Northland Civil Defence Emergency Management Plan, 2010

2 NORTHLAND’S RISK PROFILESection 2 provides the context for the Northland CDEM Group area; acomprehensive summary of the natural, social, built and economic environments.The section describes the hazards that could impact upon the CDEM Group,potentially requiring CDEM involvement, and characterisation of their likelihoodand consequences. At the end of the section is a summary of the risk profile of theCDEM Group and risk priorities for further action.Knowledge of the region’s vulnerability to hazards is fundamental to guiding the level of activity and effort appliedacross the 4 Rs and developing comprehensive and integrated risk reduction, readiness, response and recoveryprogrammes. The characterisation of the risk environment in this section provides a basis for sound prioritisationof resources and effort in CDEM planning. It also provides a snapshot in time of the risk profile, as a baseline forongoing monitoring and evaluation of risk reduction programmes.2.1 CDEM GROUP ENVIRONMENTThe contextual elements for the CDEM Group are the people, the land, the buildings/infrastructure and theeconomy, commonly referred to as the social, natural, built and economic environments. Analysing theseelements helps the Group understand the unique combination of factors that influence CDEM planning.2.1.1 SOCIAL ENVIRONMENTNorthland has a population of approximately 160,000 people (estimated 2009 population). The population isgenerally concentrated along the east coast, particularly in the Whangarei and Bay of Islands area. In summermonths the population swells with visitors from other regions and tourists from overseas.The people are distributed across atopography offering challenges ofaccess/isolation, and communication.Northland has one city, a number ofrural towns, numerous townships andhamlets and areas of coastalsettlement with minimal services.GENERAL POPULATIONThe 2006 Census indicated that thepopulation increased by 6% between2001 and 2006 (the increase byDistrict is shown in Figure 6). Thisgrowth is driven mostly by birthswithin the region with Maori being akey driver of this growth. Growth isalso due to people moving into theregion.Projected population from StatisticsNZ (illustrated in Figure 7) indicates:Figure 4: Northland's Population DensityNorthland Civil Defence Emergency Management Plan, 2010-2015 Page 16