Flood resilience funding

Through the Regional Infrastructure Fund (RIF) the Government has invested nearly $200 million into 74 regional flood resilience projects across New Zealand. 

Flooding is the most common natural hazard in New Zealand, with a major flood event occurring on average every 8 months. Across the country around 675,000 people – or 14% of the population – live in areas prone to flooding.

Flood protection was identified as a key investment priority of the Regional Infrastructure Fund (RIF) as it represents core resilience infrastructure, which is crucial to the economic, social, cultural, and environmental wellbeing of our country.

Proactive RIF investment in flood resilience projects focuses on infrastructure that protects communities from extreme weather events and other climate change impacts. These projects safeguard lives, reduce disruption to businesses and infrastructure, and minimise cleanup and rebuild costs. 

By enabling regions and the country to recover faster after storms and floods, these investments deliver significant economic and social benefits. Studies have suggested that dollar-for-dollar, flood protection infrastructure offers one of the highest cost-benefit returns compared to other large-scale infrastructure projects.

Tranche 2 RIF funded flood resilience projects

The second tranche of flood resilience funding was announced in October 2025, with the Government investing an additional $96.8 million into 32 flood resilience projects across New Zealand. As part of this funding, the RIF also supported a national project to install early flood warning systems across 10 councils.

The projects are a range of new and upgraded infrastructure that will help protect communities against flooding, including: stopbanks, spillways, culverts, gravel realignment and extraction, rock walls, and streambank stabilisation.

For more information see the floor resilience project map and project list:

Tranche 1 RIF funded flood resilience projects

The first tranche of flood resilience funding was announced in August 2024, with the Government investing $101.1 million from the Regional Infrastructure Fund into 42 priority flood resilience projects.

Read the Government’s 2024 announcement: Funding for regional flood resilience confirmed - Beehive.govt.nz