2  A hilly city

New Zealand sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”. The whole country has been shaped over time through various seismic activities - including the present-day geography of Wellington. Figure 2.1 shows land uplift along the shorelines creating extensive flat area in the city. This uplifted land is critical to the city’s CBD, potential high density development and the airport.

Figure 2.1: Historic and present day shorelines. Image courtesy GNS and Te Ara. Lloyd Homer (GNS Science) and Te Ara Online Encyclopedia. 2006. Image reference: VML 216739. http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/photograph/4383/wellington-harbour-before-the-haowhenua-earthquake

2.1 All streets

A gradient map of the city streets is dominated by orange and red. The summary table indicates that only 44% of the street network (by length) in the city is flat or mild gradients - the most comfortable for walkers for all abilities.

Figure 2.2: Street gradients for all streets in Wellington.

Table 2.1: Simple count proportion of all streets in Wellington by gradient.
Slope %
0-3: flat 32.5
3-5: mild 11.3
5-8: medium 19.2
8-10: hard 10.8
10-20: extreme 21.5
>20: impossible 4.6

Compared to Wellington, the streets of Lisbon and Leeds are predominantly flat. Zurich has extensive hilly streets in the outskirts but the expanse of flat areas does appear considerably larger than Wellington.

(a) Lisbon

(b) Leeds

(c) Zurich

Figure 2.3: Street gradients for sample European cities from here. Street gradient colours are the same as Figure 2.2 and Figure 2.5.

2.2 Residential

Figure 2.4 shows the topographical division of urban form with tall buildings in the flat city centre and residential housing spreading all over the nearby hills. If we only consider residential areas, the topographical profile of the city changes considerably with only 33% of the street network being easily walkable.

Figure 2.4: View of Wellington city (flat) and the surrounding hilly suburbs. Author’s own photo.

Figure 2.5: Street gradients for residential streets in Wellington.

Table 2.2: Simple count proportion of residential streets in Wellington by gradient.
Slope %
0-3: flat 17.5
3-5: mild 15.3
5-8: medium 34.1
8-10: hard 19.6
10-20: extreme 13.2
>20: impossible 0.3