The Christchurch earthquake sequence has been on-going since September 4th 2010. The largest two earthquakes, magnitude (M) 7.1 on September 4th and the M 6.3 on February 22nd 2011 caused immediate and significant damage to the city of Christchurch. As a consequence of the earthquakes, the tourism sector in the Canterbury region has been heavily impacted, with broader impacts being felt throughout the South Island. Resilient Organisations and the University of Canterbury began a series of quantitative investigations into the recovery and response of key business sectors to the earthquakes. The purpose of this study was to build on this work by exploring the outcomes of the earthquakes on the tourism sector, a critical economic driver in the region. Two postal surveys were sent to 719 tourism business managers; the first to businesses in the ‘Impact Zone’ defined as areas that experienced Modified Mercalli intensities greater than 6. The second survey was sent to the remaining businesses throughout the Canterbury region (‘Rest of Canterbury’). Response rates were 46% response for the Impact Zone, and 29% for the Rest of Canterbury. Key findings:
The purpose of this study is to analyse the felt earthquake impacts, resilience and recovery of organizations in Canterbury by comparing three business sectors (accommodation/food services, Education/Training and Manufacturing). A survey of the three sectors in 2013 of Canterbury organizations impacted by the earthquakes revealed significant differences between the three sectors on felt earthquake impacts and resilience. On recovery and mitigation factors, the accommodation/food services sector is not significantly different from the other two sectors. Overall, the survey results presented here indicate that the Accommodation/Food Services sector was the least impacted by the earthquakes in comparison to the Education/Training and Manufacturing sectors. Implications for post-disaster management and recovery of the accommodation sector are suggested.
At 00:02 on 14th November 2016, a Mw 7.8 earthquake occurred in and offshore of the northeast of the South Island of New Zealand. Fault rupture, ground shaking, liquefaction, and co-seismic landslides caused severe damage to distributed infrastructure, and particularly transportation networks; large segments of the country’s main highway, State Highway 1 (SH1), and the Main North Line (MNL) railway line, were damaged between Picton and Christchurch. The damage caused direct local impacts, including isolation of communities, and wider regional impacts, including disruption of supply chains. Adaptive measures have ensured immediate continued regional transport of goods and people. Air and sea transport increased quickly, both for emergency response and to ensure routine transport of goods. Road diversions have also allowed critical connections to remain operable. This effective response to regional transport challenges allowed Civil Defence Emergency Management to quickly prioritise access to isolated settlements, all of which had road access 23 days after the earthquake. However, 100 days after the earthquake, critical segments of SH1 and the MNL remain closed and their ongoing repairs are a serious national strategic, as well as local, concern. This paper presents the impacts on South Island transport infrastructure, and subsequent management through the emergency response and early recovery phases, during the first 100 days following the initial earthquake, and highlights lessons for transportation system resilience.
© 2017 The Royal Society of New Zealand. This paper discusses simulated ground motion intensity, and its underlying modelling assumptions, for great earthquakes on the Alpine Fault. The simulations utilise the latest understanding of wave propagation physics, kinematic earthquake rupture descriptions and the three-dimensional nature of the Earth's crust in the South Island of New Zealand. The effect of hypocentre location is explicitly examined, which is found to lead to significant differences in ground motion intensities (quantified in the form of peak ground velocity, PGV) over the northern half and southwest of the South Island. Comparison with previously adopted empirical ground motion models also illustrates that the simulations, which explicitly model rupture directivity and basin-generated surface waves, lead to notably larger PGV amplitudes than the empirical predictions in the northern half of the South Island and Canterbury. The simulations performed in this paper have been adopted, as one possible ground motion prediction, in the ‘Project AF8’ Civil Defence Emergency Management exercise scenario. The similarity of the modelled ground motion features with those observed in recent worldwide earthquakes as well as similar simulations in other regions, and the notably higher simulated amplitudes than those from empirical predictions, may warrant a re-examination of regional impact assessments for major Alpine Fault earthquakes.
The Canterbury Region is susceptible to a variety of natural hazards, including earthquakes, landslides and climate hazards. Increasing population and tourism within the region is driving development pressures and as more and more development occurs, the risk from natural hazards increases. In order to avoid development occurring in unacceptably vulnerable locations, natural hazard assessments are required. This study is a reconnaissance natural hazard assessment of Lakes Lyndon, Coleridge and Tekapo. There is restricted potential for development at Lake Lyndon, because the land surrounding the lake is owned by the Crown and has a number of development restrictions. However, there is the potential for conservation or recreation-linked development to occur. There is more potential for development at Lake Coleridge. Most of the land surrounding the lake is privately owned and has less development restrictions. The majority of land surrounding Lake Tekapo is divided into Crown-owned pastoral leases, which are protected from development, such as subdivision. However, there are substantial areas around the lake, which are privately owned and, therefore, have potential for development. Earthquake, landslide and climate hazards are the main natural hazards threatening Lakes Lyndon, Coleridge and Tekapo. The lakes are situated in a zone of active earth deformation in which large and relatively frequent earthquakes are produced. A large number of active faults lie within 15 km of each lake, which are capable of producing M7 or larger earthquakes. Ground shaking, liquefaction, landslides, tsunami and seiches are among the consequences of earthquakes, all of which have the potential to cause severe damage to lives, lifelines and infrastructure. Landslides are also common in the landscape surrounding the lakes. The majority of slopes surrounding the lakes are at significant risk from earthquake-induced failure under moderate to strong earthquake shaking. This level of shaking is expected to occur in any 50 year period around Lakes Lyndon and Coleridge, and in any 150 year period around Lake Tekapo. Injuries, fatalities and property damage can occur directly from landslide impact or from indirect effects such as flooding from landslide-generated tsunami or from landslide dam outbreaks. Lakes Lyndon, Coleridge and Tekapo are also susceptible to climate hazards, such as high winds, drought, heavy snowfall and heavy rainfall, which can lead to landslides and flooding. Future climate change due to global warming is most likely going to affect patterns of frequency and magnitudes of extreme weather events, leading to an increase in climate hazards. Before development is permitted around the lakes, it is essential that each of these hazards is considered so that unacceptably vulnerable areas can be avoided.
Field trips are one of the most critical pieces of learning for students in sciences like geology, biology, and geography. Virtual field trips (VFT) are being increasingly considered as sophisticated and effective forms of teaching, especially with the rise of new technologies and the growing demand for more inclusive classroom environments. This research developed a virtual field trip for Tertiary students in an introductory-level geology course (GEOL 113: Environmental Geohazards) at the University of Canterbury. This initiative was in partnership with LEARNZ – a highly esteemed virtual fieldtrip team run by CORE Education that creates successful VFTs for Primary and Secondary students in New Zealand. Key components of the Tertiary VFT include a student acting as the virtual field trip teacher interviewing experts and leading the field trip, web-based background material, online assessment, and photos. In two successive academic years, students participated in the VFT during lectures and as pre class assignments prior to a one-day earthquake hazards workshop. In 2016, the virtual field trip used the LEARNZ web platform and occurred synchronously with the class; in 2017 the virtual fieldtrip reused the video, images and word documents from the previous year with the addition of a Google Earth component and with no reliance on the LEARNZ web platform. The goals of the trip were designed to prepare students for the earthquake hazards workshop, in which students analysed earthquake impacts over varying timescales and then applied that knowledge to develop strategies for the recovery of three crucial industries (dairy, mining, or tourism) on the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island. In both years, number of clicks data showed that students interacted with online material far more during this week of the course than any other. Following the synchronous version in 2016, the students who were surveyed reported (1) they enjoyed the trip, (2) they found background material useful for preparation for the trip and the workshop, and (3) the additional work was at the appropriate level. Despite predominantly positive responses from the students, we experienced some negative feedback from participating staff mainly associated with stress and technical difficulties in running the synchronous VFT. With the asynchronous trip in 2017, staff reported a highly positive overall experience, with a perceived enhanced interaction with class during lecture time, and an increased and enhanced engagement with course material outside of class. The student survey again showed that the majority of students surveyed enjoyed the virtual fieldtrip, and that it was useful preparation for the workshop. Additionally, they reported an improved link between earth processes and society, which was a key overarching aim for the course. We propose that the synchronous version poses more excitement and immersion in the field environment, whereas the reuse of the asynchronous version increases the utility (and hence value for money) of the trip, and minimises technical difficulties and lecturer stress. Additionally, re-using the material in the asynchronous version offered opportunities to improve and supplement the past content, such as the incorporation of following an annotated trip path in Google Earth. As recommendations for others interested in developing virtual fieldtrips, we report that the design of a virtual fieldtrip should include (1) Goal-aligned content and assessment for both practice and marks, (2) a student and instructor experience that is authentic and flexible to both the people and the place. We suggest that these aims can be achieved whatever the budget or timeframe and make our material freely available at https://serc.carleton.edu/index.html.
