Modelling Disruption

The global pandemic has served to highlight the impact disruption can have on our social and economic systems. With the inevitability of climate change, as well as future natural hazard events, it is increasingly essential that our systems are prepared for and able to cope with disruption.

In this webinar Michele Daly (GNS Science), Nicola McDonald and Garry McDonald (M.E Research) and Charlotte Brown (Resilient Organisations) outline the history and rationale behind the suite of tools co-developed by their cross-organisational MERIT (Modelling the Economics of Resilient Infrastructure) team.

Their tools assist communities to trace the potential impacts of disruptive events on social and economic systems, and they can also inform community discussions on the appropriate levels of investment in mitigation options.

A key feature of the MERIT approach is also the recognition that businesses and communities have some capacity to adapt in the face of adversity and this needs to be taken into consideration.

The presenters outline the process the MERIT team undertook to simulate the economic consequences of a Wellington Fault earthquake event. This work formed part of the Wellington Lifelines Programme Business Case and included examination of how economic consequences changed with investments in more-resilient critical infrastructure.