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The nature of routine river maintenance (in contrast to major physical works) means that benefits are largely for public good. Those living within the catchment area receive most of these benefits but there is also some benefit to the wider Regional community. The ultimate outcome of this activity is the range of benefits outlined in section 1.6. While there will be some direct benefit to landowners as a consequence of river management, the benefits are not exclusive to those landowners and little of the benefit is received by identifiable people or groups of people.

Independent technical advice to Council (Harris S, 2001) suggests that 80 percent to 90 percent of the benefit from river management work goes to the management zone where the work takes place. The greater Waikato catchment as a whole gains the rest of the benefit.

River improvement involves much more significant works protecting specific areas. These are considered to have a much greater degree of local benefit. The diverse nature of river improvements means that it is very difficult to identify beneficiaries and contributors by generally applying assumptions developed in one part of the catchment to another area. This is particularly true of landowner contributions. Consequently, the allocations developed in this paper are indicative only. Funding policies for each river improvement site will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis before any works commence.