With freshwater reserves declining and sea levels rising it is critically important to our future to be able to model and manage the changes

• The importance of monitoring global sea levels and our planet’s freshwater reserves
• Where is the freshwater, where is it going, and how is it changing on a seasonal and annual basis?
• How can remote-sensing help our knowledge of the water-cycle?

• What are the options for charging commercial users for their water consumption?
• What are the most constructive ways to use the revenue and how will it be enforced?
• Does paying for commercial use imply water ownership rights to the revenue gatherers - and what about Iwi interests?

• Discussing whether land can continue to be intensified to meet economic goals while managing environmental effects
• Discussing trends in parameters of water quality such as nitrogen, phosphorous and ammonia and outcomes for periphyton growth
• Can science help to provide the solutions to address the problem?

Water Wairarapa is investigating the viability of water storage that could provide multiple benefits for the Wairarapa.

• Looking into how the NPS-FW and associated new limits planned for water quality and quantity, and new climate change forecasts, are predicted to significantly reduce water reliability for existing water users including urban supply and environmental flows
• Opportunities and challenges the NPS-FW provides for proposed large scale water storage schemes
• Investigating the impact to existing water users from water resource limits and climate change, the resulting potential effects to Wairarapa, and the conundrum it poses for proposed water storage options

A pilot project evaluating the use of purposeful recharge to help replenish declining groundwater levels, restore baseflows in coastal spring-fed streams (drains), and improve water quality of the underlying shallow aquifer and groundwater dependent ecosystems.

• Looking into the collaboration between regional and local councils, DHB, and environmental advocacy groups to sustainably manage groundwater quality and quantity for the Ashburton community
• Targeting high nitrate levels, and stabilising and restoring overallocated groundwater storage to restore baseflows to streams and rivers
• Explaining what the data shows and the results thus far, and the community plan to develop a catchment-wide groundwater replenishment scheme

• Understanding how fish passage provides connectivity between all habitats necessary to complete freshwater fish and other instream life cycles
• Recognising the need for a national set of guidelines relevant and practical for all stakeholders
• How simple changes to practice can help to preserve our freshwater fish species

• Microbiological threats from contaminated freshwater in New Zealand
• Health consequences of the intensification of dairying on freshwater supplies
• Risk of drinking water outbreaks at a national level

• What caused the gastroenteritis outbreak in August 2016 in Havelock North
• What did the Government Inquiry identify as having gone wrong? What did the Panel say needed to change to protect public health and avoid serious outbreaks of illness caused by contaminated drinking water going forward?
• What systemic changes has the Government Inquiry recommended? How do we work this into a consenting framework?

• The importance of encouraging collaboration to manage New Zealand’s freshwater
• Understanding the importance of the science and challenges involved
• Advocating for a consistent national monitoring system to construct effective remedial solutions