Flooded Christchurch - Janet Stewart Reserve Christchurch New Zealand
Christchurch's earthquakes have altered the height of the water table and lowered the land in many places. This means that low lying areas are now flooding regularly after rain.
The news is full of pictures of flooded houses and roads.
I wanted to find a paradox by showing this flood in a beautiful setting.
This picture shows the ornamental posts of a flooded boardwalk (about a metre under the water) rising from the surface like some sort of Loch Ness Monster.
The Janet Stewart Reserve, covers an area of 1.9 hectares, is situated on the corner of Marshland Road and Lower Styx Road and runs parallel with Lower Styx Road for approximately a kilometre.
Historically, this landscape was covered in native vegetation, including ferns, tussock and raupo, and formed part of the Styx River floodplain. Middens on the site indicate that early Maori used this area. As farming in the locality developed, the land was converted into a low-lying grassy paddock, intersected by a channelised boxed waterway known as Gibson’s Drain.
Edward Stewart bequeathed the land to the Christchurch City Council in 1993 on the condition that it became a reserve named in honour of his mother, Margaret Jane Stewart, or Janet as she was commonly called.
Janet Stewart Reserve is one of the earliest examples in Christchurch where a ‘values based’ approach to the restoration of a waterway and wetland was used. This approach recognises the following values: ecology, heritage, cultural, landscape, drainage, and recreation.
Flooded Christchurch - Janet Stewart Reserve Christchurch New Zealand
Christchurch's earthquakes have altered the height of the water table and lowered the land in many places. This means that low lying areas are now flooding regularly after rain.
The news is full of pictures of flooded houses and roads.
I wanted to find a paradox by showing this flood in a beautiful setting.
This picture shows the ornamental posts of a flooded boardwalk (about a metre under the water) rising from the surface like some sort of Loch Ness Monster.
The Janet Stewart Reserve, covers an area of 1.9 hectares, is situated on the corner of Marshland Road and Lower Styx Road and runs parallel with Lower Styx Road for approximately a kilometre.
Historically, this landscape was covered in native vegetation, including ferns, tussock and raupo, and formed part of the Styx River floodplain. Middens on the site indicate that early Maori used this area. As farming in the locality developed, the land was converted into a low-lying grassy paddock, intersected by a channelised boxed waterway known as Gibson’s Drain.
Edward Stewart bequeathed the land to the Christchurch City Council in 1993 on the condition that it became a reserve named in honour of his mother, Margaret Jane Stewart, or Janet as she was commonly called.
Janet Stewart Reserve is one of the earliest examples in Christchurch where a ‘values based’ approach to the restoration of a waterway and wetland was used. This approach recognises the following values: ecology, heritage, cultural, landscape, drainage, and recreation.