20171103_5588_1D3-70 Cabbage Tree in the Red Zone

Images, eqnz.chch.2010

An impressive Cabbage Tree (Cordyline australis) that was in someone's back yard prior to the demolition of houses post the 2011 earthquake.

20171103_5582_1D3-38 Trees in the Red Zone (307/365)

Images, eqnz.chch.2010

In what used to be sections with houses and yards. Between late 2011 and 2014 the houses (well 95% of them) were removed due to land dropping in the 2011 earthquakes and the proximity of the Avon River, tidal in this area.

20171103_5586_1D3-66 Phoenix Palm in the Red Zone

Images, eqnz.chch.2010

A Phoenis Palm (Phoenix canariensis) that was in someone's back yard prior to the demolition of houses post the 2011 earthquake.

Insuring earthquakes: How would the Californian and Japanese insurance pro…

Research papers, Victoria University of Wellington

Earthquakes are insured only with public sector involvement in high-income countries where the risk of earthquakes is perceived to be high. The proto-typical examples of this public sector involvement are the public earthquake insurance schemes in California, Japan, and New Zealand (NZ). Each of these insurance programs is structured differently, and the purpose of this paper is to examine these differences using a concrete case-study, the sequence of earthquakes that occurred in the Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2011. This event turned out to have been the most heavily insured earthquake event in history. We examine what would have been the outcome of the earthquakes had the system of insurance in NZ been different. In particular, we focus on the public earthquake insurance programs in California (the California Earthquake Authority - CEA), and in Japan (Japanese Earthquake Reinsurance - JER). Overall, the aggregate cost to the public insurer in NZ was $NZ 11.1 billion in its response to the earthquakes. If a similar-sized disaster event had occurred in Japan and California, homeowners would have received $NZ 2.5 billion and $NZ 1.4 billion from the JER and CEA, respectively. We further describe the spatial and distributive patterns of these different scenarios.