Societal expectations for seismic performance of buildings: detailed report on focus groups

Abstract

This is a supplementary report to Brown et al., 2022. Societal expectation for seismic performance of Buildings. The Resilient Buildings Project Research Paper.

The Resilient Buildings Project sought to capture a snapshot of societal expectations and tolerance toward seismic risk to inform future performance objectives for new buildings. Historically, these objectives have been framed by technical experts in structural engineering and building science, and this project represents the first time in New Zealand researchers have set out to document from a community perspective nationwide societal expectations for the seismic performance of buildings.

In 2021, we interviewed 32 individuals across a range of backgrounds and sectors, as well as 27 individuals in 6 geographically based focus groups, to capture a snapshot of expectations for seismic performance of buildings. The purpose of this report is to highlight the findings from the 6 geographically based focus groups. This is a data report and is intended as a fully documented account of the data collected in the focus groups and a detailed description of the focus group methodology.