A new collaborative practitioner guide establishes a common language and evidence-based methodology for assessing recreation effects, drawing on 40 years of New Zealand professional practice.
Recreation is important to individual and community wellbeing, yet its treatment in impact assessment remains inconsistent. This paper introduces a new practitioner guide that fills a significant gap in professional impact assessment literature by providing a structured, evidence-based method and common professional language for assessing effects on recreation opportunities, experiences and values.
The guide represents the culmination of nearly 40 years of the author's recreation planning practice across hundreds of development projects in Aotearoa New Zealand. Developed collaboratively with specialists from relevant disciplines, it draws on international research, impact assessment principles and practical experience to identify and assesses the effects of environmental change on recreation.
The guide addresses outdoor recreation, development in urban centres and urban intensification, with specific guidance for wastewater, noise and terrestrial, freshwater and marine settings. The methodology considers recreation settings and users, significance, cumulative effects, displacement, mitigation, uncertainty, monitoring and the responsible use of AI in preparing assessments.
Designed for practitioners, applicants, decision-makers and communities, the guide aims to improve the consistency, transparency and strength of recreation effects assessment. Although grounded in New Zealand's planning framework, its principles and methods are transferable internationally.
Rob Greenaway is a New Zealand recreation planning consultant with nearly 40 years' experience assessing recreation effects of development across hundreds of projects.