This article explores three questions. First, why does New Zealand have widespread flooding hazards? Second, why are these persistent, with little seemingly learned from the memory of earlier events? And third, beyond reiterating conventional solutions, what examples of alternatives or adaptations are being developed in different places? It draws on a decade of community and research experiences in the Christchurch red zone, to examine experimental adaptation strategies being undertaken in three locations: South Dunedin and Westport in the South Island and Napier in the North Island. Each case study is contextualised in terms of its environmental history and memory of severe weather events. Although the cases are locally specific, they point towards the common features that should characterise a national adaptation strategy. Not least of these is the vulnerability of many built locations to both intensifying development and the impact of climate change in the form of severe events.

Active learning has a long heritage in Geography and allied subjects, and many claims are made about its benefits. This article attempts a long run assessment of these benefits, drawing on a survey of 180 respondents who graduated from a capstone Geography course over a 15-year period. The course focuses on community-based research and depends on the development and curation of an ecosystem of students, academic staff mentors, community partners and university managers. It is designed to enable students to make a difference, whilst gaining experience of working in groups, managing time and expectations, and workplace preparation. The paper assesses impacts on respondents in the long term, rather than the more usual results of course surveys conducted at the time. The context of the course is notable, as it began one year before the Canterbury earthquake sequence, which sharpened both community need and opportunity for such learning methods. The insights gained from developing and running the course over the period of time in question are outlined.

Managed retreat is becoming a prominent issue both nationally and internationally. This is due both to the threat of rising sea levels and the growing incidence of extreme weather events, but also reflects the increasing propensity for placing human assets in harm's way. We analyse how this observation plays out in Aotearoa, and offer a simple model, informed by our intergenerational perspective and mātauranga Māori. This model has three features: retreat, relocation, and re-imagining. It enables us to explore the capacity for positive outcomes to further lower long-term environmental and social risks. We apply the model to the Ōtākaro Avon river corridor in Ōtautahi Christchurch, formerly known as the residential red zone, created during the Canterbury earthquake sequence of 2010-13. We discuss what can be learned from the decade-long history of adaptation in the corridor as an exemplar for emerging areas of managed retreat elsewhere. By means of a thought experiment, we explore the potential of the area for provision of affordable, climate-resilient housing.

This chapter takes stock of current research concerning undergraduate research in Scandinavia. A literature search identified relatively few studies that explicitly employ this concept. There is a strong emphasis on “research-based education” as a principle in all three Scandinavian countries, with a broader view on linking research and education. In recent years, perspectives emphasizing inquiry, student-centeredness and problem-based learning have attracted considerable attention. There are also other indications of practices associated with students behaving as researchers – e.g., the relatively wide use of the bachelors’ thesis and specific examples of institutions and cases where principles from undergraduate research have been employed. More recent developments include the use of honours programmes.