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Gisborne a ‘natural laboratory’ for study
Monday, October 08, 2012 • Sophie Rishworth
It was Gisborne’s wettest winter in decades, with last season’s rainfall 80 to 120 percent higher than the long-term average, says visiting climatologist and Auckland University professor Glenn McGregor.

This region is a natural laboratory for studying the Earth and Professor McGregor was in town last week with one of his masters course students, Ryan Smith, 23, to gather some East Coast data.

The scholars visited rainfall gauging stations around the district and collected historic rainfall data from Gisborne District Council.

The information will be taken back to Auckland University, where Mr Smith will analyse it for his Master of Science Geography degree.

GDC environmental data officer Greg Hall said the council supplied historic data for Mr Smith to use and the information would be reciprocal.

The council will benefit from the results of Mr Smith’s work, which could be helpful towards future water resource and natural hazard planning work in the region.

“We hope to have a better understanding of trends and cycles in the long term,” said Mr Hall.

The rainfall data goes back as far as 100 years in some cases but mostly from about Cyclone Bola in 1988.

Professor McGregor said the winter rainfall, at 80 to 120 percent higher than the long-term average, was due to the La Nina period, which brought wet conditions and an unusually high occurrence of north-easterly flows over the North Island and East Coast region.

Professor McGregor’s visit to the region was also because next September there will be a week-long field trip in Gisborne for about 80 Auckland University students.

They will be undergraduates of the new Earth Sciences programme.

Professor McGregor said this region was an obvious choice to study the Earth’s processes because it was a dynamic part of the world for climate variability, erosion, landscape development and sediment run-off.

Gisborne was world-famous because the broader Poverty Bay and East Coast region had some of the highest sediment discharge levels in the world, he said.

This was due to the combination of the “very steep topography and highly-erodible geology”, as well as interaction with weather systems that brought large amounts and intense rainfall.

“I’ve had a long-term interest in the East Coast because it’s a very dynamic region from a physical perspective. Things happen very fast here in terms of the physical processes.”

Huge discharges of sediment flow into the sea, settle on the continental shelf and accumulate there, he said.

“Off the coast are perched basins that are filling up with sediment. Basically, you’ve got huge avalanches of sediment waiting to kick off and they would displace huge amounts of water and possibly lead to tsunamis.”

Underwater landslides were a ticking time bomb, he said — quickly adding that it did not mean one was about to happen.

“This is why it is important to understand the processes that control erosion and sediment run-off on the Coast.”

Both are topics of interest to Mr Smith and the Earth Science students who will visit Gisborne next year.
VISITING SCHOLARS: Professor Glenn McGregor and masters student Ryan Smith of Auckland University were in town to collect rainfall data. Prof McGregor plans to bring 80 Earth Science students back to the region next year. Picture by Paul Rickard
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