In 2010/11 Christchurch, New Zealand suffered a series of major earthquakes that resulted in significant damage to the physical and social environment. The majority of buildings suffered some type of damage, with an estimated 11% of homes requiring demolition. The total cost of rebuilding the city has been estimated at $31bn; equivalent to 17% of NZ’s annual GDP. The social impacts of the disaster are ongoing and difficult to estimate, with continuing social displacement throughout the city and metropolitan area. These impacts will continue to have a significant impact on community recovery and resilience for some time to come. This paper introduces the Greening the Greyfields research project, which aims to develop and implement of a number of tools to aid urban planning decision-making with an overt focus on community and stakeholder engagement in the post-disaster reconstruction of Christchurch. The research was initially developed in two Australian metropolitan areas (Perth and Melbourne) and has been extended to New Zealand, to help facilitate the reconstruction process in Christchurch. The project has developed a geospatial toolkit designed to help produce best reconstruction options, by identifying potential redevelopment precincts, and simulating different scenarios in a 3D visualisation environment. The implementation of the project in Christchurch includes direct feedback from different stakeholders, in order to get buy-in and make the reconstruction process more sustainable and community-inclusive. This paper will briefly outline the methodology comprising the tools, and how it encourages community and stakeholder involvement in the post-disaster reconstruction of Christchurch.
The characteristics of the local environment such as access to community amenity and facilities and their impact on health and wellbeing have been well researched. The question is can local amenity confer similar benefits to help facilitate community resilience? Research following the Christchurch, New Zealand February 22nd 2011 earthquake has shown that socially connected communities were able to respond and adapt with collective action. The informal community response was important in supporting residents until infrastructure and more formal structures could be put in place. This research provides support to the importance of social connectedness prior to a disaster to help foster community resilience. It discusses the role of local infrastructure such as shops, local pubs and community amenity in providing gathering places for people to meet and interact and share information. It shows that geographically defined communities with central meeting places were able to use social connections and from this collective action as support. Resilience is a by-product of having good social connections and community amenity helps to facilitate those connections.
The Resilient Shorelines study at University of Canterbury (UC) is using the Avon Heathcote Estuary Ihutai to investigate ecosystem-based approaches to conservation planning and adaptation in response to environmental change. In particular, the study is using a novel opportunity to understand effects of the Canterbury earthquakes that may be similar to impacts of sea level rise. These result from topographic and bathymetry changes in and around the estuary and associated waterways (Beaven et al., 2012; Cochran et al., 2014) that have driven changes in hydrodynamics (Measures et al., 2011). Therefore the wider context for the work reported here is to develop methodologies for modelling the impacts of sea level rise on estuaries and coastal river mouths using the Avon-Heathcote Estuary/Ihutai as a case study. Initial objectives have included establishing the magnitude of earthquake-induced changes. Subsequent steps will include establishing the relationships between strong physical drivers such as water levels and salinity, and the spatial pattern of estuarine ecosystems. There is particular focus on understanding salinity changes in the upper estuarine ecosystem in the vicinity of the freshwater-saltwater interface. In these areas, species, habitats and ecosystems that are adapted to brackish conditions are expected to migrate in response to the inland penetration of salt water under sea level rise. An example is the location of īnanga spawning habitat that is associated with the inland extent of salt water intrusion on spring tides (Taylor, 2002). It is expected to be strongly affected by sea level rise. To facilitate the development of ecosystem-based scenario models for sea level rise, a salinity model with resolution at ecological meaningful scales was required. An existing fine scale hydrodynamic model was available using Delft3D software (Deltares, 2012) that had been developed for ECan and MBIE following the earthquakes (Measures & Bind, 2013). However, it had not been calibrated for salinity. A collaborative project was designed between UC and NIWA to calibrate the model and develop a scenario modelling approach for sea level rise at a level of resolution sufficient for understanding sea level rise impacts on īnanga (whitebait) spawning habitat. The project was allocated funding from Brian Mason Scientific and Technical Trust and commenced in late 2015. The purpose of this report is to provide a description of the model development process and an illustration of model outputs from an initial set of modelled scenarios for sea level rise.
