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Images for slow down; more images...

Audio, Radio New Zealand

A prominent Christchurch property investor says the Government's anchor projects meant to help rebuild the city faster, has instead slowed it down. After the 2011 earthquake, the Government launched a recovery plan for the CBD, which had 16 anchor projects designed to spur on the rebuild. However, many have been plagued by delays and are still unfinished. Property investor Antony Gough told RNZ reporter Anan Zaki that unlike the Government, it was the private sector which ploughed ahead with the rebuild.

Articles, UC QuakeStudies

Caption reads: "When we came to Bexley we were ready for a new life. We slowed down and started to enjoy ourselves. Before we moved to the area we never realised such a perfect place existed."

Videos, UC QuakeStudies

A video of an interview with Laurence Mote about the wall of containers in Sumner. Shipping containers line the south side of Main Road in Sumner, protecting road users from potential rock fall from the cliffs above. Mote bikes past the containers every day on his way to work. He talks about the risks facing cyclists along Main Road and in greater Christchurch, including pot holes and narrow roads. He advises cyclists to wear bright clothing and lights, and for cars to slow down and give cyclists room.

Research papers, University of Canterbury Library

Disasters can create the equivalent of 20 years of waste in only a few days. Disaster waste can have direct impacts on public health and safety, and on the environment. The management of such waste has a great direct cost to society in terms of labor, equipment, processing, transport and disposal. Disaster waste management also has indirect costs, in the sense that slow management can slow down a recovery, greatly affecting the ability of commerce and industry to re-start. In addition, a disaster can lead to the disruption of normal solid waste management systems, or result in inappropriate management that leads to expensive environmental remediation. Finally, there are social impacts implicit in disaster waste management decisions because of psychological impact we expect when waste is not cleared quickly or is cleared too quickly. The paper gives an overview of the challenge of disaster waste management, examining issues of waste quantity and composition; waste treatment; environmental, economic, and social impacts; health and safety matters; and planning. Christchurch, New Zealand, and the broader region of Canterbury were impacted during this research by a series of shallow earthquakes. This has led to the largest natural disaster emergency in New Zealand’s history, and the management of approximately 8 million tons of building and infrastructure debris has become a major issue. The paper provides an overview of the status of disaster waste management in Christchurch as a case study. A key conclusion is the vital role of planning in effective disaster waste management. In spite of the frequency of disasters, in most countries the ratio of time spent on planning for disaster waste management to the time spent on normal waste management is extremely low. Disaster waste management also requires improved education or training of those involved in response efforts. All solid waste professionals have a role to play to respond to the challenges of disaster waste management.

Research papers, Lincoln University

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.