Otago Regional Council staff are continuing their preparations for some more low river flows this summer.
ORC engineering, hazards and science director Dr Gavin Palmer said preparations included planning for targeted monitoring and reporting of river health and ecology.
In a report tabled at a meeting of the ORC technical committee this week, Dr Palmer said the planning also included methods of obtaining reliable information on actual water use, and approaches and procedures for enforcing conditions associated with taking surface water and groundwater.
Also being considered were steps to assure ''accurate and reliable information systems'', including low flow ratings.
''Planning for community and stakeholder engagement and communications is also under way,'' he said.
Several regional councillors asked how the planned community engagement and communications would be handled, including feedback on experiences with low flows last summer.
The councillors emphasised the need to provide greatest benefit from what had been learned in the previous low flows, and said extensive discussions had taken place in some Otago communities, but not in others.
Dr Palmer said further low flows were expected this coming summer and details were still to be finalised on how low flow issues, including the previous experiences, would be communicated.
He would report further to the council's next technical committee meeting, he said.
