Damage to River Road in Richmond. The road surface is badly cracked and slumped, and liquefaction silt covers part of the road. Two people in gumboots walk towards a barrier erected across the road using road cones and warning tape, and in the background the badly twisted Medway Street bridge can be seen. The photographer comments, "Longitudinal cracks indicate lateral movement as the land sagged towards the river. Near 373 River Rd, looking south-east towards Medway St. The Medway St bridge is visible in the background".
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".
Damage to a residential property in Richmond. The brick wall of the garage has collapse inward, and the roof fallen in on top of it. The photographer comments, "These photos show our old house in River Rd and recovery work around Richmond and St Albans. The neighbours behind us used the kayak to get in to their house - it's flooded by Dudley Creek which runs behind the block, plus major liquefaction. Our old garage provides a good spot to park it".
A truck stuck in liquefaction on Breezes Road. The front wheels have fallen into a submerged pothole, and a digger is attempting to dig the truck out. The photographer comments, "The most common sight was extensive damage to the roads. Papanui, Breezes, Wainoni, Shortland Street and many more roads had large cracks and large sink holes. There were approximately 6 cars and 1 large Ready Mix cement truck that had fallen into holes within a few blocks of each other. All people appear to have escaped without serious injury as far as I could tell".
A car stuck in liquefaction on Breezes Road. The front wheels have fallen into a submerged pothole, lifting the back wheels off the ground. The photographer comments, "The most common sight was extensive damage to the roads. Papanui, Breezes, Wainoni, Shortland Street and many more roads had large cracks and large sink holes. There were approximately 6 cars and 1 large Ready Mix cement truck that had fallen into holes within a few blocks of each other. All people appear to have escaped without serious injury as far as I could tell".
A truck stuck in liquefaction on Breezes Road. The front wheels have fallen into a submerged pothole, and a digger is attempting to dig the truck out. The photographer comments, "The most common sight was extensive damage to the roads. Papanui, Breezes, Wainoni, Shortland Street and many more roads had large cracks and large sink holes. There were approximately 6 cars and 1 large Ready Mix cement truck that had fallen into holes within a few blocks of each other. All people appear to have escaped without serious injury as far as I could tell".
A sewage pumping station on Avonside Drive has been lifted out of the ground by liquefaction. In the background, the damaged Snell Place footbridge over the Avon River is closed off with cordon fencing. The photographer comments, "A Sunday afternoon ride to New Brighton, then back via Aranui, Wainoni, Dallington, and Richmond. Not a cheerful experience. Dallington footbridge. The two pieces of this foot bridge have moved towards each other, so the bridge has developed quite a peak. The sewage pumping station has been heaved out of the ground by hydraulic pressure during quakes".
Yes, it was a joke. The tours, that is, not the yard filled with earthquake-caused sand volcanos. They were very real. You can see one covering the driveway in this photo. The signs read as follows. "Tours run 1/2 hourly. $5.25 admission. Eftpos unavailable." "If you think this is bad... you should see the back!"
A car stuck in liquefaction on Breezes Road. The front wheels have fallen into a submerged pothole, lifting the back wheels off the ground. A line of other vehicles drive around the partially-submerged car. The photographer comments, "The most common sight was extensive damage to the roads. Papanui, Breezes, Wainoni, Shortland Street and many more roads had large cracks and large sink holes. There were approximately 6 cars and 1 large Ready Mix cement truck that had fallen into holes within a few blocks of each other. All people appear to have escaped without serious injury as far as I could tell".
A car stuck in liquefaction on Breezes Road. The front wheels have fallen into a submerged pothole, lifting the back wheels off the ground. A line of other vehicles drive around the partially-submerged car. The photographer comments, "The most common sight was extensive damage to the roads. Papanui, Breezes, Wainoni, Shortland Street and many more roads had large cracks and large sink holes. There were approximately 6 cars and 1 large Ready Mix cement truck that had fallen into holes within a few blocks of each other. All people appear to have escaped without serious injury as far as I could tell".
A car on Rowses Road has its entire front half embedded in liquefaction after falling into a sink hole. The photographer comments, "Perhaps the most impressively stuck car was this small silver hatchback that went head first into a large hole in a street just off Shortland Street (between Shortland and Breezes Road) in Aranui. The rear hatch was open when we came across it. Apparently there had been one person and a dog inside but they managed to escape. The silt has now settled around and inside the car, making the vehicle an intimidating monument to the earthquake".
A car on Rowses Road has its entire front half embedded in liquefaction after falling into a sink hole. The photographer comments, "Perhaps the most impressively stuck car was this small silver hatchback that went head first into a large hole in a street just off Shortland Street (between Shortland and Breezes Road) in Aranui. The rear hatch was open when we came across it. Apparently there had been one person and a dog inside but they managed to escape. The silt has now settled around and inside the car, making the vehicle an intimidating monument to the earthquake".
A car on Rowses Road has its entire front half embedded in liquefaction after falling into a sink hole. The photographer comments, "Perhaps the most impressively stuck car was this small silver hatchback that went head first into a large hole in a street just off Shortland Street (between Shortland and Breezes Road) in Aranui. The rear hatch was open when we came across it. Apparently there had been one person and a dog inside but they managed to escape. The silt has now settled around and inside the car, making the vehicle an intimidating monument to the earthquake".
A dramatic consequence of the Christchurch, New Zealand, earthquakes of 2010 and 2011 was the widespread liquefaction in the city. Part of the central business district (CBD) was badly affected by liquefaction but elsewhere large volumes of ejecta were not evident for those parts of the CBD where the upper layers in the soil profile are sandy gravel and gravelly sand. The purpose of the paper is to investigate the effect of the gravel permeability on the rise and dissipation of excess pore water pressure during cyclic loading of a soil profile idealised from Christchurch data. The Cyclic1D software, which performs one-dimensional non-linear effective stress site response analysis, was used. Permeability values associated with gravel were found to suppress the cyclic accumulation of excess pore water pressure in gravel layers. Given that there has not been any systematic measurement of the in situ permeability of the gravels in Christchurch, the modelling in the paper suggests that likely values for the bulk permeability of the gravel layers are within the range suggested in the geotechnical literature. However, the work reported is of wider application than Christchurch and emphasises the controlling influence of permeability on the accumulation and dissipation of cyclic pore pressures. VoR - Version of Record
A car on Rowses Road has its entire front half embedded in liquefaction after falling into a sink hole. Two other cars have their wheels stuck in the silt. The photographer comments, "Perhaps the most impressively stuck car was this small silver hatchback that went head first into a large hole in a street just off Shortland Street (between Shortland and Breezes Road) in Aranui. The rear hatch was open when we came across it. Apparently there had been one person and a dog inside but they managed to escape. The silt has now settled around and inside the car, making the vehicle an intimidating monument to the earthquake".
A car on Rowses Road has its entire front half embedded in liquefaction after falling into a sink hole. Behind it, another car has its wheels stuck in the silt. The photographer comments, "Perhaps the most impressively stuck car was this small silver hatchback that went head first into a large hole in a street just off Shortland Street (between Shortland and Breezes Road) in Aranui. The rear hatch was open when we came across it. Apparently there had been one person and a dog inside but they managed to escape. The silt has now settled around and inside the car, making the vehicle an intimidating monument to the earthquake".
A car on Rowses Road has its entire front half embedded in liquefaction after falling into a sink hole. Two other cars have their wheels stuck in the silt. The photographer comments, "Perhaps the most impressively stuck car was this small silver hatchback that went head first into a large hole in a street just off Shortland Street (between Shortland and Breezes Road) in Aranui. The rear hatch was open when we came across it. Apparently there had been one person and a dog inside but they managed to escape. The silt has now settled around and inside the car, making the vehicle an intimidating monument to the earthquake".
A car on Rowses Road has its entire front half embedded in liquefaction after falling into a sink hole. Behind it, another car has its wheels stuck in the silt. The photographer comments, "Perhaps the most impressively stuck car was this small silver hatchback that went head first into a large hole in a street just off Shortland Street (between Shortland and Breezes Road) in Aranui. The rear hatch was open when we came across it. Apparently there had been one person and a dog inside but they managed to escape. The silt has now settled around and inside the car, making the vehicle an intimidating monument to the earthquake".
A car on Rowses Road has its entire front half embedded in liquefaction after falling into a sink hole. Behind it, another car has its wheels stuck in the silt. The photographer comments, "Perhaps the most impressively stuck car was this small silver hatchback that went head first into a large hole in a street just off Shortland Street (between Shortland and Breezes Road) in Aranui. The rear hatch was open when we came across it. Apparently there had been one person and a dog inside but they managed to escape. The silt has now settled around and inside the car, making the vehicle an intimidating monument to the earthquake".
A car on Rowses Road has its entire front half embedded in liquefaction after falling into a sink hole. Another car has its wheels stuck in the silt. In the foreground, a car drives through flooding which covers the road. The photographer comments, "Perhaps the most impressively stuck car was this small silver hatchback that went head first into a large hole in a street just off Shortland Street (between Shortland and Breezes Road) in Aranui. The rear hatch was open when we came across it. Apparently there had been one person and a dog inside but they managed to escape. The silt has now settled around and inside the car, making the vehicle an intimidating monument to the earthquake".
A car on Rowses Road has its entire front half embedded in liquefaction after falling into a sink hole. Behind it, another car has its wheels stuck in the silt, and in the background a car drives through flooding. The photographer comments, "Perhaps the most impressively stuck car was this small silver hatchback that went head first into a large hole in a street just off Shortland Street (between Shortland and Breezes Road) in Aranui. The rear hatch was open when we came across it. Apparently there had been one person and a dog inside but they managed to escape. The silt has now settled around and inside the car, making the vehicle an intimidating monument to the earthquake".
The Screw Driving Sounding (SDS) method developed in Japan is a relatively new insitu testing technique to characterise soft shallow sites, typically those required for residential house construction. An SDS machine drills a rod into the ground in several loading steps while the rod is continuously rotated. Several parameters, such as torque, load and speed of penetration, are recorded at every rotation of the rod. The SDS method has been introduced in New Zealand, and the results of its application for characterising local sites are discussed in this study. A total of 164 SDS tests were conducted in Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland to validate/adjust the methodologies originally developed based on the Japanese practice. Most of the tests were conducted at sites where cone penetration tests (CPT), standard penetration tests (SPT) and borehole logs were available; the comparison of SDS results with existing information showed that the SDS method has great potential as an in-situ testing method for classifying the soils. By compiling the SDS data from 3 different cities and comparing them with the borehole logs, a soil classification chart was generated for identifying the soil type based on SDS parameters. Also, a correlation between fines content and SDS parameters was developed and a procedure for estimating angle of internal friction of sand using SDS parameters was investigated. Furthermore, a correlation was made between the tip resistance of the CPT and the SDS data for different percentages of fines content. The relationship between the SPT N value and a SDS parameter was also proposed. This thesis also presents a methodology for identifying the liquefiable layers of soil using SDS data. SDS tests were performed in both liquefied and non-liquefied areas in Christchurch to find a representative parameter and relationship for predicting the liquefaction potential of soil. Plots were drawn of the cyclic shear stress ratios (CSR) induced by the earthquakes and the corresponding energy of penetration during SDS tests. By identifying liquefied or unliquefied layers using three different popular CPT-based methods, boundary lines corresponding to the various probabilities of liquefaction happening were developed for different ranges of fines contents using logistic regression analysis, these could then be used for estimating the liquefaction potential of soil directly from the SDS data. Finally, the drilling process involved in screw driving sounding was simulated using Abaqus software. Analysis results proved that the model successfully captured the drilling process of the SDS machine in sand. In addition, a chart to predict peak friction angles of sandy sites based on measured SDS parameters for various vertical effective stresses was formulated. As a simple, fast and economical test, the SDS method can be a reliable alternative insitu test for soil and site characterisation, especially for residential house construction.
Liquefaction-induced lateral spreading during earthquakes poses a significant hazard to the built environment, as observed in Christchurch during the 2010 to 2011 Canterbury Earthquake Sequence (CES). It is critical that geotechnical earthquake engineers are able to adequately predict both the spatial extent of lateral spreads and magnitudes of associated ground movements for design purposes. Published empirical and semi-empirical models for predicting lateral spread displacements have been shown to vary by a factor of <0.5 to >2 from those measured in parts of Christchurch during CES. Comprehensive post- CES lateral spreading studies have clearly indicated that the spatial distribution of the horizontal displacements and extent of lateral spreading along the Avon River in eastern Christchurch were strongly influenced by geologic, stratigraphic and topographic features.
1. INTRODUCTION. Earthquakes and geohazards, such as liquefaction, landslides and rock falls, constitute a major risk for New Zealand communities and can have devastating impacts as the Canterbury 2010/2011 experience shows. Development patterns expose communities to an array of natural hazards, including tsunamis, floods, droughts, and sea level rise amongst others. Fostering community resilience is therefore vitally important. As the rhetoric of resilience is mainstreamed into the statutory framework, a major challenge emerges: how can New Zealand operationalize this complex and sometimes contested concept and build ‘community capitals’? This research seeks to provide insights to this question by critically evaluating how community capitals are conceptualized and how they can contribute to community resilience in the context of the Waimakariri District earthquake recovery and regeneration process.
A photograph of a sign taped to a window. The sign includes a bullet pointed list of humorous observations about Christchurch following the February 2011 earthquake. The sign reads, "You know you're from Christchurch when: you use the term 'liquefaction' and 'seismic design' in casual conversation; digging a hole and shitting in your garden is no longer weird; your mayor describes the city as munted. If he means FUBARed, you agree; weaving through car size potholes on the street is no longer weird; a shower is heaven; you have a preference of which kind of silt you'd rather shovel, dry or wet; you see tanks...driving around town; you are always noting what you are under; due to frequent aftershocks during the night, you sleep like a baby - every 10 minutes you wake up and shit yourself".
The region in and around Christchurch, encompassing Christchurch city and the Selwyn and Waimakariri districts, contains more than 800 road, rail, and pedestrian bridges. Most of these bridges are reinforced concrete, symmetric, and have small to moderate spans (15–25 m). The 22 February 2011 moment magnitude (Mw) 6.2 Christchurch earthquake induced high levels of localized ground shaking (Bradley and Cubrinovski 2011, page 853 of this issue; Guidotti et al. 2011, page 767 of this issue; Smyrou et al. 2011, page 882 of this issue), with damage to bridges mainly confined to the central and eastern parts of Christchurch. Liquefaction was evident over much of this part of the city, with lateral spreading affecting bridges spanning both the Avon and Heathcote rivers.
This thesis presents the application of data science techniques, especially machine learning, for the development of seismic damage and loss prediction models for residential buildings. Current post-earthquake building damage evaluation forms are developed for a particular country in mind. The lack of consistency hinders the comparison of building damage between different regions. A new paper form has been developed to address the need for a global universal methodology for post-earthquake building damage assessment. The form was successfully trialled in the street ‘La Morena’ in Mexico City following the 2017 Puebla earthquake. Aside from developing a framework for better input data for performance based earthquake engineering, this project also extended current techniques to derive insights from post-earthquake observations. Machine learning (ML) was applied to seismic damage data of residential buildings in Mexico City following the 2017 Puebla earthquake and in Christchurch following the 2010-2011 Canterbury earthquake sequence (CES). The experience showcased that it is readily possible to develop empirical data only driven models that can successfully identify key damage drivers and hidden underlying correlations without prior engineering knowledge. With adequate maintenance, such models have the potential to be rapidly and easily updated to allow improved damage and loss prediction accuracy and greater ability for models to be generalised. For ML models developed for the key events of the CES, the model trained using data from the 22 February 2011 event generalised the best for loss prediction. This is thought to be because of the large number of instances available for this event and the relatively limited class imbalance between the categories of the target attribute. For the CES, ML highlighted the importance of peak ground acceleration (PGA), building age, building size, liquefaction occurrence, and soil conditions as main factors which affected the losses in residential buildings in Christchurch. ML also highlighted the influence of liquefaction on the buildings losses related to the 22 February 2011 event. Further to the ML model development, the application of post-hoc methodologies was shown to be an effective way to derive insights for ML algorithms that are not intrinsically interpretable. Overall, these provide a basis for the development of ‘greybox’ ML models.
essential systems upon which the well-being and functioning of societies depend. They deliver a service or a good to the population using a network, a combination of spatially-distributed links and nodes. As they are interconnected, network elements’ functionality is also interdependent. In case of a failure of one component, many others could be momentarily brought out-of-service. Further problems arise for buried infrastructure when it comes to buried infrastructure in earthquake and liquefaction-prone areas for the following reasons: • Technically more demanding inspections than those required for surface horizontal infrastructure • Infrastructure subject to both permanent ground displacement and transient ground deformation • Increase in network maintenance costs (i.e. deterioration due to ageing material and seismic hazard) These challenges suggest careful studies on network resilience will yield significant benefits. For these reasons, the potable water network of Christchurch city (Figure 1) has been selected for its well-characterized topology and its extensive repair dataset.
Soil-structure interaction (SSI) has been widely studied during the last decades. The influence of the properties of the ground motion, the structure and the soil have been addressed. However, most of the studies in this field consider a stand-alone structure. This assumption is rarely justifiable in dense urban areas where structures are built close to one another. The dynamic interaction between adjacent structures has been studied since the early 1970s, mainly using numerical and analytical models. Even though the early works in this field have significantly contributed to understanding this problem, they commonly consider important simplifications such as assuming a linear behaviour of the structure and the soil. Some experimental works addressing adjacent structures have recently been conducted using geotechnical centrifuges and 1g shake tables. However, further research is needed to enhance the understanding of this complex phenomenon. A particular case of SSI is that of structures founded in fine loose saturated sandy soil. An iconic example was the devastating effects of liquefaction in Christchurch, New Zealand, during the Canterbury earthquake in 2011. In the case of adjacent structures on liquefiable soil, the experimental evidence is even scarcer. The present work addresses the dynamic interaction between adjacent structures by performing multiple experimental studies. The work starts with two-adjacent structures on a small soil container to expose the basics of the problem. Later, results from tests considering a more significant number of structures on a big laminar box filled with sand are presented. Finally, the response of adjacent structures on saturated sandy soil is addressed using a geotechnical centrifuge and a large 1g shake table. This research shows that the acceleration, lateral displacement, foundation rocking, damping ratio, and fundamental frequency of the structure of focus are considerably affected by the presence of neighbouring buildings. In general, adjacent buildings reduced the dynamic response of the structure of focus on dry sand. However, the acceleration was amplified when the structures had a similar fundamental frequency. In the case of structures on saturated sand, the presence of adjacent structures reduced the liquefaction potential. Neighbouring structures on saturated sand also presented larger rotation of the footing and lateral displacement of the top mass than that of the stand-alone case.
Liquefaction-induced lateral spreading during the 2011 Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand was severe and extensive, and data regarding the displacements associated with the lateral spreading provides an excellent opportunity to better understand the factors that influence these movements. Horizontal displacements measured from optical satellite imagery and subsurface data from the New Zealand Geotechnical Database (NZGD) were used to investigate four distinct lateral spread areas along the Avon River in Christchurch. These areas experienced displacements between 0.5 and 2 m, with the inland extent of displacement ranging from 100 m to over 600 m. Existing empirical and semi-empirical displacement models tend to under estimate displacements at some sites and over estimate at others. The integrated datasets indicate that the areas with more severe and spatially extensive displacements are associated with thicker and more laterally continuous deposits of liquefiable soil. In some areas, the inland extent of displacements is constrained by geologic boundaries and geomorphic features, as expressed by distinct topographic breaks. In other areas the extent of displacement is influenced by the continuity of liquefiable strata or by the presence of layers that may act as vertical seepage barriers. These observations demonstrate the need to integrate geologic/geomorphic analyses with geotechnical analyses when assessing the potential for lateral spreading movements.