Both the Dunedin City Council and Otago Regional Council held confidential workshops on the subject yesterday, as work continues on a shortlist of options.
Three approaches are being assessed to work out the best mix of infrastructure, green space "and where we might need to move people out of harm’s way", the city council has said.
Details of the shortlisted approaches are due to be shared with the community in April and May, subject to approval by councillors this month.
The workshops were aimed at covering the background of the councils’ joint South Dunedin Future programme, explaining the process followed and providing an overview of draft findings from recent work, city council climate adaptation and resilience manager Jonathan Rowe said.
"The intention is to ensure councillors have a good understanding of the work as it is finalised and before reports are shared in full with the community in April," he said yesterday.
Mr Rowe, who manages the programme, said staff were finalising the latest stage of South Dunedin Future work, which included assessing the shortlist of three proposed "adaptation futures" for the area.
They have been described as "Keep land dry" — elevating land and pumping water; "Space for water" — waterways and wetlands; and "Space for water" again, including waterways, but also raising land.
Previous analysis has indicated each option could cost billions of dollars over 75 years, but the status quo might have its own $2billion price tag, such as accounting for storm damage.
South Dunedin is expected to be increasingly vulnerable to climate change amid the likelihood of increased frequency and severity of storms, rising groundwater and sea-level rise.
The city council’s website summed up what was at stake and outlined what South Dunedin Future was looking to achieve.
"We need to adapt South Dunedin’s infrastructure and environment in a way that protects space for people and the things that matter, while also creating more room for increasing levels of rain, sea and groundwater."
Otago Regional Council deputy chairman Kevin Malcolm said the decision by the ORC to exclude the public from its workshop yesterday was made by chief executive Richard Saunders and he fully supported the reasoning.
