A video about the Environmental Health Officers testing environmental and occupational health issues in the Christchurch red zone after the 22 February 2011 earthquake.
Environmental Health Officers outside the Christchurch Cathedral in Cathedral Square.
Environmental Health Officers collecting air readings in the Christchurch central city.
An Environmental Health Officer collecting air readings in the Christchurch central city.
An Environmental Health Officer collecting air readings in the Christchurch central city.
An Environmental Health Officer taking a reading outside the Christchurch Cathedral in Cathedral Square.
An Environmental Health Officer taking a reading outside the Christchurch Cathedral in Cathedral Square.
The Environmental Health Offices testing in the Christchurch central city, photographed outside the damaged Stonehurst Backpackers.
An Environmental Health Officer collecting air readings on Gloucester Street, in the Christchurch central city.
An Environmental Health Officer collecting air readings on Gloucester Street, in the Christchurch central city.
The Environmental Health Offices testing in the Christchurch central city, photographed outside the damaged Stonehurst Backpackers.
Environmental Health Officers collecting air readings outside Map World, on the corner of Manchester and Gloucester Streets.
A member of the New Zealand Defence Force's Communications Group, speaking to an Environmental Health Officer on Gloucester Street.
Environmental Health Offices from the Royal New Zealand Air Force taping filters to their high-visibility vests. The filters collect dust and fibres from the air, which will then be tested for health risks.
Environmental Health Offices from the Royal New Zealand Air Force taping filters to their high-visibility vests. The filters collect dust and fibres from the air, which will then be tested for health risks.
Environmental groups say Canterbury's earthquakes are being used as an excuse to weaken the Resource Management Act.
A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck the city of Christchurch at 12:51pm on Tuesday 22 February 2011. The earthquake caused 182 fatalities, a large number of injuries, and resulted in widespread damage to the built environment, including significant disruption to the lifelines. The event created the largest lifeline disruption in a New Zealand city in 80 years, with much of the damage resulting from extensive and severe liquefaction in the Christchurch urban area. The Christchurch earthquake occurred when the Canterbury region and its lifelines systems were at the early stage of recovering from the 4 September 2010 Darfield (Canterbury) magnitude 7.1 earthquake. This paper describes the impact of the Christchurch earthquake on lifelines by briefly summarising the physical damage to the networks, the system performance and the operational response during the emergency management and the recovery phase. Special focus is given to the performance and management of the gas, electric and road networks and to the liquefaction ejecta clean-up operations that contributed to the rapid reinstatement of the functionality of many of the lifelines. The water and wastewater system performances are also summarized. Elements of resilience that contributed to good network performance or to efficient emergency and recovery management are highlighted in the paper.
Disasters can create the equivalent of 20 years of waste in only a few days. Disaster waste can have direct impacts on public health and safety, and on the environment. The management of such waste has a great direct cost to society in terms of labor, equipment, processing, transport and disposal. Disaster waste management also has indirect costs, in the sense that slow management can slow down a recovery, greatly affecting the ability of commerce and industry to re-start. In addition, a disaster can lead to the disruption of normal solid waste management systems, or result in inappropriate management that leads to expensive environmental remediation. Finally, there are social impacts implicit in disaster waste management decisions because of psychological impact we expect when waste is not cleared quickly or is cleared too quickly. The paper gives an overview of the challenge of disaster waste management, examining issues of waste quantity and composition; waste treatment; environmental, economic, and social impacts; health and safety matters; and planning. Christchurch, New Zealand, and the broader region of Canterbury were impacted during this research by a series of shallow earthquakes. This has led to the largest natural disaster emergency in New Zealand’s history, and the management of approximately 8 million tons of building and infrastructure debris has become a major issue. The paper provides an overview of the status of disaster waste management in Christchurch as a case study. A key conclusion is the vital role of planning in effective disaster waste management. In spite of the frequency of disasters, in most countries the ratio of time spent on planning for disaster waste management to the time spent on normal waste management is extremely low. Disaster waste management also requires improved education or training of those involved in response efforts. All solid waste professionals have a role to play to respond to the challenges of disaster waste management.
A video about the New Zealand Army testing the quality of water across Christchurch. After the 4 September 2010 earthquake, the NZ Army developed ties with the Canterbury District Health Board. This relationship continued after the 22 February 2011 earthquake with the NZ Army taking on the role of examining Christchurch's water quality.
A digger clearing rubble from a demolished building in the central city.
An entry from Ruth Gardner's blog for 10 November 2011 entitled, "Rescuing Raindrops".
An entry from Ruth Gardner's blog for 10 October 2011 entitled, "Water Woes".
Disaster recovery is significantly affected by funding availability. The timeliness and quality of recovery activities are not only impacted by the extent of the funding but also the mechanisms with which funding is prioritised, allocated and delivered. This research addresses the impact of funding mechanisms on the effectiveness and efficiency of post-disaster demolition and debris management programmes. A qualitative assessment of the impacts on recovery of different funding sources and mechanisms was carried out, using the 2010 Canterbury Earthquake as well as other recent international events as case studies. The impacts assessed include: timeliness, completeness, environmental, economic and social impacts. Of the case studies investigated, the Canterbury Earthquake was the only disaster response to rely solely on a privatised approach to insurance for debris management. Due to the low level of resident displacement and low level of hazard in the waste, this was a satisfactory approach, though not ideal. This approach has led to greater organisational complexity and delays. For many other events, the potential community wide impacts caused by the prolonged presence of disaster debris means that publicly funded and centrally facilitated programmes appear to be the most common and effective method of managing disaster waste.
An entry from Ruth Gardner's blog for 28 October 2011 entitled, "Preserved Puss".
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A worker in a digger, clearing rubble from a demolished building in the central city.
An entry from Ruth Gardner's blog for 18 December 2011 entitled, "Sobering Sunday Stroll".
An entry from Ruth Gardner's blog for 30 October 2011 entitled, "Doing Dishes the English way".
An entry from Ruth Gardner's blog for 24 October 2011 entitled, "Don't ask, don't tell".
Nick Rogers, project director, Canterbury Land Assessment for Tonkin & Taylor. Tonkin & Taylor is the environmental and engineering consultancy doing the Canterbury land damage assessment work for EQC and the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority.