Science and strategy for better results 10/12/2018 By Dr Joanne Stevenson and Jo Horrocks (MCDEM) Government strategy developed in a vacuum is bound to fail. That is why the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management (MCDEM) has gone to extraordinary efforts to engage stakeholders across many facets of New Zealand life in the development […]
Caitlin Carew
Media release: RNC welcomes a new Governance Group Chair and a Deputy Director
Jenn Bestwick joins us as Chairperson of the Resilience Challenge Governance Group, and Richard Smith fills a newly established Deputy Director role. With a background in business and management consulting, Ms Bestwick is a Lead Reviewer with the States Services Commission Performance Improvement Framework. She has worked with a number of organisations in the science […]
Managed retreat: Is the RMA up to it?
Managed retreat:Is the RMA up to it? 20/11/2018 By Emily Grace TheResource Management Act 1991(RMA) governs all of our land use and natural resource planning efforts. Aspirations of the community for development, growth, and preservation of natural values are expressed through policies and rules in regional and district planning documents. So, what if the community’s […]
Operationalising resilience
Operationalising resilience: A heuristic framework for analysis 20/11/2018 ByProfessor Iain White, Professor Bruce Glavovic, Dr Judy Lawrence and Dr Gail Adams-Hutcheson The question of how to build the resilience of places and organisations is attracting great interest. However, the term resilience is defined in diverse and contested ways. This raises important questions around how resilience […]
Resilience Challenge to receive $40M
Crucial research to help New Zealanders bounce back from natural disasters will continue, as Resilience to Nature’s Challenges celebrates a grant of $40M for a further five years of operation. Resilience to Nature’s Challenges was launched in 2015 with a mandate to enhance New Zealand’s ability to anticipate, adapt and thrive in the face of […]
Corridor Forums
Corridor Forums: Working together for a more resilient transport network 15/11/2018 By Dr Vivienne Ivory How can we make decisions affecting the long-term resilience of our transport network when key players are siloed into regions, modes, and organisations and the future is uncertain? Multi-modal, multi-regional ‘Corridor Forums’ are being piloted as a governance tool to […]
Resilience Governance in practice
Resilience Governance in practice 15/11/2018 By Dr Judy Lawrence, Dr Paul Schneider and Prof Bruce Glavovic A series of severe coastal storms along the Coromandel Peninsula has brought coastal hazard risk to the fore, especially in the face of rising sea levels. A coastal management strategy aimed at increasing coastal resilience was recently approved by […]
Student profile: Christina Hanna
Student profile: Christina Hanna 14/11/2018 Managed retreat in Aotearoa New Zealand A bit about me I’m from the Waikato, where I undertook a Bachelor of Environmental Planning and worked as a planning consultant before pursuing my PhD in this field. Outside of studying, you can find me teaching emerging planners at Waikato University, researching sustainability […]
Less than half of Wellingtonians have done basic earthquake preparations
A recent survey of Wellington residents has revealed that of 18 earthquake preparedness actions, nearly 85% hadn’t done half of them. The project, carried out by Victoria University of Wellington PhD students Lauren Vinnell and Amanda Wallis, found that the action undertaken by the largest proportion of Wellingtonians was storing water, which 55% of respondents […]
Student profile: Gabriele Frigerio Porta
Student profile: Gabriele Frigerio Porta 24/10/2018 Multi-hazard analysis across Italy and New Zealand A bit about me I was born and raised in Italy, where after a Liceo Classico (all about literature, philosophy, art and science), I acquired an interest in numbers and in understanding phenomena through them. This led me to Milan, where I […]
Student profile: Katherine Hore
Student profile: Katherine Hore 24/10/2018 Power and participation in disaster risk reduction: A case study in Franz Josef A bit about me My interest in disasters started after I finished a BA/BSc conjoint degree at The University of Auckland, when I had the chance to complete a summer studentship working on participatory disaster risk reduction […]
Using graphs for good
Using graphs for good: Modelling multi-hazard impact scenarios to better inform communities and emergency services 24/10/2018 By Alex Dunant An earthquake or eruption alone can be devastating, and to make matters worse natural hazard events rarely happen in isolation. An earthquake might trigger a landslide which blocks part of a river, eventually causing a dambreak […]
Franz Josef: Developing resilience in a community at risk
Franz Josef: Developing resilience in a community at risk 24/10/2018 By Tim Davies The small township of Franz Josef Glacier is located in Westland, half-way down the west coast of the South Island. Originally built on farming and forestry, the township’s dominant industry is now tourism, with visitors drawn from all corners of the globe […]
The AF8+ scenario
The AF8+ scenario 24/10/2018 By Tim Davies The beautiful mountain ranges and spectacular scenery of New Zealand’s South Island can be largely attributed to the many active fault lines running through the island. When these move, in occasional response to the inexorable creep of the Pacific and Australian tectonic plates, the landscape changes shape, and […]
Storm highlights deficiencies in Auckland businesses resilience
Researchers have found that Auckland businesses are vulnerable to infrastructure loss caused by natural hazard events, with over three-quarters unable to function when water, communication or electricity was lost in this year’s storm in April. On 10 April 2018 Auckland was hit by a severe storm, with heavy rain causing flooding, and winds of up […]
Student profile: Cuong Nguyen
Student profile: Cuong Nguyen 26/09/2018 A bit about me I was born in Vũng Tàu city, Vietnam. My hometown is a beautiful coastal city in the south-east of the country. With its golden sandy beaches and inactive volcanic mountains, my little city draws many visitors from Ho Chi Minh City who can arrive by hydrofoil. […]
The Wellington Lifelines Regional Resilience Project
The Wellington Lifelines Regional Resilience Project 26/09/2018 By Nicky Smith How can co-ordinated infrastructure planning and investment improve the resilience of New Zealand’s capital city, Wellington, to earthquake events? To what extent can targeted infrastructure investments reduce the economic consequences experienced by Wellington, and the rest of New Zealand, should a large-scale event occur? These […]
Building the resilience of local economies to the flow-on impacts of natural hazard events
Building the resilience of local economies to the flow-on impacts of natural hazard events 25/09/2018 By Emily Harvey, Stuart Mead and Morag Ayers When a natural hazard event occurs, there are many direct impacts on people, infrastructure, and businesses in the area. These direct impacts often lead to substantial indirect impacts on other businesses in […]
An Economic Investigation of Disaster Insurance
An economic investigation of disaster insurance 25/09/2018 By Ilan Noy The Christchurch Earthquake of 2011 was the most insured earthquake ever, anywhere, with 98% of Christchurch properties being insured when the quakes occurred (Nguyen and Noy, 2017). In comparison, a recent New York Times article stated that only 13% of houses in California are currently […]
The importance of personal relationships in risk mitigation
The importance of personal relationships in risk mitigation: Meeting with business owners in North Canterbury 24/09/2018 By Robert I Radics and Linh N K Duong Rural value chains are rich in personal relationships and these play a key role in risk mitigation. A team of researchers have been interviewing local businesses in North Canterbury to […]