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Council considers that all land within the total Environment Waikato Region (See map 1) will benefit from the types of works and services proposed under Project Watershed. Even ratepayers who live in areas remote from the Waikato and Waipa rivers and their tributaries rely to a degree on urban centres such as Hamilton, Huntly and Otorohanga. Wider regional community benefits include:

1. Uninterrupted access to and use of state highway, roading and communication networks and users:
1. secure access for emergency services
2. improved boating conditions and facilities
3. improved recreational tourism opportunities.
2. Improved water quality, long term.
3. Improved environment and ecosystem.
4. General security of transport, communication and energy networks.
5. Improved resource management through more active surveillance of rivers and catchments; more active surveillance and protection of adjacent land uses and the availability of system information and models used for other activities.

It is Council’s view that the proposed works and services will provide the Regional economy with all of these benefits.

The protection of Regional communication links from the effects of major disaster is considered important to the Regional community. The effective management of the major rivers and catchments from a resource management perspective is also of widespread interest to the social well being, commercial and economic viability of the Region, particularly urban areas.

The Regional benefit is different from the indirect benefit, reflecting both a slightly different type of benefit and the much greater level of benefit locally. The indirect benefit reflects a greater local community of interest within that specific zone. The Regional benefit is applied over the entire Region as well as locally, and is in addition to the direct and indirect benefits identified within specific zones.