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Audio, Radio New Zealand

Te Pae, Christchurch's near $450 million convention centre, has been officially opened this afternoon with a pōwhiri and unveiling by Mayor Lianne Dalziel and Minister Megan Woods. Billed as a legacy for the city, it replaces the old centre which was demolished following the Canterbury earthquakes. Niva Chittock is at the ceremony and joins Lisa with the details.

Audio, Radio New Zealand

The Christchurch City Council's plans to to help curb a rising homeless population has left some people who live rough worried. The council is considering funding the Christchurch City Mission to employ outreach workers for the first time since the Canterbury earthquakes, and police are increasing central city patrols. Christchurch reporter Logan Church has the story.

Audio, Radio New Zealand

Displaced residents of Merivale Retirement village in Christchurch were told that they need to move out by April 1. A new facility that has replaced the earthquake damaged one won't have enough beds for everyone. The CEO of Age Concern Canterbury Simon Templeton talks about what measures are in place to look after these vulnerable elderly people.

Audio, Radio New Zealand

The old Ngaio Marsh theatre at the University of Canterbury was one of the many casualties of the earthquakes.The Student Association is encouraging people who performed on stage or helped out behind the scenes to buy a seat for the replacement Ngaio Marsh Theatre. Lynn Freeman talks with the UCSA president Sam Brosnahan about the project.

Audio, Radio New Zealand

A legal settlement between the Earthquake Commission and a group of Canterbury homeowners over the standard of quake repairs, is being described as a milestone for house owners throughout the country. The Reserve Bank has left the cost of borrowing unchanged at a record low 2-point-25 percent, athough it is signalling further cuts remain on the cards.

Audio, Radio New Zealand

Kaiapoi, just north of Christchurch, has unveiled a bold new plan for the parts of the town wiped off the map in the Canterbury earthquakes. The plan proposes having house boats on the river that runs through the town, there'll be a place for campervans to park up and a covered sports facility is on the cards.

Audio, Radio New Zealand

The government plans to introduce legislation to change the Earthquake Commission's operations, after a report found major failings. It found EQC was woefully unprepared as it dealt with the Canterbury quakes, and made dozens of recommendations about clarifying EQC's role and improving the way it deals with claimants. RNZ political reporter Yvette McCullough has more.

Audio, Radio New Zealand

A new study suggests young Maori wahine are being let down by the health system, because of inadequate information to help them find a midwife; A South Island marae has accepted a donation to repair its wharekai damaged during the 2011 Canterbury earthquakes; About 750 Maori and Pasifika Auckland tertiary students will celebrate their academic achievement.

Audio, Radio New Zealand

Some of the families of the 115 people who dies in the CTV building during the 2011 Canterbury earthquake protested in Latimer Square yesterday over the police decision not to prosecute the designers of the CTV building. They say they do want to see a prosecution go ahead, and they are seeking legal advice about what their options are.

Audio, Radio New Zealand

A huge milestone in the rebuild of the Christchurch Cathedral. Twelves years since the Canterbury earthquakes caused extensive damage to the building, community leaders and project managers have gathered inside the cathedral this morning for the first time since the quakes. It also marks the completion of stablisation phase of the project. Our reporter Adam Burns went along.

Images, Alexander Turnbull Library

Shows a happy crowd playing in the sea and sand in the Christchurch Square. Bishop Victoria Matthews is seen balancing on the Wizard of Christchurch who has turned himself into a surfboard. Context: refers to a proposal by Bishop of Christchurch Victoria Matthews that the earthquake-damaged Square could be made "welcoming and engaging" again by transforming it into an artificial beach with large movie screens. Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).

Research papers, University of Canterbury Library

The 2010–2011 Canterbury earthquakes and their aftermath have been described by the Human Rights Commission as one of New Zealand's greatest contemporary human rights challenges. This article documents the shortcomings in the realisation of the right to housing in post-quake Canterbury for homeowners, tenants and the homeless. The article then considers what these shortcomings tell us about New Zealand's overall human rights framework, suggesting that the ongoing and seemingly intractable nature of these issues and the apparent inability to resolve them indicate an underlying fragility implicit in New Zealand's framework for dealing with the consequences of a large-scale natural disaster. The article concludes that there is a need for a comprehensive human rights-based approach to disaster preparedness, response and recovery in New Zealand.

Research papers, University of Canterbury Library

This paper presents preliminary results of an experimental campaign on three beam-column joint subassemblies extracted from a 22-storey reinforced concrete frame building constructed in late 1980s at the Christchurch’s Central Business District (CBD) area, damaged and demolished after the 2010-2011 Canterbury earthquakes sequence (CES). The building was designed following capacity design principles. Column sway (i.e., soft storey) mechanisms were avoided, and the beams were provided with plastic hinge relocation details at both beam-ends, aiming at developing plastic hinges away from the column faces. The specimens were tested under quasi-static cyclic displacement controlled lateral loading. One of the specimens, showing no visible residual cracks was cyclically tested in its as-is condition. The other two specimens which showed residual cracks varying between hairline and 1.0mm in width, were subjected to cyclic loading to simulate cracking patterns consistent with what can be considered moderate damage. The cracked specimens were then repaired with an epoxy injection technique and subsequently retested until reaching failure. The epoxy injection techniques demonstrated to be quite efficient in partly, although not fully, restoring the energy dissipation capacities of the damaged specimens at all beam rotation levels. The stiffness was partly restored within the elastic range and almost fully restored after the onset of nonlinear behaviour.

Research papers, University of Canterbury Library

The Townsend Observatory is located in the Arts Centre of Christchurch, in what used to be Canterbury College (now University of Canterbury). The Townsend telescope itself is a historic 6-inch Cooke refractor built in 1864 for early Christchurch colonist, Mr James Townsend, and gifted by him to Christchurch College in 1891. At the same time, the Canterbury Astronomical Society handed over its funds to the College to help erect an observatory. The College used this, and money it had set aside for a medical school, to build a biological laboratory with an attached observatory tower, which was completed in 1896. The Biology Building and Observatory Tower was the last major design by architect Benjamin Mountfort. Mr Walter Kitson was appointed custodian of the telescope and regular public open nights commenced. and continued until 2010, with the telescope being operated by students of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Canterbury. The Observatory Tower was badly damaged in the 4 September 2010 earthquake and collapsed in the 22 February 2011 earthquake. The telescope was badly damaged by the collapse, but, amazingly, the optics were found entirely intact. The Department of Physics and Astronomy plans to restore the Townsend Telescope so that it can be returned to a replica Observatory Tower in its central city home, enabling the people of Christchurch, and visitors, to enjoy views of the night sky through this beautiful and historic telescope once again.

Research papers, University of Canterbury Library

The paper discusses modelling of cyclic stress-strain behaviour of soil, in particular a simple model that can produce a desired stiffness and hysteretic damping for a given strain level as observed in laboratory testing is formulated. The unloading-reloading relationship is developed for total stress seismic site response analysis with appropriate damping at large strain. The constitutive model employs a hyperbolic equation as the backbone curve, and uses a modification of the extended Masing unloading-reloading relationship leading to correct measured modulus reduction and damping curves simultaneously. A quasi-static cyclic loading of increasing amplitude is used to demonstrate the model’s performance and its capability to allow improved modelling of the magnitude of energy dissipation based on an experimental program on native sandy soils from Christchurch, New Zealand.

Research papers, University of Canterbury Library

This report presents an overview of the soil profile characteristics at a number of strong motion station (SMS) sites in Christchurch and its surrounds. An extensive database of ground motion records has been captured by the SMS network in the Canterbury region during the Canterbury earthquake sequence. However in order to comprehensively understand the ground motions recorded at these sites and to be able to relate these motions to other locations, a detailed understanding of the shallow geotechnical profile at each SMS is required. The original NZS1170.5 (SNZ 2004) site subsoil classifications for each SMS site is based on regional geological information and well logs located at varying distances from the site. Given the variability of Christchurch soils, more detailed investigations are required in close vicinity to each SMS to better understand stratigraphy and soil properties, which are important in seismic site response. In this regard, CPT, SPT and borehole data, shear wave velocity (Vs) profiles, and horizontal to vertical spectral ratio measurements (H/V) in close vicinity to the SMS were used to develop representative soil profiles at each site. NZS1170.5 (SNZ 2004) site subsoil classifications were updated using Vs and SPT N60 criteria. Site class E boundaries were treated as a sliding scale rather than as a discrete boundary to account for locations with similar site effects potential, an approach which was shown to result in a better delineation between the site classes. SPT N60 values often indicate a stiffer site class than the Vs data for softer soil sites, highlighting the disparity between the two site investigation techniques. Both SPT N60 and Vs based site classes did not always agree with the original site classifications. This emphasises the importance of having detailed site‐specific information at SMS locations in order to properly classify them. Furthermore, additional studies are required to harmonize site classification based on SPT N60 and Vs. Liquefaction triggering assessments were carried out for the Darfield and Christchurch earthquakes, and compared against observed liquefaction surface manifestations and ground motions characteristics at each SMS. In general, the characteristics of the recorded ground motions at each site correlate well with the triggering analyses. However, at sites that likely liquefied at depth (as indicated by triggering analyses and/or inferred from the characteristics of the recorded surface acceleration time series), the presence of a non‐liquefiable crust layer at many of the SMS locations prevented the manifestation of any surface effects.

Images, Alexander Turnbull Library

It is the middle of the night and a man wearing his dressing-gown runs out of his house towards a portaloo clutching a toilet roll and saying 'Try me'. The neighbourhood is wrecked by earthquakes. On the ground is a newspaper with a headline that reads 'New Delhi athletes substandard accomodation facilities'. A second newspaper reads 'Given the choice many prefer to stay home'. Context: The first Christchurch earthquake shook the city on early morning of the 4th September 2010. The destruction of sewage infrastructure has meant portaloos and long-drops have become de rigeur as a consequence. There was a desperate rush to get the village ready for the influx of athletes before the opening of the Commonwealth Games on 3rd October 2010 and there was a fear that unsatisfactory sanitation systems might cause health and safety problems. Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).

Videos, UC QuakeStudies

A video showing members of the SPCA standing for two minutes in silence a week after the 22 February 2011 earthquake, in memory of those who lost their lives. A pigeon, found in the ChristChurch Cathedral after the quakes, is released at the end of the two-minutes' silence.

Images, Alexander Turnbull Library

Shows Bishop Victoria Matthews reading a brochure offering cheap deals for cathedrals and their various accoutrements. Context: refers to the debate about the fate of the Christchurch Cathedral. Bishop Victoria Matthews is in favour of demolishing the cathedral to a certain safe level. The lobby for saving the cathedral, wrecked by the earthquakes of 2010 and 2011, is very strong. Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).

Images, Alexander Turnbull Library

Christchurch City has to be rebuilt after the earthquakes of 4 September 2010 and 22 February 2011. People are being invited to contribute ideas about how to rebuild on a city council website. A group of people look at ideas on computers; a boy comments that 'this one looks just like the old city' and his father comments 'but built fifty miles up the road!' A woman looks at what appears to be pre European Maori pa site and says 'Hone Harawira wants something pre-European!' Another woman looks at a map of the middle of the South Island and says 'Rodney Hide doesn't care as long as Christchurch combines with Timaru and Westport!' Context - Former ACT leader Rodney Hide in his role as Minister for Local Government likes 'supercities' and Hone Harawira has left the Maori Party, fed up with the compromises he believes they have to make to suit their coalition agreement with the National government. He seems to prefer a city that will reflect simpler pre-European times. Colour and black and white versions available Quantity: 2 digital cartoon(s).

Images, Alexander Turnbull Library

The cartoon shows Christchurch obscured by ash. Text reads 'Christchurch recovery package' and below are the words 'Cash cloud'. Context - Beginning on the 6th of June the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano has been erupting for more than a week. Drifting ash clouds have been interupting flights. On Thursday 23 June Prime Minister John Key, Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee and representatives from engineering consultants Tonkin & Taylor announced the first part of the Government's long-awaited land report that revealed the fate of up to 5000 quake-damaged homes. These homes were in the 'red zone'. But 10,500 owners in the orange zone were left in limbo, with their properties requiring further assessment. One of the options presented to residents in the red zone, ideal for people with replacement policies, was the government bought your land, and you dealt directly with your insurers about your house. However they got a shock when insurers told them they won't replace their homes, they'll only repair them, even though they're earmarked for certain demolition. Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).

Images, Alexander Turnbull Library

The title reads 'Shipping container shopping for Merivale?.. The cartoon shows a row of shops that have been created from containers. An oil slick seeps from one of them. Someone in 'Chez Merivale' says 'Nice idea darling. But did they have to use the Rena's containers?' Context: Refers to the container ship 'Rena' which is grounded on the Astrolabe Reef off the Bay of Plenty and threatens to become a disaster of huge proportions as oil spews into the sea. Modified shipping containers have been put in place in the suburb of Merivale to replace broken shops. Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).

Images, Alexander Turnbull Library

The title is 'Cardboard cathedral proposed...' The cartoon shows the Christchurch Cathedral completed with cardboard boxes and a spire made of used toilet rolls. A puppy is in the process of unwinding toilet paper from the last roll. On an earlier part of the roof stand cardboard cutouts of the Christchurch wizard and maybe the mayor, Bob Parker. Context: A design for a temporary cathedral has been outlined by renowned Japanese architect Shigeru Ban. The proposed $4 million temporary replacement for Christchurch's destroyed cathedral made of shipping containers and cardboard has been met with scepticism from residents of the quake-hit city who wonder whether another church is really what the city needs right now. (3 News 1 August 2011) Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).

Images, Alexander Turnbull Library

Text reads 'Latest Christchurch East band' The name of the band is 'The Silty Stones' and the band sings 'We can't get no... sa-tis-faction! 'Cos we got more li-qui-faction! And we cry, and we cry, and we try to get by We can't get no sa-tis-faction!' The band are cleaning up the latest liquefaction from around a house and are using their tools as musical instruments. Context: there was a 4.9 magnitude aftershock in Canterbury on December 26th (Boxing Day 2011) The song is a take-off of the 'Rolling Stones' song 'We can't get no satisfaction'. Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).

Images, Alexander Turnbull Library

The cartoon shows the mayor of Christchurch, Bob Parker being targeted by someone with a gun. He is told that this lesson one of relationship counselling. Context: The Christchurch City Council has been having severe relationship problems which has resulted in a demonstration of 4000 people demanding that the council step aside and that new elections be called. Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).

Research Papers, Lincoln University

There is a critical strand of literature suggesting that there are no ‘natural’ disasters (Abramovitz, 2001; Anderson and Woodrow, 1998; Clarke, 2008; Hinchliffe, 2004). There are only those that leave us – the people - more or less shaken and disturbed. There may be some substance to this; for example, how many readers recall the 7.8 magnitude earthquake centred in Fiordland in July 2009? Because it was so far away from a major centre and very few people suffered any consequences, the number is likely to be far fewer than those who remember (all too vividly) the relatively smaller 7.1 magnitude Canterbury quake of September 4th 2010 and the more recent 6.3 magnitude February 22nd 2011 event. One implication of this construction of disasters is that seismic events, like those in Canterbury, are as much socio-political as they are geological. Yet, as this paper shows, the temptation in recovery is to tick boxes and rebuild rather than recover, and to focus on hard infrastructure rather than civic expertise and community involvement. In this paper I draw upon different models of community engagement and use Putnam’s (1995) notion of ‘social capital’ to frame the argument that ‘building bridges’ after a disaster is a complex blend of engineering, communication and collaboration. I then present the results of a qualitative research project undertaken after the September 4th earthquake. This research helps to illustrate the important connections between technical rebuilding, social capital, recovery processes and overall urban resilience.

Research Papers, Lincoln University

An often overlooked aspect of urban housing development is the composition of the space between buildings; the streetscape. The pressures of suppressing suburban sprawl have seen housing developments respond by increasing residential density within more centralised city sites. Medium-density housing typologies are often used as urban infill in response to the challenge of accommodating an increasing population. A by-product of these renewed areas is the creation of new open space which serves as the fundamental public space for sociability to develop in communities. Street space should emphasise this public expression by encouraging social exchange and interaction. As a result, a neighbourhood owes its liveliness (or lack thereof) to its streets. The issue of density when applied to the urban housing landscape encompasses two major components: the occupancy of both the private realms, constituting the residential built form, and the public spaces that adjoins them, the streets. STREETSCAPE: dialogues of street + house. Continual transition between the realms of public and private (building and street space) enact active edges, giving way to public stimulation; the opportunity for experiencing other people. The advent of seeing and hearing other people in connection with daily comings and goings encourages social events to evolve, enhancing the notion of neighbourly conduct. Within New Zealand, and specifically in Christchurch as considered here, the compositions of current streetscapes lack the demeanor to really encourage and facilitate the idea of neighbourly interaction and public expression. Here lies the potential for new street design to significantly heighten the interplay of human activity. In response, this research project operates under the notion that the street spaces of urban residential areas are largely underutilised. This lack is particularly evident in the street. Street design should strive to produce spaces which stimulate the public life of residents. There exists a need to reassert eminence of the street as a space for vibrant neighbourhood life. This thesis employs design as a tool for researching and will involve using numerous concept generators to trigger the production of multiple scenarios. These scenarios are to explore the ways in which the streetscapes within medium-density urban communities could respond in the event of (re) development.

Audio, Radio New Zealand

For countless families in Canterbury, the earthquake sent china, crystal and other precious glass objects to the floor where they shattered. But Banks Peninsula artist Sarah Rutland says don't despair, and definitely don't throw those broken treasures away. They will never be the same, but they can be reshaped into a different treasure that can itself become a family heirloom.