Wairarapa’s rugged coastline is one of the fastest sinking parts of New Zealand, doubling the effect of climate change-induced rising sea levels.
Parts of the lower North Island coast were sinking at a rate of more than 7mm a year, which exacerbated the impacts of 3.5mm average annual global sea level rise.
Masterton District has two major settlements on the coast, Castlepoint and Riversdale, and according to data on the New Zealand SeaRise website Castlepoint was sinking 3.77mm a year and Riversdale was dropping by 4.67mm.
The modelling predicts with “medium confidence” that it would lead to about a net one-metre rise in sea level by 2100.
Earth sciences professor Timothy Naish, a lead researcher behind the SeaRise project, said Wairarapa was particularly affected because of its relatively rapid rate of drop.
Naish said it was important that all parties acted now while there was time to make changes to protect against the impacts of climate change.
“Unlike an earthquake which happens overnight which causes huge damage and insurance companies and governments are hit overnight with massive costs, this is a slow moving earthquake which is going to take decades.”
“If we act now, we have time.”