Purpose: This data has been published to support the   Waikato Regional Hazards Portal. This data is part of the Waikato District defended areas theme.Statement: Defended areas are those that are defended from flooding by structural defences such as stopbanks or floodwalls. These areas are not defended from all flood events. They are defended from flooding from a specified water course up to a specified design flood event. The water course defended from and the design flood event (described by the event frequency as an AEP) are provided in the attribute information as ‘Water Course’ and ‘AEP’ respectively. The data is presented as vector polygon data and was created for use in the Waikato District Plan Review (2019). Although the defended areas are defended by most flood events (depending on their level of protection), they still have the potential to flood. Defended areas may flood due to a larger than design event, or due to failure of a structural defence. This risk that remains is known as "residual risk". The Waikato Regional Policy Statement and Practise note (https://discover.wairc.govt.nz/otcs/llisapi.dll?func=ll&objaction=overview&objid=12000091) includes policies and methods about residual risk, including that residual risk zones shall be identified in District Plans. WRC Metadata: HAZARD.sdeadmin.HAZ_DEFENDED_AREA_LW_D_BENEFIT - HAZARDS - Regional Hazards Portal - GIS LayersTerms of Use: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.Should users wish to distribute derivatives or modified versions of this data then they must seek a data use agreement through WRC first.See the Waikato Regional Hazards Portal Terms of use here Waikato Regional Hazards Portal - Terms of use | Waikato Regional Council.