Taking a Risk-based Approach for Landslide Planning: An Outline of the New Zealand Landslide Guidelines

In December 2007, GNS Science released the publication u0027Guidelines for assessing planning policy and consent requirements for landslide prone landu0027 (Saunders u0026 Glassey, 2007). Primarily for land use planners, the guidelines provide non-prescriptive guidance on how the landslide hazard can be incorporated into risk-based planning policy and consent requirements. The guidelines propose a risk-based approach to land use planning and consenting.This approach considers landslide recurrence interval, and a Building Importance Category of the building proposed for a site. This approach does not guarantee that a building will not suffer damage from a landslide, but it does establish if the risk of damage is sufficiently low to be generally accepted. This paper is based on four planning principles: 1) gather accurate landslide hazard information; 2) plan to avoid landslide hazards before development and subdivision occurs; 3) take a risk-based approach in areas already developed or subdivided; and 4) communicate the risk of landslides in built-up areas. This paper provides an overview of this risk management process presented in the guidelines, and how it can be utilised by land use planners, based on the above four overarching planning principles.