Multi-Level Resilience

The Multi-Level Resilience project worked in partnership with end-users to co-produce multi-hazard resilience measures for critical infrastructure and isolated communities.

One aspect of the project (led by then PhD candidate Alastair Davies) focused on increasing the disaster resilience of potentially isolated rural communities through a participatory governance approach. Community members, practitioners, policymakers and researchers co-created an earthquake impacts scenario, allowing them all to better understand the likely disruption that would result from disaster damage to distributed infrastructure networks, and to make decisions to reduce both that disruption and the social consequences of it. Through this approach, Franz Josef community members, infrastructure providers and emergency managers have enhanced practical measures to reduce impacts and improve readiness, response and recovery for major natural hazard events in the West Coast region of New Zealand. Meanwhile, the research team also published a paper summarising the impacts of the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake on South Island transport which showed that infrastructure failure can be the primary cause of disaster loss in a New Zealand context.

A second aspect of the research (led by then PhD candidate Tyler Barton) explored the vulnerabilities and capacities of rural regions in responding to disasters. Experiences and insights gained from rural residents and emergency managers following the November 2016 Kaikōura earthquake were used as an example of how co-seismic and multi-dimensional hazards affect rural businesses and communities. The research also explored how the compounding effects of North Canterbury’s pre-existing multi-year drought coupled with the 2016 Mw7.8 earthquake severely impacted the livelihoods of farmers and rural residents. Tyler’s research highlights the critical importance of ensuring that rural needs, priorities, and perspectives are considered in future rural disaster responses, and are included in official disaster risk reduction efforts at all levels.