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Images, UC QuakeStudies

For the first time in November 2011, Christchurch residents finally had the opportunity to see the earthquake-damaged city centre on the Red Zone bus tours organised by CERA. Damage to buildings on Cashel Street can be seen out the window.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

For the first time in November 2011, Christchurch residents finally had the opportunity to see the earthquake-damaged city centre on the Red Zone bus tours organised by CERA. The Regent Theatre dome which has been removed from the building.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

For the first time in November 2011, Christchurch residents finally had the opportunity to see the earthquake-damaged city centre on the Red Zone bus tours organised by CERA. Looking into Cathedral Square, the Regent Theatre dome can be partially seen.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of the base of the Townsend Telescope, still attached to a piece of rubble. The rubble is from the Observatory tower at the Christchurch Arts Centre. The tower collapsed during the 22 February 2011 earthquake and the rubble spilled into the courtyard in front. A digger was used to clear the rubble away from the building.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of the earthquake damage to the Christchurch Chinese Methodist Church on Papanui Road. The gable walls have crumbled, bricks spilling onto the ground. The tower has been removed and braced on the ground in front. Cordon fencing has been placed around the building. Parts of the fence have been decorated with hearts and the word 'love'.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of the earthquake damage the brick fence of a house in Christchurch. Bricks from the broken fence have been stacked on the footpath in front. Liquefaction has been piled on the footpath and road cones placed in front.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of the earthquake damage the brick fence of a house in Christchurch. Bricks from the broken fence have been stacked on the footpath in front. Liquefaction has been piled on the footpath and road cones placed in front.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of a kitchen in the back of a van parked in Hagley Park. The van was one of many that were used as temporary accommodation for emergency management personnel who travelled to Christchurch after the 22 February 2011 earthquake.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of an earthquake-damaged house in Christchurch. The walls on the side of the house have crumbled and the bricks have damaged the fence. A red sticker on the front window indicates that the building is unsafe to enter.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of staff from the Department of Physics and Astronomy examining the rubble of the Observatory tower in the South Quad of the Christchurch Arts Centre. The tower collapsed during the 22 February 2011 earthquake. A digger was used to clear the rubble away from the building. Scaffolding around the tower has also collapsed and is amongst the rubble.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of the rubble from the Observatory tower in the South Quad of the Christchurch Arts Centre. The tower collapsed during the 22 February 2011 earthquake. A digger was used to clear the rubble away from the building. Scaffolding constructed around the tower has also collapsed and is amongst the rubble. The roof of the tower and a ladder can also be seen.

Research papers, University of Canterbury Library

Motivation This poster aims to present fragility functions for pipelines buried in liquefaction-prone soils. Existing fragility models used to quantify losses can be based on old data or use complex metrics. Addressing these issues, the proposed functions are based on the Christchurch network and soil and utilizes the Canterbury earthquake sequence (CES) data, partially represented in Figure 1. Figure 1 (a) presents the pipe failure dataset, which describes the date, location and pipe on which failures occurred. Figure 1 (b) shows the simulated ground motion intensity median of the 22nd February 2011 earthquake. To develop the model, the network and soil characteristics have also been utilized.

Research papers, The University of Auckland Library

The rapid classification of building damage states or placards after an earthquake is vital for enabling an efficient emergency response and informed decision-making for rehabilitation and recovery purposes. Traditional methods rely heavily on inspector-led on-site surveys, which are often time-consuming, resource-intensive, and susceptible to human error. This study introduces a machine learning-supported surrogate model designed to streamline the assessment of building damage, focusing on the automated assignment of damage placards within the context of New Zealand's post-earthquake evaluation frameworks. The study evaluates two key safety evaluation protocols—Rapid Building Assessment (RBA) and Detailed Damage Evaluation (DDE)—and integrates corresponding databases derived from the 2010–2011 Canterbury Earthquake Sequence (CES) in Christchurch. Six ML classifiers—Multilayer Perceptron (MLP), Random Forest (RF), Support Vector Machine (SVM), K-Nearest Neighbours (KNN), Gradient Boosting Classifier (GBC), and Gradient Bagging (GBag)—were rigorously tested across both databases. The results indicate that the RF-based surrogate model outperforms the other classifiers across both RBA and DDE protocols. Two distinct sets of critical predictors have been further identified for each protocol, allowing for the rapid retrieval of essential data for future on-site surveys, while retaining the RF model's predictive accuracy. The developed surrogate model provides a pragmatic tool for practising engineers to rapidly assign placards to damaged structures and for policymakers and building owners to make informed recovery decisions for earthquake-affected buildings.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of signs on the windows of the Christchurch Art Gallery. The art gallery was used as the temporary Civil Defence headquarters after the 22 February 2011 earthquake. The signs read, "Today is Thursday 3 March 2011" and "Wash your hands!". In the background, emergency management personnel and a New Zealand Fire Service truck can be seen.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

People cast flowers into the Avon River during the River of Flowers event held in Riccarton Bush, commemorating the second anniversary of the 22 February earthquake. In the background is the string quartet from Christchurch Girls High School which played before the event.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

People cast flowers into the Avon River during the River of Flowers event held in Riccarton Bush, commemorating the second anniversary of the 22 February earthquake. In the background is the string quartet from Christchurch Girls High School which played before the event.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

For the first time in November 2011, Christchurch residents finally had the opportunity to see the earthquake-damaged city centre on the Red Zone bus tours organised by CERA. Looking down the new Re:Start Mall as the bus goes down Colombo Street.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

People cast flowers into the Avon River during the River of Flowers event held in Riccarton Bush, commemorating the second anniversary of the 22 February earthquake. In the background is the string quartet from Christchurch Girls High School which played before the event.

Research papers, University of Canterbury Library

Natural catastrophes are increasing worldwide. They are becoming more frequent but also more severe and impactful on our built environment leading to extensive damage and losses. Earthquake events account for the smallest part of natural events; nevertheless seismic damage led to the most fatalities and significant losses over the period 1981-2016 (Munich Re). Damage prediction is helpful for emergency management and the development of earthquake risk mitigation projects. Recent design efforts focused on the application of performance-based design engineering where damage estimation methodologies use fragility and vulnerability functions. However, the approach does not explicitly specify the essential criteria leading to economic losses. There is thus a need for an improved methodology that finds the critical building elements related to significant losses. The here presented methodology uses data science techniques to identify key building features that contribute to the bulk of losses. It uses empirical data collected on site during earthquake reconnaissance mission to train a machine learning model that can further be used for the estimation of building damage post-earthquake. The first model is developed for Christchurch. Empirical building damage data from the 2010-2011 earthquake events is analysed to find the building features that contributed the most to damage. Once processed, the data is used to train a machine-learning model that can be applied to estimate losses in future earthquake events.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A woman casts flowers into the Avon River during the River of Flowers event held in Riccarton Bush, commemorating the second anniversary of the 22 February earthquake. In the background is the string quartet from Christchurch Girls High School which played before the event.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of the earthquake damage to a property in the Christchurch central city. Part of the roof of the property has collapsed, spilling material onto the balcony below. A sign in the foreground reads, "Wots your councillor doing for your water?".

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of members of the New Zealand Police using a rescue dog to inspect an earthquake-damaged house in Christchurch. The front and side of the house has collapsed, the bricks and other rubble spilling onto the garden, exposing the rooms inside.

Research papers, University of Canterbury Library

Background Liquefaction induced land damage has been identified in more than 13 notable New Zealand earthquakes within the past 150 years, as presented on the timeline below. Following the 2010-2011 Canterbury Earthquake Sequence (CES), the consequences of liquefaction were witnessed first-hand in the city of Christchurch and as a result the demand for understanding this phenomenon was heightened. Government, local councils, insurers and many other stakeholders are now looking to research and understand their exposure to this natural hazard.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of a Christchurch City Council red sticker. The sticker was used by the Civil Defence after the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes to indicate that a building had been inspected and that serious structural damage had been found. The sticker states that there should be no entry to the building. It also states that 'entry may result in death or injury'.

Research papers, University of Canterbury Library

Heathcote Valley school strong motion station (HVSC) consistently recorded ground motions with higher intensities than nearby stations during the 2010-2011 Canterbury earthquakes. For example, as shown in Figure 1, for the 22 February 2011 Christchurch earthquake, peak ground acceleration at HVSC reached 1.4 g (horizontal) and 2 g (vertical), the largest ever recorded in New Zealand. Strong amplification of ground motions is expected at Heathcote Valley due to: 1) the high impedance contrast at the soil-rock interface, and 2) the interference of incident and surface waves within the valley. However, both conventional empirical ground motion prediction equations (GMPE) and the physics-based large scale ground motions simulations (with empirical site response) are ineffective in predicting such amplification due to their respective inherent limitations.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of volunteers from the Wellington Emergency Management Office being photographed in front of a truck. The volunteers are preparing to travel to Christchurch to help out after the 22 February 2011 earthquake. In the background is the Wellington Emergency Management Office building.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of members of the Wellington Emergency Management Office at a graduation ceremony in the Wellington Town Hall. The volunteers were awarded certificates of appreciation at the ceremony, for their work in the emergency response to the 22 February 2011 earthquake in Christchurch.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of a portable shower unit set up in Hagley Park for the emergency management personnel who travelled to Christchurch after the 22 February 2011 earthquake. A clothes line has been set up by tying ropes to the shower unit and a digger.