Contrary to the observations on household income and spending , the percentage decrease in business turnover is more significant than the percentage increase in business spending except for Pelorus . The largest decrease in business turnover and the largest increase in business spending was also observed in Kenepuru .
Representatives of the tourism industry stated that losing road access to accommodation , valued tourism destinations , and local activities resulted in plunging visitor volume , and that additional fuel costs and difficulties in carrying tourists and finding staff further crippled tourism operators .
In terms of changes in property value that are measured as a proportion to the average maximum property insurance , it was found that the impact of road closure ( complete loss of road access ) on property value was more significant than that of road deterioration ( compromised road access ) across all four study areas .
Impacts on mental and physical wellbeing To understand how the local population and communities ’ health and wellbeing were impacted , the survey proposed 10 scoring and 19 open questions covering four topics include social impacts , physical health , mental health , and business confidence .
Representatives of the tourism industry stated that losing road access to accommodation , valued tourism destinations , and local activities resulted in plunging visitor volume , and that additional fuel costs and difficulties in carrying tourists and finding staff further crippled tourism operators .
Responses to the scoring questions and open questions are summarised in figure 4 and 5 , respectively . Health scores and business confidence scores appear to be downward slopping regardless of subareas . Residents ’ mental health scores decreased more significantly than physical health scores . Business owners ’ average level of confidence in their business going concern dropped from 8.8 ( prior to the storm events ) to 6.3 ( post to the storm events ), indicating strong negative impacts on business confidence and outlook .
The word cloud shows that words with strong negative connotations ( i . e ., stressing , anxiety , and worrying ) appeared frequently in survey responses regarding health and community wellbeing . Furthermore , words related to social relationships ( parents , partners , friends , council , neighborhood , etc .) showed high word frequency , indicating that social relations carried heavy weights when respondents described social impacts .
IMPLICATIONS In a nutshell , the observations and findings revealed by the survey and stakeholder engagement contributed to the formation and selection of the long-term resilient and sustainable access solutions for the Sounds .
First , the extent to which communities are impacted differs across sub-areas and social groups . Specific needs and priorities of the community , particularly from the vulnerable population or minority groups , require attention . The bottom-up community-oriented approach allowed Stantec to incorporate the perspectives Kenepuru and inputs directly reflected by the affected communities that would otherwise be missed by a top-down guidance oriented approach . This is helpful for pinpointing issues that are typically hard to expose to policy makers through conventional top-down approaches and hence lays sound foundation for tailoring resilience strategies that are effective , sustainable , and responsive to the unique context of the disaster-affected area .
Second , project optioneering and appraisal informed by or relying on community-
Figure 4 . Changes in physical health , mental health and business confidence in the four study areas in the Sounds
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