It is well established that urban green areas provide a wide range of social, aesthetic, environmental and economic benefits. The importance of urban green spaces has been known for decades; however the relationship between urban livability and green areas, as incorporated in overall urban green structure, has become the focus of international studies during the last 10 to 15 years. The spatial structure of green space systems has important consequences for urban form; configuring urban resources, controlling urban size, improving ecological quality of urban areas and preventing or mitigating natural disasters. However, in the field of architecture or urban design, very little work has been done to investigate the potential for built form to define and differentiate the edge to a green corridor ... This thesis therefore poses the hypothesis that architecture and urban design critically mediate between city and green corridor, through intensification and definition of the built edge, as a means of contributing to an ecological city form.
A large crack in the ground at Sullivan Park in Avonside which has resulted from the 4 September 2010 earthquake. Remnants of liquefaction silt can be seen around the edges of the crack.
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "The balcony of a resident's house hanging precariously over the edge of a cliff in Sumner after rocks at the top were dislodged during the February 22 earthquake".
A large crack in the ground at Sullivan Park in Avonside which has resulted from the 4 September 2010 earthquake. Remnants of liquefaction silt can be seen around the edges of the crack.
A large crack in the ground at Sullivan Park in Avonside which has resulted from the 4 September 2010 earthquake. Remnants of liquefaction silt can be seen around the edges of the crack.
A large crack in the ground at Sullivan Park in Avonside which has resulted from the 4 September 2010 earthquake. Remnants of liquefaction silt can be seen around the edges of the crack.
A view looking south down Waygreen Avenue in New Brighton. The footpath is covered with weeds and silt from liquefaction. Flooding can be seen along the edges of the road. A road cone stands in the middle of the road.
A gutter on Bracken Street in Avonside showing cracks from the 4 September 2010 earthquake. The edges of the footpath above it have fallen away, and the gutter has filled with the loose gravel which was used to fill pot holes in the road.
Detail of the side of the front wall of St Mary & St Athanaslos church on Edgeware Road. The edge of the wall has separated from the bricks and is threatening to topple. Cracks can be seen running diagonally through the brick wall, the rest of the wall missing above.
An aerial photograph of the Christchurch City Council Civic Offices and surrounding buildings. The photograph has been captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "The River Avon runs through this photograph and marks the western edge of the red zone".
A photograph of street artwork painted on a box on the corner of Madras Street and St Asaph Street. The artwork depicts a person in a beret hanging on to the edge of the painting, pulling it down to reveal a blue sky.
A photograph of street artwork painted on a box on the corner of Madras Street and St Asaph Street. The artwork depicts a person in a beret hanging on to the edge of the painting, pulling it down to reveal a blue sky.
A photograph of street artwork painted on a box on the corner of Madras Street and St Asaph Street. The artwork depicts a person in a beret hanging on to the edge of the painting, pulling it down to reveal a blue sky.
A photograph of street artwork painted on a box on the corner of Madras Street and St Asaph Street. The artwork depicts a person in a beret hanging on to the edge of the painting, bringing it down to reveal a blue sky.
A brick house on Centaurus Road with damage to the top left window and "Danger Keep Out" tape around the edge. A yellow sign on the front window indicates that the building should only be entered for "Restricted Use". This means it has faired better than the brick house next door which is red-stickered.
An aerial photograph of the Christchurch central city. The photograph has been captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "High Street runs across this photograph in the top third from the old Majestic Theatre at the intersection of Manchester and Lichfield Streets to the intersection of Madras and St Asaph Street which is just beyond the edge of the photo".
Located on the edge of two tectonic plates, New Zealand has numerous fault lines and seismic risk across the whole country. The way this risk is communicated affects whether people prepare effectively or at all. Research has shown that perceptions of risk are affected by slight changes in wording, and that probabilities commonly reported by experts and media are often interpreted subjectively based on context. In the context of volcanoes, research has found that given a certain probability of a volcano in a specific time window, people perceive risk as higher in later time intervals within that window. The present study examines this pattern with regard to earthquakes and aftershocks in the New Zealand context. Participants in both Wellington (N = 102) and Christchurch (N = 98) were presented an expert statement of earthquake risk within a given time window in Wellington and aftershock risk in Christchurch, and asked to rate their perception of risk in specific intervals across the time window. For a Wellington earthquake, participants perceived risk as incrementally higher toward the end of the 50 year time window whereas for a Christchurch aftershock, risk perception increased slightly for the first three intervals of the 12 month time window. Likelihood of preparing was constant over the time windows, with Wellington citizens rating themselves more likely than Christchurch citizens to prepare for either an earthquake or aftershock, irrespective of current level of preparedness. These findings suggest that people view earthquakes as more likely later toward the end of a given time window and that they view aftershocks very differently to scientific predictions.
Damage distribution maps from strong earthquakes and recorded data from field experiments have repeatedly shown that the ground surface topography and subsurface stratigraphy play a decisive role in shaping the ground motion characteristics at a site. Published theoretical studies qualitatively agree with observations from past seismic events and experiments; quantitatively, however, they systematically underestimate the absolute level of topographic amplification up to an order of magnitude or more in some cases. We have hypothesized in previous work that this discrepancy stems from idealizations of the geometry, material properties, and incident motion characteristics that most theoretical studies make. In this study, we perform numerical simulations of seismic wave propagation in heterogeneous media with arbitrary ground surface geometry, and compare results with high quality field recordings from a site with strong surface topography. Our goal is to explore whether high-fidelity simulations and realistic numerical models can – contrary to theoretical models – capture quantitatively the frequency and amplitude characteristics of topographic effects. For validation, we use field data from a linear array of nine portable seismometers that we deployed on Mount Pleasant and Heathcote Valley, Christchurch, New Zealand, and we compute empirical standard spectral ratios (SSR) and single-station horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratios (HVSR). The instruments recorded ambient vibrations and remote earthquakes for a period of two months (March-April 2017). We next perform two-dimensional wave propagation simulations using the explicit finite difference code FLAC. We construct our numerical model using a high-resolution (8m) Digital Elevation Map (DEM) available for the site, an estimated subsurface stratigraphy consistent with the geomorphology of the site, and soil properties estimated from in-situ and non-destructive tests. We subject the model to in-plane and out-of-plane incident motions that span a broadband frequency range (0.1-20Hz). Numerical and empirical spectral ratios from our blind prediction are found in very good quantitative agreement for stations on the slope of Mount Pleasant and on the surface of Heathcote Valley, across a wide range of frequencies that reveal the role of topography, soil amplification and basin edge focusing on the distribution of ground surface motion.
At the conclusion of the 2010 and 2011 Canterbury earthquakes more than 5100 homes had been deemed unsafe for habitation. The land and buildings of these were labelled “red zoned” and are too badly damaged for remediation. These homes have been demolished or are destined for demolition. To assist the red zone population to relocate, central government have offered to ‘buy out’ home owners at the Governmental Value (GV) that was last reviewed in 2007. While generous in the economic context at the time, the area affected was the lowest value land and housing in Christchurch and so there is a capital shortfall between the 2007 property value and the cost of relocating to more expensive properties. This shortfall is made worse by increasing present day values since the earthquakes. Red zone residents have had to relocate to the far North and Western extremities of Christchurch, and some chose to move even further to neighbouring towns or cities. The eastern areas and commercial centres close to the red zone are affected as well. They have lost critical mass which has negatively impacted businesses in the catchments of the Red Zone. This thesis aims to repopulate the suburbs most affected by the abandonment of the red zone houses. Because of the relative scarcity of sound building sites in the East and to introduce affordability to these houses, an alternative method of development is required than the existing low density suburban model. Smart medium density design will be tested as an affordable and appropriate means of living. Existing knowledge in this field will be reviewed, an analysis of what East Christchurch’s key characteristics are will occur, and an examination of built works and site investigations will also be conducted. The research finds that at housing densities of 40 units per hectare, the spatial, vehicle, aesthetic needs of East Christchurch can be accommodated. Centralising development is also found to offer better lifestyle choices than the isolated suburbs at the edges of Christchurch, to be more efficient using existing infrastructure, and to place less reliance on cars. Stronger communities are formed from the outset and for a full range of demographics. Eastern affordable housing options are realised and Christchurch’s ever expanding suburban tendencies are addressed. East Christchurch presently displays a gaping scar of devastated houses that ‘The New Eastside’ provides a bandage and a cure for. Displaced and dispossessed Christchurch residents can be re-housed within a new heart for East Christchurch.