TopSpots: New Zealand's Greenest Cities

More and more people are concerned about protecting the environment and want to live in places that are unpolluted and as ecologically sensitive as possible.

So which of our cities are the cleanest and greenest in New Zealand?

Census data was never going to provide us with the insights necessary for this report.  We needed to consult qualitative research.  The Quality of Life Report was commissioned by 12 participating City and District Councils from across the country and published in 2007.  The purpose of the study was to assess relative degrees of performance by our main cities against a variety of statistical measures that affect the overall quality of life for residents.  Within the report are a number of environmental criteria that are relevant to our analysis and we have referred to it, and quoted from it, extensively to try and identify the greenest cities in New Zealand.

The Quality of Life Report does not cover every city in New Zealand.  The 12 City Councils involved and their resident populations are listed below.  They represent the country's primary population centres.  In the Snapshots section of the report we list best and worst figures from the 12 cities.  Where possible we have also listed a New Zealand Overall figure to provide an additional perspective.

We measured each of the cities against the following 10 criteria:

Residents' rating of air pollution as a problem
Good air quality is essential for human health and the health of the natural environment.  Factors that impact on air quality include domestic home heating, motor vehicle emissions, industrial emissions, outdoor burning, plant pollens, dust and sea spray.

Residents' rating of water pollution as a problem
A key factor in the quality of beach and stream/lake water is the qualtiy of storm water and sewerage systems.

Residents' rating of noise pollution as a problem
Noise is an intrinsic part of everyday life within cities.  Although some degree of noise is inevitable, it can affect the way people feel about the area they live in and can have a negative impact on their wellbeing.

Volume of recyclable material collected per resident per year

Domestic water consumption per person per day
High levels of water use can cause environmental and economic problems.  High consumption places stress on rivers and lakes and requires expensive investments in water system infrastructure.

Residents' rating of ease of access to parks or other green open space
Green space areas in a city help to protect and enhance urban ecology, mitigate the effects of urbanisation and provide residents with a choice of recreational opportunities, which contributes positively to general health and wellbeing.

Residents' rating of ease of access to public transport facilites
Access to public transport facilities can encourage a reduction in private motor vehicles.  This in turn reduces congestion, traffic noise and the stress involved in commuting.

Frequency of use of public transport in the last year (2+ times a week)

Residents' satisfaction with work/life balance
Work/life balance is about people having the right combination of participation in paid work and other aspects of their lives.  People's perception of this balance has an impact on their perception of personal wellbeing.

Residents' perception of overall quality of life
This indicator is based on residents' perception of overall quality of life and records the percentage that rated their quality of life as extremely good.

The cities were awarded points out of 100 based upon their comparative performance against each of these measures and then added together to create the following league table.

The Greenest Cities in New Zealand

Wellington City was the clear winner, here's how it performed.

Wellington City- How did it score?

The capital city came first outright in three of the 10 green criteria:

Only 29% of residents thought that water pollution was a city problem; the average for the 12 cities was 40%.

92% of Wellingtonians said it was very easy/easy to access public transport facilities, while the 12 cities' average was 76%.

And they're making the most of those facilities with 43% of residents using public transport 2+ times each week.  Compare that with Auckland's 24% or Christchurch's 22%.

Wellington was just pipped into second spot on domestic water consumption per person.  The capital's residents each use 165.4 litres of water per day which is 0.4 litres more than the people of Waitakere City.  Porirua City residents use a staggering 352 litres!

Other notable scores for Wellington City were; second for low air pollution and third for overall quality of life.

In fact, Wellington scored in the top half of the table for every single green criteria measured, with one exception; the volume of recyclable materials collected per resident per year was only 59.6 kg.  Only Dunedin and Tauranga had lower volumes.

So congratulations to Wellington, the winner of our Greenest City in New Zealand award.

Highlights from the others

Rodney District and Dunedin City finished almost neck-and-neck in second and third positions but they were a long way behind Wellington.  Both shared equal first place for residents' perceptions on their overall quality of life.  Dunedin has the lowest noise pollution problem, while Rodney and Porirua residents reckon they breathe the clearest air.

Rodney would have scored higher overall but was disadvantaged by its residents' views on public transport.  Only 36% thought it was easy to access public transport facilities and, as a consequence, only 8% of people used them more than twice a week.  The poor result probably reflects the fact that Rodney is a district rather than a city proper and is spread over a larger rural area.

Like their winning neighbour, Porirua and Hutt Cities scored very highly for the availability and use of public transport.  Both cities were also in the top three performers for low air and noise pollution.

Christchurch City and Hamilton City shared the top spot for easiest access to local parks but Christchurch residents had the worst perception of air pollution.  Only 28.3% of Hamilton's residents were very satisfied with their work/life balance (11th), although 29% thought their overall quality of life was extremely good (4th).

Waitakere City has the lowest domestic water usage per person but only 21% of its residents felt that their overall quality of life was extremely good.  In fact the four Auckland Cities of Auckland, North Shore, Manukau and Waitakere occupied the four lowest spots for their overall quality of life.

Tauranga City residents had the second best perception of their water pollution but were less positive about other issues.  It was in the bottom third for noise pollution, water usage and ease of access and usage of public transport.

Snapshots:

All About Wellington City:

Photograph by:  Donald Y Tong

Wellington City has a population of just over 190,000, which is slightly larger than Hamilton City but smaller than West Auckland's Waitakere City.  It is part of the greater Wellington area which also includes the cities of Porirua, Lower Hutt and Upper Hutt, making it the third largest urban area in New Zealand with a population of over 380,000.

The city covers an area of 290 square kilometres and typical summer daytime temperatures range from 17 to 21 degrees centigrade.  Winter days range from 11 to 14 degrees.  Wellington averages about 2,025 hours or 169 days of sunshine per year.

Wellington is of course the capital of New Zealand and the centre of Government and parliment.  It is also the country's cultural capital and home to Te Papa Tongarewa (the Museum of New Zealand), the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the Royal New Zealand Ballet, Museum of Wellington City & Sea and the biennial New Zealand International Arts Festival.

Almost 60% of the population are single and the city has a lively social scene (it has more cafes per capita than New York City) centred around Courtney Place and Lambton Quay.  It is also the centre for feature film production in New Zealand and the suburb of Miramar is home to one of the world's leading filmmaking facilities and Richard Taylor and Peter Jackson's Weta Workshop.

The average house here costs almost $510,000 which is 30% higher than the national average, however Wellingtonians can afford it.  In fact 35% of Wellington households earn over $100,000 p.a. compared to 19% of households across New Zealand.

Wellington City - People, Families and Housing

Housing	Wellington	New Zealand
Median home cost	$509,974	$391,487
Home appreciation
(1 year)	-2.9%	-4.5%
(5 years)	+72.3%	+80.5%
Homes owned	57.4%	62.7%
Homes rented	37.4%	31.1%

All about Wellington City:  Useful Links:

Wellington on Wikipedia

Homes for Sale in Wellington City 

Wellington City Council

Victoria University

Te Papa Tongarewa (the museum of New Zealand)

Weta Workshops

Sources:

• Quality of Life Report '07
• Quality of Life Survey 2006
• Participating Councils 2007 
• Statistics New Zealand
  - Census data 2001and 2006
• QV data August 2008

Our thanks to the various parties who helped and contributed to the data within the report, especially:
Kath Jamieson, Principal Research Adviser, Christchurch City Council and Project Manager of the Quality of Life Project.

Stephen Hart is the author of the best-selling homebuyer's books, 'Where to live in Auckland' and the 'The Streetwise Homebuyer' and co-presenter of TV2's 'House Call' programme.  He also writes a regular homebuyers' column for 'Herald Homes'. 

For more about TopSpot reports, click here

Click here, to read the September 2008 ASB Regional Economic Scoreboard which takes the latest quarterly regional statistics and ranks the economic performance of New Zealand's 16 Regional Council areas.  Ratings are based on specific measures such as employment, construction, retail trade and house prices.

All rights reserved.

The content is considered accurate at the time of the publication, however Barbican Publishing nor ASB cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions. 

Copyright: Barbican Publishing Ltd 2008

Categories: News , Top 5 Articles