The sequence of earthquakes that has affected Christchurch and Canterbury since September 2010 has caused damage to a great number of buildings of all construction types. Following post-event damage surveys performed between April 2011 and June 2011, the damage suffered by unreinforced stone masonry buildings is reported and different types of observed failures are described. A detailed technical description of the most prevalently observed failure mechanisms is provided, with reference to recognised failure modes for unreinforced masonry structures. The observed performance of existing seismic retrofit interventions is also provided, as an understanding of the seismic response of these interventions is of fundamental importance for assessing the vulnerability of similar strengthening techniques when applied to unreinforced stone masonry structures.
Shipping containers against the cliff on the road to Sumner, Christchurch. File reference: CCL-2012-05-12-Around-Sumner-May-2012 DSC_012.JPG From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries.
Container Love: shipping container decorated with knitted and crocheted squares. Sumner, Christchurch. File reference: CCL-2012-05-12-Around-Sumner-May-2012 DSC_034.JPG From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries.
Shipping containers against the cliff on the road to Sumner, Christchurch. File reference: CCL-2012-05-12-Around-Sumner-May-2012 DSC_013.JPG From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries.
Shipping containers against the cliff on the road to Sumner, Christchurch. File reference: CCL-2012-05-12-Around-Sumner-May-2012 DSC_004.JPG From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries.
Shipping containers against the cliff on the road to Sumner, Christchurch. File reference: CCL-2012-05-12-Around-Sumner-May-2012 DSC_003.JPG From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries.
Shipping containers against the cliff on the road to Sumner, Christchurch. File reference: CCL-2012-05-12-Around-Sumner-May-2012 DSC_010.JPG From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries.
Container Love: shipping container decorated with knitted and crocheted squares. Sumner, Christchurch. File reference: CCL-2012-05-12-Around-Sumner-May-2012 DSC_025.JPG From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries.
Shipping containers against the cliff on the road to Sumner, Christchurch. File reference: CCL-2012-05-12-Around-Sumner-May-2012 DSC_007.JPG From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries.
Shipping containers against the cliff on the road to Sumner, Christchurch. File reference: CCL-2012-05-12-Around-Sumner-May-2012 DSC_005.JPG From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries.
Shipping containers against the cliff on the road to Sumner, Christchurch. File reference: CCL-2012-05-12-Around-Sumner-May-2012 DSC_014.JPG From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries.
Container Love: shipping container decorated with knitted and crocheted squares. Sumner, Christchurch. File reference: CCL-2012-05-12-Around-Sumner-May-2012 DSC_022.JPG From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries.
Shipping containers against the cliff on the road to Sumner, Christchurch. File reference: CCL-2012-05-12-Around-Sumner-May-2012 DSC_017.JPG From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries.
Container Love: shipping container decorated with knitted and crocheted squares. Sumner, Christchurch. File reference: CCL-2012-05-12-Around-Sumner-May-2012 DSC_023.JPG From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries.
Shipping containers against the cliff on the road to Sumner, Christchurch. File reference: CCL-2012-05-12-Around-Sumner-May-2012 DSC_008.JPG From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries.
The recent Christchurch earthquakes provide a unique opportunity to better understand the relationship between pre-disaster social fault-lines and post-disaster community fracture. As a resident of Christchurch, this paper presents some of my reflections on the social structures and systems, activities, attitudes and decisions that have helped different Canterbury ‘communities’ along their road to recovery, and highlights some issues that have, unfortunately, held us back. These reflections help answer the most crucial question asked of disaster scholarship: what can recovery agencies (including local authorities) do - both before and after disaster - to promote resilience and facilitate recovery. This paper – based on three different definitions of resilience - presents a thematic account of the social recovery landscape. I argue that ‘coping’ might best be associated with adaptive capacity, however ‘thriving’ or ‘bounce forward’ versions of resilience are a function of a community’s participative capacity.
New research shows the Canterbury earthquakes generated eight million tonnes of waste - forty times what would normally come from local households in a year.
It was just a little under an hour and a half ago, two years today, that a seven-point-one magnitude earthquake shook Canterbury.
West Auckland residents begin the cleanup after yesterday's tornado. The Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission calls for the seismic grading of all non-residential buildings.
Witnesses before the Canterbury Earthquake Royal Commission have been questioned over whether preservation of heritage buildings was given more consideration than preserving human lives.
Canterbury retail spending surges following earthquake disruptions. Traders face potential prison terms in Britain's rate-rigging scandal and the sharemarket falls half a percent.
A freshwater biologist says a tsunami of sediment and sand caused by the Canterbury earthquakes is choking the city's riverbeds and killing aquatic life.
A photograph of a cairn created in protest against the removal of democratically elected Environment Canterbury councillors and their replacement by centrally appointed commissioners.
A photograph of a cairn created in protest against the removal of democratically elected Environment Canterbury councillors and their replacement by centrally appointed commissioners.
The minister for Earthquake Recovery, Gerry Brownlee, is refusing to intervene and force the Canterbury regional council, to loosen rules around log burners in Christchurch.
The Royal Commission into the Canterbury Earthquakes has heard the CTV building collapsed because of the incompetence of the man in charge of designing it.
South Island motorists are warned to take care as snow falls and the Canterbury Earthquake Royal Commission is told the engineering profession is in crisis.
Seismologists studying the Canterbury earthquakes say aftershocks from the September 2010 quake were so unusually strong because of the type of rocks along the faultline.
Canterbury's health officials say an increase in binge drinking, not taking medicines, and domestic violence are signs of the ongoing effect of the region's earthquakes.
The creation of a new unit within the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority to oversee the rebuilding of central Christchurch is being welcomed by business leaders.