SR179 Assessment of the need to adapt buildings in New Zealand to the impacts of climate change (2007)

The objective of this report is to assess the need to adapt houses in New Zealand to climate change. Our assessment is based on medium-low and medium-high climate change scenarios from research by NIWA.

To explore the building sector’s vulnerability to climate change:

• the topology and condition of the national building stocks was reviewed
• regional and district councils were surveyed to collect climate-related damages
• overheating conditions and energy consumption scenarios were simulated
• scenario-based methodology was used to investigate social impacts.

Adaptation options and recommendations are generated for a broad range of building-related climate change impacts. Economic modelling and cost benefit analyses are used to investigate the economic viability of a range of adaptation options. The Climate Change Sustainability Index is revisited as a tool to assess building climate change vulnerability.