Latest NewsDecember 2011
New Research on Post-Disaster Collaboration Congratulations to Tracy Hatton for being awarded the Resilient Organisations/UC Earthquake Doctoral Scholarship! Tracy has just completed her MBA, graduating with Distinction. Her research will focus on how organisations in Canterbury are utilising collaborative approaches to support their recovery and will evaluate whether these approaches are proving effective.
Rebuilding Christchurch Resourcing Study Resilient Organisations, in conjunction with the University of Auckland and the Building Research Association of New Zealand (BRANZ) have launched the Reconstruction Resourcing (RecRes) national research project. The study involves surveying construction industry practitioners and recovery participants across greater Christchurch to understand the real-time resource situation for post-earthquake repair and reconstruction.
By participating in this Survey, participants will help develop a better understanding of the ongoing resource availability and capacity for recovery and rebuild in Christchurch following the September 2010 and February 2011 earthquakes. Participants will also receive a copy of the overall research findings, following each phase of the survey. The first results – the baseline results – are scheduled for release in January 2012.
September 2011 New PhD Scholarship just announced The University of Canterbury and Resilient Organisations are pleased to announce a PhD
The Recovery of Canterbury's Organisations - new report out Our latest research release compares analysis of three different surveys conducted with Canterbury earthquakes following the 4 September 2010, 22 February and 13 June 2011 earthquakes.
July 2011 The Recovery of Organisations within CBDs - latest research release This report presents the findings from two studies on organisational resilience following the 4
The research particularly focuses on the experiences of Kaiapoi, which is further along in the recovery process
Articulating the Vision and Tipping Points for the Christchurch Recovery In May 2011, the Resilient Organisations research programme held a two day Resilience Retreat high in the hills of Banks Peninsula to bring together a group of thought-leaders to share and debate resilience issues and strategies related to the Christchurch recovery. One of our sessions set the participants the challenge of articulating the vision for two key elements of the overall recovery:
To ensure that the vision articulated was sufficiently focused and punchy, we tasked the groups with keeping to an “elevator speech” format, of no more than 5 or 6 sentences. We then asked people to visualise that they were 5-10 years in the future, once their vision for recovery had been successfully achieved, and to use a process of pre-emptive reflection to look back on what were the critical tipping points that ensured recovery success was achieved. The final stage was for people to visualise they were in a future where their recovery vision had failed dismally, and to reflect back on the tipping points that turned the recovery process into a failure. You can see the outcome of the lively discussion and debate that was generated here.
Benchmarking the Resilience of Organisations - thesis available for download Amy Stephenson's PhD thesis, which describes the development of the Resilient Organisation's Benchmark Resilience tool, and the development of our new model of Organisational Resilience is now available for free download.
May 2011 Congratulations Dr Amy Lee! Amy Lee (nee Stephenson) passed her viva with flying colours and has been awarded the degree of Doctorate of Philosophy. Amy is just making some minor edits to her thesis, which we will then be uploading onto our website in about 6 weeks time. Well done Amy!
New Report Available on the University of Canterbury's Experience through the 4th September 2010 Earthquake On 4 September 2010, people in Canterbury were shaken from their beds by a major earthquake.
April 2011 On 22 February 2011, Canterbury and its largest city Christchurch experienced its second major earthquake within six months. The region is facing major economic and organisational challenges in the aftermath of these events. In this paper the Resilient Organisations team provide a snapshot perspective, one month on from the earthquake of the impacts on organisations and the economy, and challenges ahead for their recovery. This paper will be published in the June 2011 issue of the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering Bulletin. Many thanks to the Society for allowing us to release a copy of this paper on our website. Any comment or suggestions on this paper are welcomed; please send them to Joanne Stevenson
Organisational recovery from the 4 September 2010 Darfield earthquake: preliminary impacts to organisations in Canterbury Resilient organisations mitigate the physical, economic, and social impacts of a crisis by consistently preparing for and adapting to their hazardscape. In this paper are some of the preliminary findings from a planned three part longitudinal study that describes the initial impacts on and responses of organisations following the 4 September 2010 Canterbury (M7.1) earthquake. Organisations sampled include rural organisations proximal to the fault trace, organisations located within the Kaiapoi and Christchurch central business districts (CBDs), and organisations from six different sectors: fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), trucking, ICT, hospitality, building suppliers and lifelines (critical infrastructure). The perishable data summarised in this report were collected within three to five months after the earthquake. The paper summarises the direct and indirect earthquake-related impacts on organisations during the response and early stage of the recovery process, and the role hazard mitigation has played in organisations’ post-disaster experience. Additionally, organisations’ perceptions of the challenges and impacts of the earthquake on their ability to operate are discussed. These results highlight the differential impacts to and response of individual organisations, industry sectors, and localities (rural, urban and those located within the CBDs) immediately following the 4 September 2010 Canterbury earthquake. To read more ....
Paper on Resourcing for a Resilient Post Disaster Reconstruction Environment wins Award for Excellence! Congratulations to Alice (Yan) Chang and her co-authors for winning a Highly Commended award in the Emerald Literati Network 2011 Awards for Excellence. Click here if you would like to read this award winning paper.
March 2011 Researchers show waste management critical to natural disaster recovery Resilient Organisations and University of Canterbury researchers are unravelling the critical role that disaster waste management plays in recovery from natural disasters. “As a result of the 22 February earthquake approximately 20 years worth of solid waste was produced,” said PhD student Charlotte Brown. “Disaster waste is not just a solid waste problem, however. Following the 1995 Great Hansin-Awaji earthquake (Kobe earthquake), road blockages prevented building access, which in turn impeded rescuers from reaching survivors.” To read more ....
Business Impact and Recovery Workshop - 22nd February Christchurch Earthquake Christchurch and Canterbury businesses are yet again facing a very challenging recovery. The shallow M6.3 earthquake that struck Canterbury on 22 February, 2011, came at a time when the region’s businesses were still struggling with their recovery from the M 7.1 earthquake which hit on 4 September, 2010. Canterbury based researchers through Resilient Organisations and the Natural Hazards Platform are organising a half day workshop to coordinate national and international research interest in the recent events. To read more ....
February 2011 Christchurch Earthquake - Magnitude 6.3, widespread damage in Christchurch Thank you to everyone for their messages of concern and support. We are pleased to confirm that all members of the Resilient Organisations team and their families are OK. The city however now has a long road to recovery ahead of it, and we will be doing our best to support this recovery in whatever ways we can.
December 2010 Preliminary Results - Organisational Resilience and Recovery from the Canterbury Earthquake Resilient Organisations has just release its preliminary results from a survey of organisations impacted by the Canterbury Earthquake. This survey is the first in a longitudinal study that will track the recovery of organisations over a two year period. The preliminary results report is available for download here.
September 2010 Christchurch Earthquake - Magnitude 7.1 Many thanks for the emails of support and concern for members of our research team affected by the Christchurch earthquake. Thankfully none of our research team were injured and we are now turning our thoughts to helping organisations to recover from the event. The University of Canterbury has sustained damage and will be closed for the next week while they undertake damage inspections and clean up.
August 2010Dr Frederico Ferriera! Well done Fred - our latest Resilient Organisations student to be awarded his PhD. Fred's PhD was on the development of a decision support tool to facilitate decision-making within roading organisations in New Zealand.
Congratulations to Sonia Giovinazzi and Stephano Pampanin! Welcome to Francesca Pampanin, born on the 29th July in Genova, Italy.
Resilient Organisations to host Stephanie Chang visit in New Zealand Later this month Resilient Organisations will be hosting a visit by Stephanie Chang, a leading researcher in the area of socio-economic impacts of disasters. Want to hear Stephanie speak while she is in New Zealand? Stephanie will be delivering the keynote presentation at the Australasian Hazard Management Conference and she will also be giving a New Zealand Society for Risk Management seminar, audio-linked around the country as part of the Society's lunchtime seminar series (non-members welcome).
Victorian Bushfires - Disaster Waste Management Case Study We have a new Resilient Organisations Research Report just released looking at how disaster waste management issues were handled following the 2009 Victorian bushfires. To find this and other Resilient Organisations research reports have a look at our publications page.
July 2010Congratulations to James Rotimi on being awarded his PhD!Well done to James for completing his thesis looking at how legislation could be improved to facilitate a post-disaster reconstruction effort. A full pdf copy is available of James' thesis (5Mb)
12th World Conference on Transportation Research (WCTR) From July 11th to 15th, Frederico Ferreira and Andre Dantas attended the
12th WCTR. This conference is a major meeting point for researchers from the
transportation field to present cutting edge research that has been conducted world
wide. Fred and Andre presented the Dynamic Response Recovery Tool, which was positively received by a large audience. The DRRT attracted the
attention of researchers who recognized that much still need to be done in
regards to transport systems and emergency management. The full paper can be June 2010Workshop: Construction Industry Resilience - understanding & learning from Best Practice 7th July 2010, 8:30am - 12pm, University of Auckland, held in conjunction with the Construction Clients Group. Click here to download the workshop flyer and for RSVP details to reserve your space.
May 2010Resilience Breakfast Seminar - Chaired by Rob Oram Based in Auckland? Then come to a free breakfast seminar on the 19th March to hear about the results of the Auckland Benchmark Resilience study and to find out how you can make your organisation more resilient. This session will be chaired by Rod Oram, a leading business commentator in New Zealand. For more details and information on how to RSVP, see the attached invite
April 2010Benchmark Resilience - Research Report now available for free download Headline results from our Benchmark Resilience project in the Auckland region are now available for free download from our publications page or by downloading the report here.
Evaluation the Quality of Decision Making during Extreme Events - Research Report A new Resilient Organisations research report is available, describing a new methodology for evaluating the quality of decision making during extreme emergency events. You can find this research report on our publications page or by downloading the report here.
March 2010 International Forum For Engineering Decision Making (IFED)- Conference Announcement Information has just been released about the next IFED meeting which will be held in Stoos, Switzerland 7- 10 December 2010. The theme for this year's meeting will be "Global Catestrophic Risk Management: Insights and Challenges". For more information about this meeting see the attached invite.
February 2010Benchmarking the Readiness of Road Controlling Authorities to respond to Emergencies As part of a New Zealand Transport Agency-funded research project, we have prepared an on-line survey for benchmarking the level of readiness of Road Controlling Authorities (RCA) under the CDEM Act 2002. You are kindly invited to participate in this survey by filling out the on-line questionnaire available at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RCAs_benchmarking. To find out more about this research please take a look at our RCA Benchmarking page
Should Waste Management be Considered a Lifeline in New Zealand? A new Resilient Organisations research report, which can be downloaded for free from our publications page, discusses the pros and cons of including the management of waste as a lifeine for the community in the event of a disaster.
Special Session on Earthquake Waste Management:
TRB Presentations From January 10th to 14th, Frederico Ferreira has attended the prestigious 2010 Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting in Washington – DC. During the conference, Fred has delivered a talk at the Doctoral Student Research in Transportation Operations and Traffic Control as well as presented posters from two papers approved by the committee ABE 40 – Critical Transportation Infrastructure Protection. Dr. Michael Knodler (chair from the Doctoral Workshop) highlighted the potential applicability of the proposed Dynamic Response Recovery Tool and posters sections allowed Fred to meet and establish contacts with academics from the United States. Papers and associated posters are available on our publications page. Should you require further information about the research been conducted as well as the TRB Meeting, please do not hesitate to enquire Fred directly by e-mail (fff10@student.canterbury.ac.nz).
Januray 2010 Making the Most of Shaky Foundations “Regan Patangaroa likes to push boundaries – his own, his students`, and those of the buildings he`s working on. His works ensures those buildings will last the distance even if they are on shaky ground or constructed in a bygone era”. This is the subtitle of an interesting article about Regan Patangoroa profile and work on international humanitarian engineering projects through the United Nations, the Register of Engineers for Disaster Relief (RedR), the South Pacific Professional Engineering Excellence (SPPEEx) and Resilient Organisations. The article includes a description of the work of Regan in Samoa after the recent tsunami to evaluate and advice on the best way forward. (pdf - 7Mb) e.NZ. Magazine (Technology Education in New Zealand) January/February 2010 Vol.11/1
Resilient Organisations in the News Two recent articles of note: "Researchers want to boost resiliency to disasters" and "NZ Firms not Crisis Ready". December 2009L’Aquilla Earthquake: Impact, Response and Recovery. A first hand account.On the 20th January, Resilient Organisations researcher Sonia Giovinazzi will be giving a presentation at the Waiau Theatre, Ecan on her experiences of the response and recovery to the L'Aquilla Earthquake, Italy. See the attached flyer for details on how to attend.
November 2009Researchers present results at Indonesian Conference In mid-November , Dr. Andre Dantas and PhD Student Frederico Ferreira attended the 8th Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies (EASTS) Conference. This prestigious conference had about 600 papers presented and was held in Surabaya (Indonesia). For more specific information about the conference please visit http://www.easts2009.org/index.php. The main theme was the enhancement of transportation infrastructure and services in rapid regional growth and provided opportunities for participants to discuss a number of topics related to transportation research and practice. Andre’s and Frederico’s presentations were delivered in the Transportation and Natural Disaster session and had a very positive feedback from the both academia and industry. Important lessons from Indonesia, Korea, Australia and New Zealand were shared during the discussion time. Lessons learned will help ResOrgs to continue improving its research efforts by developing pioneer applications nationally and internationally. If you want to know more about the conference and research published, please do not hesitate to contact Fred (fff10@student.canterbury.ac.nz). October 2009Researchers head to Samoa and Indonesia to support disaster responseThe recent cluster of major disasters has seen the mobilisation of Resilient Organisations researchers to both Samoa and Indonesia to support the local disaster response. Regan Potangaroa is leading a team of volunteers from the University of Auckland, Engineers without Boarders and South Pacific Engineers to support the disaster response and recovery effort in Samoa following the recent tsunami. Travelling with Regan are also James Rotimi, Kelvin Zuo and James Beckett, all postgraduate students researching post-disaster reconstruction issues as part of the Resilient Organisations research programme. The same week, Dave Brunsdon also left the country to lead a team of ten New Zealand engineers travelling to Padang in western Sumatra following the devastating earthquake there last week. The New Zealand team (co-funded by NZAid and the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering) were requested by the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) to assess the structural integrity of collapsed and damaged buildings and advise which buildings should be demolished.
July 2009L'Aquila Earthquake ReconnaissanceStefano Pampanin and Sonia Giovinazzi are currently in the L’Aquila region, where the Italian Earthquake (Magnitude 6.3) struck on the 6th April, causing more than 300 casualties and approx 65,000 homeless people. During the past two weeks and until the end of July, they will be supporting the technical activities coordinated by the National Civil Defence, in the operational headquarter DI.COMA.C (department of command and control) based in the Military Barracks in Coppito, (incidentally the same place where the G8 Summit had been moved to and held at the beginning of July). They will be gathering important information regarding several aspects associated to the events including: its effects on the population, building environment including infrastructures, lifelines and services; the emergency (and post-emergency) response, coordination and management; the technical and economical plans for repairing, retrofitting and reconstructing etc. All this information will hopefully represent a precious “Lessons Learnt from Earthquakes” to be properly reported and broadly disseminated once back to NZ.
Amongst other technical activities, Stefano has been involved in the onsite monitoring of the intense activities to retrofit several public schools (all reinforced concrete frames with masonry infills) in less than three months, to be ready for reopening at the beginning of the new Academic Year (mid-September). The retrofit techniques used is based on the application of FRP (Fiber Reinforced Polymers) to the most vulnerable beam-column joints, see examples in the Structural Lab carried out under the FRST Retrofit Project, e.g. work by Umut Akguzel, Ph.D. Candidate.
Sonia has been investigating the seismic response and emergency management of lifelines networks (e.g. water, gas, and electricity), collecting information and analyzing data. Using the actual observed damage and a GIS environment, important calibration and improvements of the current vulnerability models for lifeline network will be obtained. Interviews to key players within these organizations are also providing useful information for the FRST-funded project “Resilient Organizations” regarding the readiness, actual response capability, recovery and thus overall resilience of such critical entities.
June 2009External Review of Research Programme Congratulations to the full Resilient Organisations research team! The programme was recently awarded a grade of 'Excellent' in a formal review by an international panel. The programme was consistantly described as exceeding expected performance.
Recovery from the L’Aquila Earthquake Congratulations to Dr. Sonia Giovinazzi for being awarded funding by the Royal Society of New Zealand for joint research between the University of Cassino, in Italy, and University of Canterbury in New Zealand. Over the next few months Sonia will be in Italy, researching the recovery process from the L'Aquila earthquake in Italy alongside her joint Principle Investigator, Dr. Alessandro Rasulo. The linkage intends develop a method that could support lifelines systems administrators and decision makers in defining the most effective strategy for maximising lifelines systems resilience in the face of critical constraints such as limited resource availability.
April 2009 New Report Available - Reducing the Impact of Organisational Silos on Resilience
These significant questions are the subject of a new report summarising key messages from theory and practice on the impact of silos on resilience and on how to reduce silos when they become problematic. Numerous brief vignettes, mostly drawing on practical examples, illustrate points made along the way.
March 2009Auckland Resilience Benchmarking starts this Month!!! We are now only a few weeks away from launching Resilience Benchmarking for organisations in the Auckland Region, so you may start hearing all about it in the media. If you are an organisation in the Auckland Region, and aren't lucky enough to be one of the 1000 organisations randomly selected to participate, don't worry. We are giving you the opportunity to still take part. Simply go onto our Benchmarking page to sign up. We will be in touch and let you know how to participate.
New research on the practicalities of evacuating dairy herds in response to a volcanic eruption Livestock evacuation from farms affected by volcanic ashfall during or following a moderate to large volcanic eruption of Taranaki volcano would pose serious logistical challenges for emergency organisations. The volcanic hazards present during the eruption (such as volcanic ashfall) have the potential to significantly disrupt farming and transport operations in widespread areas both near to and far from the volcano... To read the full abstract and for a link to the full paper, recently published in the New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research go to the Papers section on our publications page.
February 2009Andre Dantas wins Emerging Researcher Award! Congratulations to Andre Dantas who leads one of Resilient Organisation's three objectives for winning the University of Canterbury College of Engineering Emerging Researcher Award.
Resilience Retreat In mid-February the full research team, as well as invitees from industry and government will head away for a Resilience Retreat up at Flock Hill, Canterbury. For an overview of what will be discussed, take a look at the agenda and watch this space for a summary of discussions. January 2009Regan Potangaroa Interview on National Radio Listen to the interview of Regan Potangaroa, a Resilient Organisations key researcher, on his work in disaster zones around the world and impressions from his recent visits to China following the devastating earthquake there in May 2008. Radio NZ Feature Interview (28 minutes) December 2008Benchmarking the Resilience of Organisations - study commencing in Auckland February 2009! In February 2009, the Resilient Organisations Research Programme, in conjunction with the Auckland Civil Defence Emergency Management Group, will be launching a benchmarking survey of up to 1000 organisations in the Auckland Region. Although participants in the first research survey will be randomly selected, there is also opportunity for organisations interested in improving their resilience to major crises to be involved. If you would like to find out more, please visit our benchmarking page and get in touch!
Data collection for decision making modeling (scenario simulation)
New ResOrgs Research Report Available - a summary of learnings from the 4th International i-Rec Conference on Post-Disaster Reconstruction See our publications page to download a free copy.
September 2008McManus Thesis now available in electronic format - Organisational Resilience in New Zealand Sonia McManus's PhD thesis is now available online - see the Student Theses section of our publications page.
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Debris of the collapsed “Casa dello Studente” (Student Accomodation)
EU Civil Defense Delegation visiting one of the camps
