To address the provocation provided by the editors I wish to reflect upon the ongoing civic and artistic responses to the earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand, 2010-11, in which 185 people lost their lives (largely due to poor engineering and construction practices). Whilst the example is very different in character from that of efforts to memorialize July 22, 2011, I wish to use the case to briefly respond to the issue of temporality as raised by Jacques Rancière in his critique of the ‘endless work of mourning’ produced by testimonial art. The orientation of this mourning, he argues, is always backward-looking, characterized by, ‘a reversal of the flow of time: the time turned towards an end to be accomplished – progress, emancipation or the Other – is replaced by that turned towards the catastrophe behind us.’ How might memorial practices divide their gaze between remembered pasts and possible futures? AM - Accepted Manuscript
Topics - scientists are wondering how the light gets out. Maybe there is a cosmic crack in everything, because in the Journal Astrophysical Letters it is noted that there is a huge deficit of light in the universe. Owners of heritage apartments in Auckland face becoming "impoverished" according to a high-profile real estate figure, because of new laws around earthquake strengthening. Martin Dunn of City Sales says the Building Amendment Bill is "overkill". He says those trying to sell heritage apartments are having a difficult time because of the new rules. Jim Anderton, has again raised the issue of whether the Christchurch Cathedral has to come down.
The disastrous earthquakes that struck Christchurch in 2010 and 2011 seriously impacted on the individual and collective lives of Māori residents. This paper continues earlier, predominantly qualitative research on the immediate effects on Māori by presenting an analysis of a survey carried out 18 months after the most destructive event, on 22 February 2011. Using a set-theoretic approach, pathways to Māori resilience are identified, emphasising the combination of whānau connectivity and high incomes in those who have maintained or increased their wellbeing post-disaster. However, the results show that if resilience is used to describe a “bounce back” in wellbeing, Māori are primarily enduring the post-disaster environment. This endurance phase is a precursor to any resilience and will be of much longer duration than first thought. With continued uncertainty in the city and wider New Zealand economy, this endurance may not necessarily lead to a more secure environment for Māori in the city.
Media law developments have continued across many areas in the period to mid-2013. In defamation, the New Zealand courts have begun to consider the issue of third party liability for publication on the internet, with cases involving Google searches and comments on a Facebook page. A parliamentary inquiry into a case that restricted parliamentary privilege has recommended a Parliamentary Privilege Act containing a definition of ‘proceedings in Parliament’. A satirical website increased its popularity when it fought off threatened defamation proceedings. In breach of confidence, a government body, the Earthquake Commission, obtained an interim injunction prohibiting publication of information accidentally released that dealt with the repair of earthquake-damaged properties in Christchurch, and a blogger made the information available online in breach of the order.
The 2010–2011 Canterbury earthquake sequence began with the 4 September 2010, Mw7.1 Darfield earthquake and includes up to ten events that induced liquefaction. Most notably, widespread liquefaction was induced by the Darfield and Mw6.2 Christchurch earthquakes. The combination of well-documented liquefaction response during multiple events, densely recorded ground motions for the events, and detailed subsurface characterization provides an unprecedented opportunity to add well-documented case histories to the liquefaction database. This paper presents and applies 50 high-quality cone penetration test (CPT) liquefaction case histories to evaluate three commonly used, deterministic, CPT-based simplified liquefaction evaluation procedures. While all the procedures predicted the majority of the cases correctly, the procedure proposed by Idriss and Boulanger (2008) results in the lowest error index for the case histories analyzed, thus indicating better predictions of the observed liquefaction response.
The progressive damage and subsequent demolition of unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings arising from the Canterbury earthquake sequence is reported. A dataset was compiled of all URM buildings located within the Christchurch CBD, including information on location, building characteristics, and damage levels after each major earthquake in this sequence. A general description of the overall damage and the hazard to both building occupants and to nearby pedestrians due to debris falling from URM buildings is presented with several case study buildings used to describe the accumulation of damage over the earthquake sequence. The benefit of seismic improvement techniques that had been installed to URM buildings is shown by the reduced damage ratios reported for increased levels of retrofit. Demolition statistics for URM buildings in the Christchurch CBD are also reported and discussed. VoR - Version of Record
The Canterbury earthquakes, which involved widespread damage in the February 2011 event and ongoing aftershocks near the Christchurch central business district (CBD), presented decision-makers with many recovery challenges. This paper identifies major government decisions, challenges, and lessons in the early recovery of Christchurch based on 23 key-informant interviews conducted 15 months after the February 2011 earthquake. It then focuses on one of the most important decisions – maintaining the cordon around the heavily damaged CBD – and investigates its impacts. The cordon displaced 50,000 central city jobs, raised questions about (and provided new opportunities for) the long-term viability of downtown, influenced the number and practice of building demolitions, and affected debris management; despite being associated with substantial losses, the cordon was commonly viewed as necessary, and provided some benefits in facilitating recovery. Management of the cordon poses important lessons for planning for catastrophic urban earthquakes around the world.
During the Christchurch earthquake of February 2011, several midrise reinforced concrete masonry (RCM) buildings showed performance levels that fall in the range of life safety to near collapse. A case study of one of these buildings, a six-story RCM building deemed to have reached the near collapse performance level, is presented in this paper. The RCM walls on the second floor failed due to toe crushing, reducing the building's lateral resistance in the east–west direction. A three-dimensional (3-D) nonlinear dynamic analysis was conducted to simulate the development of the governing failure mechanism. Analysis results showed that the walls that were damaged were subjected to large compression loads during the earthquake, which caused an increase in their in-plane lateral strength but reduced their ductility capacity. After toe crushing failure, axial instability of the model was prevented by a redistribution of gravity loads. VoR - Version of Record
This paper presents the preliminary findings of a study on the resilience and recovery of organisations following the Darfield earthquake in New Zealand on 4 September 2010. Sampling included organisations proximal and distal to the fault trace, organisations located within central business districts, and organisations from seven diverse industry sectors. The research captured information on the challenges to, the impacts on, and the reflections of the organisations in the first months of recovery. Organisations in central business districts and in the hospitality sector were most likely to close while organisations that had perishable stock and livestock were more heavily reliant on critical services. Staff well-being, cash flow, and customer loss were major concerns for organisations across all sectors. For all organisations, the most helpful factors in mitigating the effects of the earthquake to be their relationship with staff, the design and type of buildings, and critical service continuity or swift reinstatement of services.
Planning in New Zealand in 2014 has largely been dominated by housing and urban development, potential local government and legislative reforms, and water issues. This volume’s peer reviewed research, which combines Issues 1 and 2, focuses on these issues, but with perspectives and issues that are outside the mainstream. In our lead research article, John Ryks and his co-authors review the opportunities from Treaty settlements and legislative provisions and challenges for Māori participation in urban development, such as the balancing of matawaka and mana whenua perspectives. Water issues are picked up by Ronlyn Duncan and Phil Holland who each take constructively critical views toward some currently well-regarded approaches to resolutions. We have reflective and somewhat contrasting contributions from two highly respected semi-retired planners, Malcolm Douglass (FNZPI) and Derek Hall, that challenge aspects of New Zealand’s current approach to planning. In our outreach part of this Volume we include the response of some political parties to questions put to them about planning by LPR team member Nicole Read. Finally, Lincoln University appears to have turned a corner after the earthquakes, at least in the planning programmes.
