A photograph of piles of liquefaction on the side of a residential street in Christchurch.
A motorcycle embedded in liquefaction and floods that cover the road in a residential area.
A photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "A damaged residential property at 490 Avonside Drive".
A photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "A damaged residential property at 486 Avonside Drive".
An abandoned residential property on Seabreeze Close in Bexley. The section is overgrown with weeds.
A photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "A damaged residential property at 456 Avonside Drive".
An aerial photograph of the Horseshoe Lake residential area. The photograph has been captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "The prominent street is Kingsford Street (bottom left to top centre), with Moncrieff Street off it at the top right and Tasman Place at the bottom. Horseshoe Lake".
Seismic isolation is an effective technology for significantly reducing damage to buildings and building contents. However, its application to light-frame wood buildings has so far been unable to overcome cost and technical barriers such as susceptibility to movement during high-wind loading. The precursor to research in the field of isolation of residential buildings was the 1994 Northridge Earthquake (6.7 MW) in the United States and the 1995 Kobe Earthquake (6.9 MW) in Japan. While only a small number of lives were lost in residential buildings in these events, the economic impact was significant with over half of earthquake recovery costs given to repair and reconstruction of residential building damage. A value case has been explored to highlight the benefits of seismically isolated residential buildings compared to a standard fixed-base dwellings for the Wellington region. Loss data generated by insurance claim information from the 2011 Christchurch Earthquake has been used by researchers to determine vulnerability functions for the current light-frame wood building stock. By further considering the loss attributed to drift and acceleration sensitive components, and a simplified single degree of freedom (SDOF) building model, a method for determining vulnerability functions for seismic isolated buildings was developed. Vulnerability functions were then applied directly in a loss assessment using the GNS developed software, RiskScape. Vulnerability was shown to dramatically reduce for isolated buildings compared to an equivalent fixed-base building and as a result, the monetary savings in a given earthquake scenario were significant. This work is expected to drive further interest for development of solutions for the seismic isolation of residential dwellings, of which one option is further considered and presented herein.
An abandoned residential property at 15 Seabreeze Close in Bexley. The section is overgrown with weeds.
An aerial photograph of a residential area in Dallington with a loop of the Avon River.
A 'For sale' sign at a residential property on Dublin Street has 'Sold' stuck over it.
A photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "A residential property at 72 Courtenay Drive in Kaiapoi".
An aerial photograph of a residential area in Kaiapoi, with the Kaiapoi River to the left.
Dried silt from liquefaction on a residential street. In the background workers lay new tar seal.
A photograph of a pile of liquefaction on the side of a residential street in Christchurch.
A photograph of an overgrown residential property on Jean Batten Place in the Horseshoe Lake district.
An aerial photograph of a residential area in Dallington with a loop of the Avon River.
A photograph of the earthquake damage to a letter box on a residential property in Christchurch.
An aerial photograph of the Horseshoe Lake residential area near the Avon River. The photograph has been captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Burwood School is at the top right of this photograph near the intersection of Lake Terrace Road and New Brighton Road. This area is mostly zoned residential green".
An aerial photograph of a residential area in Richmond. The photograph has been captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "This picture is roughly divided in half, with the right-hand side of the picture zoned red and the left-hand side zoned green".
An aerial photograph of a residential area in New Brighton, with the Rawhiti Domain in the distance.
A photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "A damaged residential property at 91 Courtenay Drive in Kaiapoi".
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Avonside Drive, near Kerrs Reach (classified here as residential red zone)".
A photograph of liquefaction in a residential street, captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Bower Avenue, New Brighton".
A photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "An abandoned residential property at 62 Courtenay Drive in Kaiapoi".
A photograph of liquefaction on a residential property on Jean Batten Place in the Horseshoe Lake district.
A photograph of liquefaction on a residential property on Jean Batten Place in the Horseshoe Lake district.
A photograph of liquefaction on a residential property on Jean Batten Place in the Horseshoe Lake district.
A photograph of an overgrown residential property. The photograph is captioned by Paul Corliss, "River Road, Avonside".
A photograph of liquefaction on a residential property on Jean Batten Place in the Horseshoe Lake district.