
Knox Church Rebuild/ repair on a walk around the neighbourhood May 17, 2014 Christchurch New Zealand.
On a walk around the neighbourhood, December 3, 2013, Christchurch New Zealand. www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/christchurch-life/avenues/featu...
Detail of the partially-demolished Henry Africa's building. The photographer comments, "A building housing a restaurant and a great little neighbourhood bar is finally coming down because of earthquake damage. Windows".
The partially-demolished Henry Africa's building. The photographer comments, "A building housing a restaurant and a great little neighbourhood bar is finally coming down because of earthquake damage. The doorway still stands".
The partially-demolished Henry Africa's building. The photographer comments, "A building housing a restaurant and a great little neighbourhood bar is finally coming down because of earthquake damage. A landmark vanishes".
The partially-demolished Henry Africa's building. The photographer comments, "A building housing a restaurant and a great little neighbourhood bar is finally coming down because of earthquake damage. Half way gone".
A broken window in the Henry Africa's building. The photographer comments, "A building housing a restaurant and a great little neighbourhood bar is finally coming down because of earthquake damage. Window above Janes Bar".
A broken window in the Henry Africa's building. The photographer comments, "A building housing a restaurant and a great little neighbourhood bar is finally coming down because of earthquake damage. Window above Janes Bar".
Detail of the partially-demolished Henry Africa's building. The photographer comments, "A building housing a restaurant and a great little neighbourhood bar is finally coming down because of earthquake damage. Bricks coming down".
Detail of the partially-demolished Henry Africa's building. The photographer comments, "A building housing a restaurant and a great little neighbourhood bar is finally coming down because of earthquake damage. Bricks coming down".
An interior door exposed by the demolition of Henry Africa's. The photographer comments, "A building housing a restaurant and a great little neighbourhood bar is finally coming down because of earthquake damage. Demolition door".
Detail of the partially-demolished Henry Africa's building. The photographer comments, "A building housing a restaurant and a great little neighbourhood bar is finally coming down because of earthquake damage. The doorway still stands".
Detail of the partially-demolished Henry Africa's building. The photographer comments, "A building housing a restaurant and a great little neighbourhood bar is finally coming down because of earthquake damage. Henry's doorway. Still standing - the zebra striped doorway into Henry Africa's".
Detail of the partially-demolished Henry Africa's building. The photographer comments, "A building housing a restaurant and a great little neighbourhood bar is finally coming down because of earthquake damage. Henry's doorway. Still standing - the zebra striped doorway into Henry Africa's".
The partially-demolished Henry Africa's building. The photographer comments, "A building housing a restaurant and a great little neighbourhood bar is finally coming down because of earthquake damage. Fenced off for safety. People who regularly use Stanmore Rd will be happy when the demolition is complete".
A digger demolishes Henry Africa's restaurant. The photographer comments, "A building housing a restaurant and a great little neighbourhood bar is finally coming down because of earthquake damage. The left half. Janes Bar and one of the upstairs flats were still standing today, but they'll be gone soon".
Tree mortality is a fundamental process governing forest dynamics, but understanding tree mortality patterns is challenging because large, long-term datasets are required. Describing size-specific mortality patterns can be especially difficult, due to few trees in larger size classes. We used permanent plot data from Nothofagus solandri var. cliffortioides (mountain beech) forest on the eastern slopes of the Southern Alps, New Zealand, where the fates of trees on 250 plots of 0.04 ha were followed, to examine: (1) patterns of size-specific mortality over three consecutive periods spanning 30 years, each characterised by different disturbance, and (2) the strength and direction of neighbourhood crowding effects on sizespecific mortality rates. We found that the size-specific mortality function was U-shaped over the 30-year period as well as within two shorter periods characterised by small-scale pinhole beetle and windthrow disturbance. During a third period, characterised by earthquake disturbance, tree mortality was less size dependent. Small trees (,20 cm in diameter) were more likely to die, in all three periods, if surrounded by a high basal area of larger neighbours, suggesting that sizeasymmetric competition for light was a major cause of mortality. In contrast, large trees ($20 cm in diameter) were more likely to die in the first period if they had few neighbours, indicating that positive crowding effects were sometimes important for survival of large trees. Overall our results suggest that temporal variability in size-specific mortality patterns, and positive interactions between large trees, may sometimes need to be incorporated into models of forest dynamics.
Numerous studies have shown that urban soils can contain elevated concentrations of heavy metals (HMs). Christchurch, New Zealand, is a relatively young city (150 years old) with a population of 390,000. Most soils in Christchurch are sub-urban, with food production in residential gardens a popular activity. Earthquakes in 2010 and 2011 have resulted in the re-zoning of 630 ha of Christchurch, with suggestions that some of this land could be used for community gardens. We aimed to determine the HM concentrations in a selection of suburban gardens in Christchurch as well as in soils identified as being at risk of HM contamination due to hazardous former land uses or nearby activities. Heavy metal concentrations in suburban Christchurch garden soils were higher than normal background soil concentrations. Some 46% of the urban garden samples had Pb concentrations higher than the residential land use national standard of 210 mg kg⁻¹, with the most contaminated soil containing 2615 mg kg⁻¹ Pb. Concentrations of As and Zn exceeded the residential land use national standards (20 mg kg⁻¹ As and 400 mg kg⁻¹ Zn) in 20% of the soils. Older neighbourhoods had significantly higher soil HM concentrations than younger neighbourhoods. Neighbourhoods developed pre-1950s had a mean Pb concentration of 282 mg kg⁻¹ in their garden soils. Soil HM concentrations should be key criteria when determining the future land use of former residential areas that have been demolished because of the earthquakes in 2010 and 2011. Redeveloping these areas as parklands or forests would result in less human HM exposure than agriculture or community gardens where food is produced and bare soil is exposed.
A video of a presentation by Matthew Pratt during the Resilience and Response Stream of the 2016 People in Disasters Conference. The presentation is titled, "Investing in Connectedness: Building social capital to save lives and aid recovery".The abstract for this presentation reads as follows: Traditionally experts have developed plans to prepare communities for disasters. This presentation discusses the importance of relationship-building and social capital in building resilient communities that are both 'prepared' to respond to disaster events, and 'enabled' to lead their own recovery. As a member of the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority's Community Resilience Team, I will present the work I undertook to catalyse community recovery. I will draw from case studies of initiatives that have built community connectedness, community capacity, and provided new opportunities for social cohesion and neighbourhood planning. I will compare three case studies that highlight how social capital can aid recovery. Investment in relationships is crucial to aid preparedness and recovery.