
Friday 22 February 2013. File reference: CCL-2013 -02-22-IMG_4046 From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries.
A memorandum of understanding that sets out how SCIRT and InfraTrain planned to work together to build an industry training framework and skilled workforce.
A guideline which defined what is and isn't 'on job training', with the purpose of encouraging more 'on job training'.
A revised memorandum of understanding that sets out how SCIRT and Connexis planned to work together to build an industry training framework and skilled workforce.
A magazine article which describes SCIRT's approach to training.
A plan which details how in 2013 SCIRT planned to engage its workforce in training.
A diagram which illustrates the numbers of people trained to July 2016.
A zip file containing some of SCIRT's short course training materials.
An award application for the Civil Contractors New Zealand 2015 awards. SCIRT was a finalist in the "Connexis Company Training and Development Award - Large Company" category.
A report which details the financial and societal value that the SCIRT Training Centre created.
A photograph of The Present State - a contemplative installation that played projected recordings of foraging adventures by Plant Gang. The installation was part of FESTA 2014 and was located on a vacant site at 100 High Street.
A photograph of The Present State - a contemplative installation that played projected recordings of foraging adventures by Plant Gang. The installation was part of FESTA 2014 and was located on a vacant site at 100 High Street.
A photograph of The Present State - a contemplative installation that played projected recordings of foraging adventures by Plant Gang. The installation was part of FESTA 2014 and was located on a vacant site at 100 High Street.
A photograph of The Present State - a contemplative installation that played projected recordings of foraging adventures by Plant Gang. The installation was part of FESTA 2014 and was located on a vacant site at 100 High Street.
A photograph of The Present State - a contemplative installation that played projected recordings of foraging adventures by Plant Gang. The installation was part of FESTA 2014 and was located on a vacant site at 100 High Street.
A photograph of The Present State - a contemplative installation that played projected recordings of foraging adventures by Plant Gang. The installation was part of FESTA 2014 and was located on a vacant site at 100 High Street.
A photograph of The Present State - a contemplative installation that played projected recordings of foraging adventures by Plant Gang. The installation was part of FESTA 2014 and was located on a vacant site at 100 High Street.
Disasters are often followed by a large-scale stimulus supporting the economy through the built environment, which can last years. During this time, official economic indicators tend to suggest the economy is doing well, but as activity winds down, the sentiment can quickly change. In response to the damaging 2011 earthquakes in Canterbury, New Zealand, the regional economy outpaced national economic growth rates for several years during the rebuild. The repair work on the built environment created years of elevated building activity. However, after the peak of the rebuilding activity, as economic and employment growth retracts below national growth, we are left with the question of how the underlying economy performs during large scale stimulus activity in the built environment. This paper assesses the performance of the underlying economy by quantifying the usual, demand-driven level of building activity at this time. Applying an Input–Output approach and excluding the economic benefit gained from the investment stimulus reveals the performance of the underlying economy. The results reveal a strong growing underlying economy, and while convergence was expected as the stimulus slowed down, the results found that growth had already crossed over for some time. The results reveal that the investment stimulus provides an initial 1.5% to 2% growth buffer from the underlying economy before the growth rates cross over. This supports short-term economic recovery and enables the underlying economy to transition away from a significant rebuild stimulus. Once the growth crosses over, five years after the disaster, economic growth in the underlying economy remains buoyant even if official regional economic data suggest otherwise.
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Chinese lanterns against spring growth in Victoria Square".
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "The Ferrier Fountain against a backdrop of broken steps and spring growth".
This report contributes to a collaborative project between the Marlborough District Council (MDC) and University of Canterbury (UC) which aims to help protect and promote the recovery of native dune systems on the Marlborough coast. It is centred around the mapping of dune vegetation and identification of dune protection zones for old-growth seed sources of the native sand-binders spinifex (Spinifex sericeus) and pīngao (Ficinia spiralis). Both are key habitat-formers associated with nationally threatened dune ecosystems, and pīngao is an important weaving resource and Ngāi Tahu taonga species. The primary goal is to protect existing seed sources that are vital for natural regeneration following major disturbances such as the earthquake event. Several additional protection zones are also identified for areas where new dunes are successfully regenerating, including areas being actively restored in the Beach Aid project that is assisting new native dunes to become established where there is available space.
A photograph of Hannah Dunlop, Youth Recovery Project Coordinator at New Zealand Red Cross, taking part in #FiveYearsOn. New Zealand Red Cross was an All Right? Champion. Dunlop holds a sign which reads, "Five years on, I feel... Inspired by - People, Growth, Innovation, Determination. Hannah, Spreydon".
Orientation: Large-scale events such as disasters, wars and pandemics disrupt the economy by diverging resource allocation, which could alter employment growth within the economy during recovery. Research purpose: The literature on the disaster–economic nexus predominantly considers the aggregate performance of the economy, including the stimulus injection. This research assesses the employment transition following a disaster by removing this stimulus injection and evaluating the economy’s performance during recovery. Motivation for the study: The underlying economy’s performance without the stimulus’ benefit remains primarily unanswered. A single disaster event is used to assess the employment transition to guide future stimulus response for disasters. Research approach/design and method: Canterbury, New Zealand, was affected by a series of earthquakes in 2010–2011 and is used as a single case study. Applying the historical construction–economic relationship, a counterfactual level of economic activity is quantified and compared with official results. Using an input–output model to remove the economy-wide impact from the elevated activity reveals the performance of the underlying economy and employment transition during recovery. Main findings: The results indicate a return to a demand-driven level of building activity 10 years after the disaster. Employment transition is characterised by two distinct periods. The first 5 years are stimulus-driven, while the 5 years that follow are demand-driven from the underlying economy. After the initial period of elevated building activity, construction repositioned to its long-term level near 5% of value add. Practical/managerial implications: The level of building activity could be used to confidently assess the performance of regional economies following a destructive disaster. The study results argue for an incentive to redevelop the affected area as quickly as possible to mitigate the negative effect of the destruction and provide a stimulus for the economy. Contribution/value-add: This study contributes to a growing stream of regional disaster economics research that assesses the economic effect using a single case study.
Damage to the garden of a house in Richmond. Liquefaction is visible among the plants and on the driveway, and the driveway is badly cracked. The photographer comments, "These photos show our old house in River Rd. Water and silt have flattened the long grass in the back garden. The growth right of centre is suckers growing from the stump of a prunus tree we had felled last year. The section of fence between us and our neighbour fell down in the Sep 4 quake".
<b>Ōtautahi-Christchurch faces the future in an enviable position. Compared to other New Zealand cities Christchurch has lower housing costs, less congestion, and a brand-new central city emerging from the rubble of the 2011 earthquakes. ‘Room to Breathe: designing a framework for medium density housing (MDH) in Ōtautahi-Christchurch’ seeks to answer the timely question how can medium density housing assist Ōtautahi-Christchurch to respond to growth in a way that supports a well-functioning urban environment? Using research by design, the argument is made that MDH can be used to support a safe, accessible, and connected urban environment that fosters community, while retaining a level of privacy. This is achieved through designing a neighbourhood concept addressing 3 morphological scales- macro- the city; meso- the neighbourhood; and micro- the home and street. The scales are used to inform a design framework for MDH specific to Ōtautahi-Christchurch, presenting a typological concept that takes full advantage of the benefits higher density living has to offer.</b> Room to Breathe proposes repurposing underutilised areas surrounding existing mass transit infrastructure to provide a concentrated populous who do not solely rely on private vehicles for transport. By considering all morphological scales Room to Breathe provides one suggestion on how MDH could become accepted as part of a well-functioning urban environment.
Territorial authorities in New Zealand are responding to regulatory and market forces in the wake of the 2011 Christchurch earthquake to assess and retrofit buildings determined to be particularly vulnerable to earthquakes. Pending legislation may shorten the permissible timeframes on such seismic improvement programmes, but Auckland Council’s Property Department is already engaging in a proactive effort to assess its portfolio of approximately 3500 buildings, prioritise these assets for retrofit, and forecast construction costs for improvements. Within the programme structure, the following varied and often competing factors must be accommodated: * The council’s legal, fiscal, and ethical obligations to the people of Auckland per building regulations, health and safety protocols, and economic growth and urban development planning strategies; * The council’s functional priorities for service delivery; * Varied and numerous stakeholders across the largest territorial region in New Zealand in both population and landmass; * Heritage preservation and community and cultural values; and * Auckland’s prominent economic role in New Zealand’s economy which requires Auckland’s continued economic production post-disaster. Identifying those buildings most at risk to an earthquake in such a large and varied portfolio has warranted a rapid field assessment programme supplemented by strategically chosen detailed assessments. Furthermore, Auckland Council will benefit greatly in time and resources by choosing retrofit solutions, techniques, and technologies applicable to a large number of buildings with similar configurations and materials. From a research perspective, the number and variety of buildings within the council’s property portfolio will provide valuable data for risk modellers on building typologies in Auckland, which are expected to be fairly representative of the New Zealand building stock as a whole.