Latest News
June 2009
External 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
- How well will your organisation perform in an emergency?
- Will your staff perform as a team when disaster strikes?
- Are you linked in with other organisations able to meet your needs
and support the community?
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 2009
Auckland 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 2009
Andre 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 2009
Regan 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 2008
Benchmarking 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)
Frederico has recently received the Human Ethics Committee (HEC) approval for his research to evaluate crisis decision making and now he is arranging a series of interviews to run simulations with with emergency management practitioners, general managers, Civil Defence staff and roading personnel. The interviews include a 30 minute earthquake scenario simulation to explore emergency management concepts. If you are keen to jump on board and help Fred fell free to e-mail him on fff10@student.canterbury.ac.nz to organize a time and place to meet up. All help is appreciated!
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 2008
McManus 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.
August 2008
Student Thesis Available - Wellington Reconstruction Scenario
Bhesram Singh's Masters thesis looking at resource availability to support reconstruction of the roading network following a major Wellington earthquake is now available online - see the Student Theses section of our publications page.
Congratulations to Sonia McManus
Congratulations to Sonia for being formally awarded her PhD. Sonia's thesis will be availably online shortly.
July 2008
Open Lecture - 12th August: LESSONS LEARNT FROM DISASTER - PLANNING FOR RECOVERY
Tuesday 12th August 2008, 5pm - 6:30pm; E5, Engineering School, University of Canterbury.
Jim Schwab, visiting CAENZ Fellow, is a Senior Research Associate and Manager of the Hazards Planning
Research Centre of the American Planning Association. He has over 20 years experience in advising on natural
hazard planning. Recently Jim has been leading workshops on post-Hurricane Katrina recovery planning
with planners in Louisiana, USA. Jim has a wealth of international experience in countries as diverse as
Taiwan and Nicaragua working to address all manner of natural hazards.
New MASTERS SCHOLARSHIP available! Applications close 30th September
The researcher awarded this scholarship will develop a conceptual framework for benchmarking the level of preparedness of Road Controlling Authorities (RCA) in New Zealand to meet their obligations under the Civil Defence and Emergency Management Act (2002). The final aim will be to develop a tool that enables Road Controlling Authorities to evaluate and to develop plans for improving their emergency response and recovery planning arrangements. For more details see our Scholarships page.
April 2008
New Journal Paper Available in the Natural Hazards Review
A Resilient Organisations paper on the Resilience Management process has just been publised in the ASCE Journal - Natural Hazards Review (Facilitated Process for Improving Organizational Resilience, Natural Hazards Review, Volume 9, Issue 1, pp81-90).
Post Disaster Reconstruction Research: An Industry Update - NEW RESEARCH REPORT AVAILABLE
This report reviews the key learnings and application possibilities of research completed as part of the Resilient Organisations Objective 3 (Legal and Contractual Frameworks for Post-Disaster Reconstruction) Programme over the past three years. Where appropriate, comments have been made regarding pre-disaster planning considerations. Alternatives that need to be incorporated into the thinking and planning of those who are involved in post disaster reconstruction have been highlighted. Several areas have also been identified that require further research or additional planning for a smoother, co-ordinated process of reconstruction.
To download the full report, click here
i-Rec Programme Now Available!
The full conference programme for the i-Rec Conference on Post Disaster Reconstruction is now available. Click here to see the full conference timetable.
Remember -if you havent yet registered for this conference, you can do so on-line. Look forward to seeing you at i-Rec later this month!
Emergency Management and Disaster Social Science Research in New Zealand
Proceedings of a workshop held in Wellington, December 2007 can be downloaded here.
March 2008
Hurry - Early Bird Registrations Close Soon for the i-Rec Conference on Post Disaster Reconstruction
Register online for this conference before the 14th of March to recieve a special early-bird registration rate. Details on keynote speakers and presenters information are also now available on the website.
February 2008
Online Survey - Evaluating the Implementation of Post-Disaster Reconstruction Strategies under the Resource Management and Building Acts in New Zealand.
Resilient Organisation invites participation in an on-line survey that seeks to facilitate both efficient and effective reconstruction of the built environment after disasters, through the implementation of enabling provisions within the Resource Management Act and Building Act.
Legislation such as the Resource Management and Building Acts may impede reconstruction after a large-scale disaster in New Zealand. This could be through lengthy bureaucratic procedures; conflicts of responsibilities or even through misplaced policy priorities. The study is investigating how to provide the best balance between legislative requirements and rapid recovery (reconstructing the built environment) after disasters. What can be done to achieve this? Would a review or realignment of existing legislation be adequate? Is a national recovery framework required to facilitate reconstruction objectives…?
The survey is being conducted by one of Resilient Organisations Doctoral research students James Rotimi.
Please feel free to participate in the survey, it should take only 20 minutes of your valuable time. Thank you.
On-line survey.
Attached are the following:
a) Consent form (23Kb, MSWord). Complete and return to James Rotimi (jor20@student.canterbury.ac.nz)
b) Participant Information Sheet (65Kb, MSWord). This provides a brief on the survey objectives.
Australian National Organisational Resilience Workshop: The Outcomes….
During 2007 industry representatives of Australia’s Trusted Information Sharing Network asked the Australian Government to support a national workshop to explore the concept of organisational resilience. This report summarises the issues discussed at the workshop. Already the results of this workshop are being discussed in the UK, New Zealand, Canada and the USA. The full report on this workshop can be downloaded here.
January 2008
International Forum on Engineering Decision Making 2007 Attendance
The Third International Forum on Engineering Decision Making (Optimal Strategies for Disaster and Hazard Mitigation) was held from December 12 to 15 in Port Stephens (Australia). The forum had a broad focus ranging from risk analysis methods to community resilience issues. A great deal of attention was given to risk analysis methods concerning different applications in the filed of Emergency Management and Preparedness. A New Zealand perspective was presented and discussed by Dr. Erica Seville, Professor Emeritus David Elms and the PhD Student from the Resilient Organisations Research Programme Frederico Ferreira. Dr. Seville talked about “Shared management of ‘wicked’ risks” and Professor Elms presented his experience in developing a resilient community in the New Zealand’s west coast. Both talks also highlighted the main challenges in developing a sense of risk and preparedness in public and private sectors and communities. Finally, Frederico presented his PhD research on how Information Technology can improve the allocation of human and physical resources during natural disasters and how decision making within roading organizations can be facilitated. Please visit www.ifed.ethz.ch or e mail Frederico for more information about the IFED 2007.
Mobilising an agricultural sector response to a volcanic event
Demonstrating the diverse challenges in building the primary sector's resilience to natural hazards, a team of University of Canterbury researchers, Tom Wilson, Andre Dantas and Jim Cole have highlighted the extraordinary logistical requirements that a large livestock evacuation would require. In a paper due to be published later this year, they highlight that volcanic hazards produced during an eruption (such as volcanic ashfall) have the potential to significantly disrupt farming and transport operations in the region affected. They model the time and resources required to evacuate dairy cows from a large eruption from Taranaki Volcano in New Zealand, concluding that large-scale livestock evacuation and relocation should not be considered as a feasible option in future volcanic crisis planning.
November 2007
Student Competition -Designing Reconstruction Strategies for Developing Countries
Interested in being part of an international competition to bring out innovative ideas to radically improve post-disaster reconstruction strategies for developing countries? Then take a look at the i-Rec student competition. All entries will be displayed at the upcoming i-Rec Conference for post-disaster reconstruction held in Christchurch at the end of April.
Summer Research Position : The role of strategic planning in managing crises.
We are looking for a top student for a summer research project to undertake research looking at the ability of business leaders to think strategically during the midst of a crisis, and to develop and communicate their recovery vision and strategic recovery objectives; key factors in an organisation’s long term survival.
We are looking for a student based in Christchurch who has completed their third year at university or higher, who is intelligent, creative and who has excellent communication skills. The position will pay $20 per hour for an up-to full time position over the upcoming summer period. See the following PDF for more information
Applications close on the 18th November 2007.
November 2007
Registrations for the i-Rec Conference now open.
Early-bird registrations for the 4th International i-Rec conference on Post Disaster Reconstruction are now open. Visit the i-Rec website for more information.
September 2007
Resilience Management: A framework for assessing and improving the Resilience of Organisations.
A new ResOrgs research report is now available. To download a copy of this and other research reports, see our publications page.
July 2007
Dean Kashigawa seminar series on Procurement Systems and thier Role in Disaster Reconstruction.
For more information on these seminars see the events page.
April 2007
Calling for Abstracts for the 2008 i-Rec Conference on Post-Disaster
Reconstruction
The Resilient Organisations research team, in conjunction with i-Rec
(the International Group for Research and Information on Post-Disaster
Reconstruction) are pleased to announce the 2008 conference: "Building
Resilience: Achieving Effective Post-Disaster Reconstruction".
For more information and to submit your abstract, please see the conference website
March 2007
New Student Research Report available on-line
A new student research report on 'Strategies for Managing
Business Vulnerability to Electricity Failure' is now available
in pdf format (PDF,
804K).
This research report represents an introductory attempt to understand
how businesses perceive, prepare and respond to the risk of an electrical
outage.
This report has been prepared by Hannan Stephenson for
the Resilient Organisations Research Group, in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for his degree of Master of Engineering Management
at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand.
7 March 2007
Prestige Lecture : Wednesday 28th March
Prof Tom O'Rourke, visiting Fellow and Fulbright Senior Specialist
from Cornell University in the US, will be giving a Prestige Lecture
in E7 at the University of Canterbury at 5:45pm.
His topic is Modern Approaches
to Infrastructure Resilience. (PDF, 181K).
This is a free lecture. Please RSVP to Sue
McKenzie by 21 March.
20 February
3rd Societal Planning Forum for Natural Hazards Research Forum
The Resilient Organisations Programme has hosted the 3rd Societal
Planning Forum at the University of Canterbury on the 20th of February
2007. Following the successful experience of the two previous Forums
hosted by GNS, the 3rd Societal Planning Forum has provided an opportunity
to take-stock of research going on throughout New Zealand in this area,
and to promote greater collaboration and co-ordination across the research
programmes.
Additional information including proceedings and presentations newly
available for download from: 3rd Societal
Planning Forum for Natural Hazards Research Forum
30 January 2007
Book launch: 22 February 2007, Wellington
Challenging the Future: Risk Communication –- Connecting
the Words is the latest CAENZ publication. It is intended
as a practitioners reference, providing a combination of risk communication
theory and examples of how risk communication has been implemented
across a variety of organisations in New Zealand.
