A system allowing everyone to quickly share the same information was needed during the response to Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo: Nathan McKinnon
* This story has been updated to clarification the description from an "emergency warning system" to "emergency coordination system".
Public sector cuts have stopped work on a half-built emergency coordination system, similar to what Cyclone Gabrielle reviews say the country urgently needs.
Inquiries into last year's lethal storms showed people were let down by lack of any system to allow everyone to quickly share the same, best information.
RNZ can reveal that Land Information NZ (LINZ) has built most of the datasets of maps and risks already - but has now dropped a project to find a way to easily share access to them in a disaster.
The work on building joining-up technology began in 2021, but was never properly funded from the start.
Now LINZ has opted to drop work on the Common Operating Datasets for Emergency Management (CODEM).
"Government agency budgets are being reduced, including here at LINZ," the agency charged with geographical information and surveying functions told RNZ.
"As part of this process, we have reviewed all business activities and have decided not to progress CODEM work for the next financial year as we prioritise our resources towards our core business."
Emergency reviews have warned for 20 years of the risks from not having a common operating platform-and-picture (COP), so everyone from rescuers to evacuees can see the impending threats, or know where to go to save someone.
"We risk that... our people, economy, and environment will be more adversely affected than might otherwise be the case" if no COP was built, warned an official review in 2018.
Emergency Management Minister Mark Mitchell referred RNZ's queries on CODEM to Chris Penk, the minister responsible for Land Information.
Mitchell's office said a CODEM demonstrator was not the same as a common operating picture as recommended by the Mateparae inquiry. A COP would be among the inquiry's recommendations considered over coming months, and he would not pre-empt that, Mitchell said.
LINZ thought it was important enough to start trying to build a sharing CODEM system in 2021, and other emergency response agencies who had been rattled by the pandemic agreed, it told RNZ.
This "was an initiative that was not mandated or directed by government", so it had to fund it from its baseline budget.
It brought in NEMA, the National Emergency Management Agency.
The system was not a full COP, but a geospatial data catalogue, because it discovered "organisations wanted to make their own choices about which technology platforms and systems they use".
An OIA release showed 10 of its 14 datasets were good to go after four years of work since 2019 - though, crucially, its roads dataset needed more work.
After doing a 13-week build using the GovTech Accelerator programme and spending $50,000, Linz came up with a CODEM demonstrator.
"It does not have full functionality," LINZ told RNZ in an OIA response.
"Therefore, because the demonstrator is not fully functional, it has not been and currently cannot be used to provide access to geospatial datasets to support emergency events.
"LINZ is not funded to further develop the CODEM demonstrator, put it into production and sustain ongoing maintenance."
Consultancy firm Creative HQ was involved. A spokesperson said: 'I don't believe it was in a position that could be used in a real-world setting without significant investment."
LINZ said it had not been invited to make a budget bid for dedicated funding to carry on.
"LINZ supports investment in New Zealand's emergency management system and would look to engage with any lead agency about the value of CODEM in the future."
A full COP would take more time and money to build. LINZ said it would support that if it were considered in the future also.
Fire and Emergency has said it stood up a temporary COP during Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawke's Bay.
LINZ provided geospatial information to agencies during Gabrielle, 10 other storms and the Port Hills fire since 2020, such as satellite imagery and maps.
Getting the datasets right was its core work, it said.
Penk has been contacted for comment.