Monitoring and theory: an exploration into the systemisation of environmental monitoring in New Zealand

Abstract

New Zealand's Resource Management Act 1991 is an example of 'new era' planning. It is based on the concept of managing environmental effects where they accrue. In this thesis it is postulated that monitoring, in particular state of the environment reporting, has failed to provide the necessary data for effective decision-making under this Act. This assertion is built upon documented monitoring failure. The case is made that this is due to an absence of a theoretical base: a base that links monitoring with its resource management purpose. Soft systems methodology is conjointly applied with grounded theory to inductively derive a means of establishing this link.

The methodology is exemplified by an analysis of a monitoring case study, the Environmental Performance Indicators Programme (information management component). It is considered that effective monitoring with an emphasis on learning and process can provide the iterative advancement needed to appreciate the role of monitoring within the field of resource management. Via the analysis of the case study, it was found that resource management is a discipline struggling for self identify. The realisation was made that a 'soft' process of theory development has a vital part in contemporary resource management. It can do much to overcome many of the monitoring problems that the case study seeks to address, which are identified, as well as those inherent within resource management.