Dynamic is perhaps the most understated and least understood of all the terms used to describe New Zealand. Straddling an active plate boundary and surrounded by ocean, New Zealand has a spectacular and dynamic landscape formed by geological and meteorological events, but the management of the risk to people, property and infrastructure from natural hazard...

Editorial note: Local government in New Zealand exists within a fairly well-defined narrative. New Zealand is the most centralised nation within the OECD. Central government is by far the dominant partner in the central-local relationship and recent innovations in local government have tended towards further centralisation, such as the amalgamation into Auckland’s Super-City. While there...