Otago's natural hazards database will go live to the public next month but it will not replace a Land Information Memorandum (Lim) and could frustrate users, the Otago Regional Council warns.
The database will be accessible through the regional council's website and holds the council's most recent natural hazards information, such as tsunami and storm surge reports and the updated flood hazard maps for the Taieri.
Council environmental engineering and natural hazards director Gavin Palmer said all the information on the database was already available from the council but this put it all in one place.
The most recent work generated by the council on hazards had been put on the database and now the council was working backwards to put more historic information on it.
Any new reports or information would be added as it became available.
However, he warned it was still a work in progress and would not replace Lim reports which were based on the information territorial local authorities held about land.
"It's not comprehensive. Just because there is no information there does not mean there is no hazard."
The database had been configured so those authorities could use it to inform their Lims.
It had also been set up so a person did not have to be a specialist to access the information.
Chairman Stephen Woodhead said it had taken a lot of work to get to this stage and people expected to be able to access information on the internet.
"As a community we are not as good at assessing risk as our forbearers so this pulls together all parts of information."
Chief executive GraemeMartin said it was the first step in the open data process he was keen the council go down and it provided transparency of knowledge.
"It will inevitably be frustrating to a good deal of users."
The frustration would come as many of the answers people would want from the database depended on several variables that could not be handled in a database, he said.
Dr Palmer said the council would not be promoting the database, which had been accessible to local authorities as a trial since May, until after it had gone live to ensure it operated property and did not crash.
"I'm wary about a rapid spike in demand."
