (even inter-generationally).
• The breadth of information builds understanding of a range of interventions, from drainage improvements and building modifications to temporary barriers and bunding – something they can share to uplift the knowledge of the whole community.
• The assessment process and framework can flexibly include cultural priorities as parameters in a multi-criteria analysis (MCA) and can be replicated or built upon for informed decision-making down the track.
• It contains a mass of content that can inform the scope of what they ask for in future funding applications.
• It can be kept as high level as needed, to adapt to the budget they have available.

Cultural priorities as MCA parameters could include:

• The volunteer time and internal capability required
• Access to funding and overall cost-effectiveness
• Alignment with Māori values and community priorities
• Environmental impact and adaptability to a changing climate
• Maintenance requirements and long-term sustainability

The best outcome from an engineering perspective may overlook the best outcome for the community. When considering typical flood mitigation solutions, diverting or confining the waterway with stopbanks may offer strong protection, but could have significant barriers in this context because it often needs specialist design, significant funding, and can affect the mauri (life force) of the river.

Drainage improvements, on the other hand, are often low-cost, easy to implement and have minimal environmental impact. Temporary flood barriers provide flexibility and rapid deployment; they don’t require specialists but do rely on community readiness.

By carrying out a human-centred design approach, this collaborative assessment process not only identifies the best-fit solutions but also builds local capability and ownership, which is a critical ingredient for long-term resilience.

Effective flood resilience isn’t a one-off project – it’s an ongoing journey. Human-centred design and empathy-driven engagement emphasise:

• Mōhiotanga (understanding and insight): Helping trustees and community members understand risks, options and the reasoning behind decisions.
• Kaitiakitanga (custodianship): Empowering communities to care for and maintain their assets for future generations.
• Ongoing engagement: Building trust and strong relationships between industry professionals, clients and communities for sustained impact.

For clients and industry professionals navigating the scoping and implementation stages, partnering with a team experienced in human-centred design brings clear, practical benefits. It delivers culturally respectful, future-proof solutions that go beyond compliance and technical minimums. It helps you to determine what services or advice, such as options assessments and MCAs, are most useful in the context. It also builds capability for trustees and asset owners, reducing long-term reliance on external consultants, and supports clear, community-aligned business cases for further work.

Looking after a marae, community assets, or rural infrastructure? It’s time to move beyond traditional approaches and solutions. Human-centred design unlocks smarter, stronger and more culturally grounded flood resilience for communities.

Get in touch to explore how a tailored options assessment and collaborative co-design approach can future-proof your community.