The Hutt River is a steep alluvial river that starts in the Tararua Ranges and enters Wellington Harbour at Petone. The river drains mountainous terrain in the southern Tararua and Remutaka Ranges and streams and rivers from the Eastern and Western Hutt hills.
The catchment covers 655 km (that's more than seven times the area of Wellington Harbour!) and contains the Hutt River East and West, the Akatarawa, Pakuratahi and Mangaroa Rivers. All of these rivers feed into the Hutt River, so a storm in any part of the catchment could result in flooding. It takes only seven hours for heavy rain at the top of the catchment to turn into floodwaters at the Hutt River mouth.
The Hutt River provides opportunities for many environmental, ecological and social benefits, ranging from weekend leisure activities to ecological links down the whole valley length.
Following a review of the 2001 Hutt River Environmental Strategy, a new and revised Action Plan has been developed. Te Awa Kairangi/Hutt River Environmental Strategy Action Plan (HRES Action Plan) frames the vision and sets out what is needed to achieve the aims and objectives identified by the community for the management and enhancement of the river corridor environment.
Greater Wellington works with our regions communities to manage the flood risk from rivers in our catchments. Our approach to managing flood risk is to understand river and floodplain processes and provide a coordinated response through our floodplain management plans in partnership with the community.
Hutt Floodplain Management Brochure [1.2MB] [this is designed to be printed at A3 size]
A scoping report has been completed which outlines...
Download the City Centre Scoping Report (PDF, 9.1MB)
The map below shows an overview of the Hutt Valley. To find out flood hazard information about a specific area, download the plan number shown below from the flood map box on the right of this page.
Alternatively you can view our GIS maps online.