Pacific Rim Indigeneity and Sustainable Municipalities

Pacific Rim communities face a plethora of challenges associated with sustainability. Addressing the water, transportation and energy requirements of communities that have ever increasing concern for land, air and water pollution, sea-level rise, changing weather patterns and extremes, is a complex challenge for engineering analysis. With an increasing emphasis on broader stakeholder input, engineers are now also required to take into account social and cultural impacts. The challenge of integrating indigeneity and sustainability are discussed in this paper, and a new decision making framework for sustainability assessment is presented. A case study is provided to demonstrate the approach used by the Mauri Model, and although it has been developed for the specific context of sustainability assessment in Aotearoa New Zealand, this paper concludes that the decision making framework may be readily adaptable for all Pacific Ocean and Pacific Rim commuities.