Sustainable Management of Geothermal Resources, A New Zealand Scenario

Abstract

New Zealand has a Resource Management Act for the purpose of promoting the sustainable management of natural and physical resources. The Act requires the country.s regional councils to control the take and use of geothermal water and energy with the objective of sustainability. The Waikato Region contains most of New Zealand.s high temperature geothermal systems, resulting in the Waikato Regional Council taking a leading role in sustainable management of geothermal resources. The Council proposes to sustainably manage the region.s total geothermal resource rather than managing individual systems sustainably. It supports unitization of designated development systems, where single tappers are given the exclusive right to take and multiple users are encouraged to utilize the extracted resource. This enables effective and accountable resource management, and responsible, efficient and secure resource development.