The earthquake re-pair work has started on the Knox Church on Bealey Avenue, August 14, 2013 Christchurch New Zealand. While building after building is torn down in Christchurch, plans are in place to ensure as much of a 131-year-old church is retained as possible. Knox Church on Bealey Avenue suffered major damage in the February 22 earthquak...
Earthquake damaged building on a Walk around the city, May 1, 2014 Christchurch New Zealand. Demolition work on Christchurch's "distinctive" former civic building is under way. The category-2 heritage building was designed by G A J Hart and opened in 1939 as the Miller's department store. It featured the South Island's first escalator, which...
A paper published in the Journal of Structural Integrity and Maintenance, 2016, Vol. 1, No. 2, 88-93, which outlines the importance of asset registers and level of service in the wake of a disaster.
The 14 November 2016 Kaikōura earthquake had major impacts on New Zealand's transport system. Road, rail and port infrastructure was damaged, creating substantial disruption for transport operators, residents, tourists, and business owners in the Canterbury, Marlborough and Wellington regions, with knock-on consequences elsewhere. During both the response and recovery phases, a large amount of information and data relating to the transport system was generated, managed, analysed, and exchanged within and between organisations to assist decision making. To improve information and data exchanges and related decision making in the transport sector during future events and guide new resilience strategies, we present key findings from a recent post-earthquake assessment. The research involved 35 different stakeholder groups and was conducted for the Ministry of Transport. We consider what transport information was available, its usefulness, where it was sourced from, mechanisms for data transfer between organisations, and suggested approaches for continued monitoring.
Semi-empirical models based on in-situ geotechnical tests have become the standard of practice for predicting soil liquefaction. Since the inception of the “simplified” cyclic-stress model in 1971, variants based on various in-situ tests have been developed, including the Cone Penetration Test (CPT). More recently, prediction models based soley on remotely-sensed data were developed. Similar to systems that provide automated content on earthquake impacts, these “geospatial” models aim to predict liquefaction for rapid response and loss estimation using readily-available data. This data includes (i) common ground-motion intensity measures (e.g., PGA), which can either be provided in near-real-time following an earthquake, or predicted for a future event; and (ii) geospatial parameters derived from digital elevation models, which are used to infer characteristics of the subsurface relevent to liquefaction. However, the predictive capabilities of geospatial and geotechnical models have not been directly compared, which could elucidate techniques for improving the geospatial models, and which would provide a baseline for measuring improvements. Accordingly, this study assesses the realtive efficacy of liquefaction models based on geospatial vs. CPT data using 9,908 case-studies from the 2010-2016 Canterbury earthquakes. While the top-performing models are CPT-based, the geospatial models perform relatively well given their simplicity and low cost. Although further research is needed (e.g., to improve upon the performance of current models), the findings of this study suggest that geospatial models have the potential to provide valuable first-order predictions of liquefaction occurence and consequence. Towards this end, performance assessments of geospatial vs. geotechnical models are ongoing for more than 20 additional global earthquakes.
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "The Cotter & Co. Building on High Street which has survived the earthquakes even though all the buildings around it have been demolished.
A photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Poplar Lane, looking rather the worse for the wear. It's not clear whether this is from demolition activity or earthquake damage".
A photograph of campervans parked in Hagley Park. The campervans served as temporary accommodation for emergency management personnel who travelled to Christchurch after the 22 February 2011 earthquake.
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Jeremy Stewart of Alice in Videoland holding 'When a City Falls', the film recently released about the 2010 and 2011 Canterbury earthquakes".
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "The organ in St Bartholomew's Anglican Church in Kaiapoi, the oldest surviving church in Canterbury. The organ has survived the earthquakes well".
Damage to the Visitors Centre in Kaiapoi, after the September 4th earthquake. The foundations have lifted at the back of the building, giving it a forward lean.
An empty house on Avonside Drive. The overgrown lawn indicates that the house has been unoccupied for some time as a result of the 4 September 2010 earthquake.
A colour photograph of the east frontage of the former City Council Offices on Manchester Street, which appears to have been taken before the 4 September 2010 earthquake.
A photograph of the earthquake damage to a house in Christchurch. The roof of the house has collapsed, bringing the top of the front wall down with it.
A sign attached to the fence post of a property on Avonside Drive reading, "23/9/10, EQC". This was the date Earthquake Commission personnel inspected the property.
An empty house on Avonside Drive. The overgrown lawn indicates that the house has been unoccupied for some time as a result of the 4 September 2010 earthquake.
A woman standing beside a house on Avonside Drive that has been abandoned due to damage from the 4 September 2010 earthquake. Its front garden has become overgrown.
A house on Avonside Drive with cracks in the asphalt of its driveway showing where the land has shifted as a result of the 4 September 2010 earthquake.
A woman standing beside a house on Avonside Drive that has been abandoned due to damage from the 4 September 2010 earthquake. Its front garden has become overgrown.
A photograph of the top cover of the clock from the Townsend Telescope. Parts of the cover were bent out of shape during the 22 February 2011 earthquake.
A photograph of cracks around a window of the Observatory tower at the Christchurch Arts Centre. The cracks formed as a result of the 4 September 2010 earthquake.
A photograph of cracks around a window of the Observatory tower at the Christchurch Arts Centre. The cracks formed as a result of the 4 September 2010 earthquake.
A photograph of cracks in the masonry of the Observatory tower at the Christchurch Arts Centre. The cracks formed as a result of the 4 September 2010 earthquake.
A photograph of cracks around a window of the Observatory tower at the Christchurch Arts Centre. The cracks formed as a result of the 4 September 2010 earthquake.
A view down Avonside Drive showing cracks in the road from the 4 September 2010 earthquake. Concrete blocks have been placed next to power poles to provide support.
A view down Avonside Drive showing cracks in the road from the 4 September 2010 earthquake. Concrete blocks have been placed next to power poles to provide support.
A photograph of a paste-up on an earthquake-damaged brick wall. The paste-up depicts a bandaid with a speech bubble reading, "I'll kiss it better".
A photograph of a block of earthquake-damaged shops on Colombo Street, between Gloucester and Armagh Streets. Piles of rubble from the shops lie on the street below.
A photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "The Colombo Street bridge, badly damaged in the 22 February 2011 earthquake. The large steel beams supporting the bridge are distorted".
People watch the flowers floating down the Avon River during the River of Flowers event held in Riccarton Bush, commemorating the second anniversary of the 22 February earthquake.