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A photograph of diggers clearing a demolition site. The photograph is captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "The site of Kenton Chambers on Hereford Street".

BeckerFraserPhotos July 2011 photograph 096

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of a bicycle leaning against a fence on Madras Street.

BeckerFraserPhotos July 2011 photograph 130

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of earthquake-damaged buildings, captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Earthquake damage to Hunters and Collectors and Cosmic Corner on High Street".

BeckerFraserPhotos July 2011 photograph 052

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Dust from a demolition site on Manchester Street".

BeckerFraserPhotos July 2011 photograph 071

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of a partially-demolished building. The photograph is captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "The intersection of Hereford Street and Liverpool Street".

APEC project on SME Resilience, Resilient Organisations monthly reports Re…

Research papers, University of Canterbury Library

Organisations locate strategically within Business Districts (CBDs) in order to cultivate their image, increase their profile, and improve access to customers, suppliers, and services. While CBDs offer an economic benefit to organisations, they also present a unique set of hazard vulnerabilities and planning challenges for businesses. As of May 2012, the Christchurch CBD has been partially cordoned off for over 14 months. Economic activity within the cordoned CBD, which previously contained 6,000 businesses and over 51,000 workers, has been significantly diminished and organisations have been forced to find new ways of operating. The vulnerabilities and resilience of CBDs not only influences outcomes for CBD organisations, but also the broader interconnected (urban/regional/national) system. A CBD is a hub of economic, social, and built infrastructure within a network of links and nodes. When the hub is disrupted all of the people, objects, and transactions that usually flow into and out of the hub must be redirected elsewhere. In an urban situation this means traffic jams in peripheries of the city, increased prices of commercial property, and capital flight; all of which are currently being faced in Canterbury. This report presents the lessons learned from organisations in CBDs affected by the Canterbury earthquakes. Here we focus on the Christchurch CBD; however, several urban town centres were extensively disrupted by the earthquakes. The statistics and discussion presented in this report are based on the results of an ongoing study conducted by Resilient Organisations (www.resorgs.org.nz). The data was captured using two questionnaire surveys of Canterbury organisations (issued November 2010 and May 2011), interviews with key informants, and in-depth case studies of organisations. Several industry sectors were sampled, and geographic samples of organisations in the Christchurch CBD, Lyttelton, and the Kaiapoi town centre were also collected. Results in this report describing “non-CBD organisations” refer to all organisations outside of the Christchurch CBD, Lyttelton, and Kaiapoi town centres.