As part of the National Government freshwater reforms, EnviroStrat ran a team of economists, scientists and social scientists with an overall budget of several million dollars developing a series of integrated economic models to assess the implications of different policy scenarios across a range of uses of fresh water. EnviroStrat’s role was highly complex and involved managing >35 contracts in excess of $2.5M. The programme was run in a series of joint ventures between local councils, sector groups and central government agencies (MPI, MFE, DOC), and linking science, policy, and economics with government decision making. The ability to synthesise multiple studies from different consultants into an aggregated series of recommendations was crucial for the success of the project and was at a scale that had not previously been attempted in New Zealand.
