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Audio, Radio New Zealand

American social-psychologist Tara Powell on the challenges of building confidence in children who have been traumatised by a natural disaster, such as Hurricane Katrina or the Christchurch earthquake.

Research papers, Lincoln University

Disaster recovery involves the restoration, repair and rejuvenation of both hard and soft infrastructure. In this report we present observations from seven case studies of collaborative planning from post-earthquake Canterbury, each of which was selected as a means of better understanding ‘soft infrastructure for hard times’. Though our investigation is located within a disaster recovery context, we argue that the lessons learned are widely applicable. Our seven case studies highlighted that the nature of the planning process or journey is as important as the planning objective or destination. A focus on the journey can promote positive outcomes in and of itself through building enduring relationships, fostering diverse leaders, developing new skills and capabilities, and supporting translation and navigation. Collaborative planning depends as much upon emotional intelligence as it does technical competence, and we argue that having a collaborative attitude is more important than following prescriptive collaborative planning formulae. Being present and allowing plenty of time are also key. Although deliberation is often seen as an improvement on technocratic and expert dominated decision-making models, we suggest that the focus in the academic literature on communicative rationality and discursive democracy has led us to overlook other more active forms of planning that occur in various sites and settings. Instead, we offer an expanded understanding of what planning is, where it happens and who is involved. We also suggest more attention be given to values, particularly in terms of their role as a compass for navigating the terrain of decision-making in the collaborative planning process. We conclude with a revised model of a (collaborative) decision-making cycle that we suggest may be more appropriate when (re)building better homes, towns and cities.

Videos, UC QuakeStudies

A video of a tour of the inside of the Radio Network House on Worcester Street. Maurice Gibbens, demolition supervisor from CERES, and Craig Stracey, operations manger, explain how the building has been prepared for demolition by implosion.

Research papers, University of Canterbury Library

The latest two great earthquake sequences; 2010- 2011 Canterbury Earthquake and 2016 Kaikoura Earthquake, necessitate a better understanding of the New Zealand seismic hazard condition for new building design and detailed assessment of existing buildings. It is important to note, however, that the New Zealand seismic hazard map in NZS 1170.5.2004 is generalised in effort to cover all of New Zealand and limited to a earthquake database prior to 2001. This is “common” that site-specific studies typically provide spectral accelerations different to those shown on the national map (Z values in NZS 1170.5:2004); and sometimes even lower. Moreover, Section 5.2 of Module 1 of the Earthquake Geotechnical Engineering Practice series provide the guidelines to perform site- specific studies.

Videos, UC QuakeStudies

A video of people protesting the demolition of the Cranmer Courts on Armagh Street. In the background, an excavator is being used to demolish the building. Earlier in the day a man was arrested on a trespassing charge for climbing the fence.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

An image from a Army News March 2011 photo compilation titled, "All in a Days Work". The image is captioned, "The burnt out lift well and staircase of the Canterbury Television building where 95 people are believed to have perished".