Lead Researchers
Erica
Seville
erica.seville@rsrc.co.nz,
Phone: +64 21 456 706
Erica is a research fellow with the Department of Civil and Natural Resources Engineering at the University of Canterbury, and also director of Risk
Strategies Research and Consulting.
Erica has a Bachelor of Engineering Honours degree
and a Ph.D. in risk assessment. After completing her Ph.D. Erica spent
four years in the UK where she worked as a risk management consultant,
providing advice for leading public and private sector clients, including
London Underground Ltd, Railtrack, the UK Ministry of Defence, National
Audit Office, Defence Procurement Agency, and Shell Gas Trading. Erica
also worked with JP Morgan Chase in London managing operational risks
during the trade settlement process.
Erica’s interest in this research project sparked
from her experience working at JP Morgan Chase during the September
11th terrorist attacks, where the closure of their NY office saw the
implementation of well rehearsed business continuity plans. In the
banking sector, there are very clear drivers for business continuity
investment given the substantial capital at risk from an inability
to trade. Upon return to New Zealand, Erica recognised that most NZ
organisations are not so well prepared for major disruption! Given
that many of these organisations manage, maintain and operate our critical
infrastructure, provide employment for communities, and make up the
economy, there is a need for them to be resilient.
John is a Senior Lecturer in Information Systems, founder
of the e-Commerce programme and Co-Founder of the eSecurity Lab at
the University of Canterbury. His interests focus on the conjunction
of business practice and technology application with an emphasis on
building resilience in the face of systemic insecurity. John was a
practicing Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in the US prior to coming
to New Zealand and has been involved in the computing industry for
over 30 years. His research interests are in information security,
risk management, e-commerce and strategic planning.
John’s broad background in business and technology
has involved dealing with the wide range of risks inherent in commercial
organisations and their use of computing and communications technology.
John’s interest in organisational resilience
is the result of his long background in accounting, auditing and business
information systems in conjunction with his role as co-founder of the
eSecurity Lab at the University of Canterbury. John lectures in both
undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Information Security and
eCommerce and has particular concern for the methodologies involved
in protecting modern connected information systems against the broad
range of systemic vulnerabilities.
Suzanne
Wilkinson
s.wilkinson@auckland.ac.nz,
Phone: +64 9 373 7599 ext 88184
Dr. Suzanne Wilkinson is a Senior Lecturer in Construction
Management at the University of Auckland. Her research interests focus
on construction contract administration and relationship management
for construction projects.
Suzanne completed Bachelors in Civil Engineering (Honours) and a PhD
in Construction Management from Oxford Brookes University, UK. She
is currently completing a Graduate Diploma in Business Studies at Massey
University focussing on dispute resolution.
Suzanne has published widely. Her recent research book, co-authored
with Rosemary Scofield, “Management for the New Zealand Construction
Industry” published by Prentice Hall has been adopted as a training
text at Universities and construction companies in New Zealand.
Suzanne lectures both undergraduates and post-graduate
students in project management, construction management, construction
law and construction administration.
David is a director of Kestrel Group Ltd, a consulting practice specialising in risk and emergency management planning for local and central government agencies and infrastructure providers. He is the National Engineering Lifelines Co-ordinator, a role which works at the interface between infrastructure providers and emergency management agencies. He is a Past-President of the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering.
He was involved in the response to the Newcastle earthquake in 1989 in Australia, and led New Zealand reconnaissance teams following the devastating 1995 Kobe and 1999 Taiwan earthquakes. In 2005, he was a member of the Government’s Flood Review Team which made a number of recommendations to improve response arrangements in New Zealand following the 2004 floods which significantly affected a number of regions. More recently he co-ordinated the building safety evaluation process immediately following the Gisborne, New Zealand earthquake in December 2007.
David believes that many organisations in New Zealand have significant vulnerabilities in terms of both internal and external linkages, with inadequate commitment to planning for operational continuity in the event of major disruptions.
Regan is an Associate Professor at the School of Architecture,
Unitec, Auckland. However, during the semester breaks he is on standby
as a RedR Engineer (refer to www.redr.org)
often being assigned to the United Nations in various disaster situations
throughout the world. In the last 7 years has worked in Aceh (following
the 2004 tsunami disaster), Pakistan (following the Afghanistan conflict
and again for the 2005 earthquake), Syria (at the time of the Iraq
conflict), West Timor (at the establishment of a separate Timor), West
Darfur (at the initial onset of internal conflict) and Geneva (with
UNHCR). In all, 16 such overseas assignments. Thus, he brings real
world experience and a “sense” of disasters (both natural
and man made, emergency and post disaster reconstruction) to the team.
Regan has a Bachelor and a Master's Degree in civil engineering from
Canterbury University, a Master in Architecture from Victoria University,
and a Master in Business Administration and a PhD in Architectural
Engineering from James Cook University in Townsville, Australia. Despite
this academic background, his professional experience has been as a
consulting structural engineer of 25+ years experience gained in 13
different countries.
His research interests deal with both the qualitative and quantitative aspects
of disasters under the general headings of: Management ~ Mitigation ~ Indicators. And his interest in resilient organizations is to apply
the often difficult lessons learnt overseas, to the social and economic
landscape of New Zealand.
Sonia is a Research Engineer in the Department of Civil Engineering
at the University of Canterbury working under the Resilient Organisation
Research Programme
Sonia received her Laurea degree (equivalent to a BS+ME with thesis)
in Civil Engineering (Geotechnical) at the University of Genoa and
a Ph.D. in Risk Management of Natural and Man Induced Hazards at the
Technical University of Braunschweing, Germany, and University of Florence,
Italy (joined doctoral program). After completing the PhD, she was
appointed as Fixed-term Lecturer at the Department of Structural and
Geotechnical Engineering at the University of Genoa, Italy, co-lecturing
a 5th year undergraduate course on Seismic Risk Management.
Sonia’s main research interests are comprised of: 1) natural
and man-induced hazard risk analysis, including vulnerability analysis,
damage scenario and risk modelling at territorial scale and within
GIS-based environment; 2) risk reduction including mitigation strategies,
emergency management and resilience enhancement; 3) extreme events
decision making; 4) seismic behaviour and strengthening of existing
masonry and monumental buildings.
Dr Dean Myburgh
Dean is a Director of 80-20 Options NZ Limited and Emergency Planning Limited, consulting practices that specialise in risk- and emergency management planning. He has held senior management positions in both the private and public sectors and consulted (internally and externally) to organisations in New Zealand and South Africa. Dean is a Fellow of the NZ Institute of Management and holds an MBA and Doctorate in Industrial Relations.
For a number of years (mid-1996 until March 2006), Dean was involved regionally in projects related to the formation and operation of Auckland Civil Defence Emergency Management Group (ACDEMG). As a member of the ACDEMG Co-ordinating Executive Group, he sponsored a number of regional initiatives including the Recovery portfolio and has been involved in a number of exercises at a local, regional and national level that focus on response and recovery.
Dean’s consulting focus addresses organisations’ readiness and reduction as part of their capacity and capability to pro-actively deal with crises, emergencies and disasters. His interest in and focus on resilience examines the contextual frameworks, processes, systems and competencies required by organisations to meaningfully address resilience gaps.
Dr. Tom Wilson
thomas.wilson@canterbury.ac.nz 
Tom is a new Lecturer in Hazard and Disaster Management in the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Canterbury.
Tom's doctoral research analysed the vulnerability of pastoral farming systems to volcanic ashfall hazards. Specifically this investigated short- and long-term impacts to pasture and soil, water and animals; mass livestock evacuation; rehabilitation of pastoral farmland following large explosive eruptions; and the effectiveness of government aid in promoting recovery. Associated research included developing risk assessment tools and models to assess loss from volcanic hazards using geospatial platforms (GIS) - as part of the Riskscape project. Since beginning as a lecturer at UC he has developed the Volcanic Ash Testing laboratory (VAT Lab) which investigates the vulnerability of critical infrastructure and primary industries to volcanic ashfall (http://vatlab.org).
Tom's other main research interest is understanding the resiliency of rural and isolated communities to natural disasters. This has focused on the impact of recent disasters in the Canterbury region from snowstorm and flooding events, and the assessment of natural hazard risk for isolated communities.
Tony Fenwick
Tony is a self-employed policy adviser and researcher. His main area of interest is the resilience of 
infrastructure companies, sectors and systems. Recent clients have included the Ministry of Economic Development (MED), the Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management and the National Engineering Lifelines Committee. He was also engaged in the programme on Infrastructure Resilience led from the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet from early 2007 to mid 2008. Tony had roles in Exercise Ruaumoko, New Zealand’s largest civil defence emergency management exercise, which tested preparation and response to a volcanic eruption in Auckland. He also arranged the development of pandemic planning by New Zealand’s infrastructure providers in 2006 and led the government’s Infrastructure Stocktake in 2004.
Tony has a background in energy and infrastructure policy advice working at MED, and was earlier employed at the Reserve Bank in a variety of policy roles.
andre.dantas@canterbury.ac.nz,
Phone: +64 3 364 2238
Dr Andre Dantas is a Lecturer in Transportation Engineering
in the Department of Civil Engineering Department, University of Canterbury
where he teaches both undergraduate (Traffic Planning, GIS) and postgraduate
courses (Transportation Planning and Modelling and Traffic Management).
In 2002, Andre received his PhD from the Nagoya Institute
of Technology, Nagoya, Japan. Prior to that he was a GIS instructor
at the University of Brasilia and a traffic engineer and transportation
planner in different parts of Brazil. Andre also has a Bachelor in
Civil Engineering (1995) from the Federal University of Minas Gerais
in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and a Master in Urban Transportation (1998)
from the University of Brasilia.
During his four-year life-changing experience in Japan,
Andre had the chance to understand the magnitude and damages of natural
hazard events such as an earthquake. Andre became particularly interested
in the logistics of response activities after a disaster and he initiated
contacts with researchers of the Disaster, Prevention and Reduction
Institute (DPRI) of the University of Kyoto. Upon his arrival in New
Zealand, Andre has recognised the need for the development of dynamic
optimisation of response resources in order to minimize damage and
societal impacts.
Current Research Students
Amy Stephenson ; PhD Student
Amy has a BSc (Hons) in Development and Health in Disaster Management from Coventry University in the UK. During this degree she undertook a placement year and was involved in managing the response to the Buncefield Oil Depot explosion and fire. She is particularly interested in crisis management and business continuity.
Research Objectives
Now within the Civil and Natural Resources Engineering Department at the University of Canterbury, Amy’s research focuses on measuring and benchmarking the resilience of organisations. Specifically the research involves:
- Developing a methodology for measuring and benchmarking organisational resilience
- Developing and testing a web-based resilience measurement tool
- Quantitatively testing existing organisation and resilience theory to explore the relationships between the indicators of organisational resilience
To contact Amy directly, click here.
Kelvin Xi Zuo; PhD Student
Kelvin has a Bachelor Degree in Civil Engineering Management (2003) from Sichuan University in China and a Master (Hons) of Engineering Studies (2005) from University of Auckland. He is particularly interested in the contractual aspect of civil engineering management, especially the procurement process in different projects. It is first stems from his fieldwork (2002) in Three Gorge Dam in China and further developed in his master thesis of tendering systems comparison between Chinese and New Zealand models.
Research Objectives
The objective of Kelvin's research is to establish a comprehensive
procurement framework and programme management plan for reconstruction
after a natural disaster. His principle research questions are:
- What are the common construction contracts used in New
Zealand industry? Are they still useful in the aftermath of a natural
disaster? if not, what are the main impediments and how could they
be improved?
- What are the existing government regulations (including those
from CDEM) on procurement and their relevance and usefulness in a disaster
reconstruction situation.
- What are the recent developments in forms of the major international
construction contracts (e.g. FIDIC)? How the contracts for rebuild
have been set up and what are the procurement systems have been used
in reconstruction in other vulnerable zones in the world? Are these
international experiences useful to New Zealand, if yes, how can they
be/ have been modified to suit New Zealand conditions.
To contact Kelvin directly, click here.
Alice Chang; PhD Student
Alice got her Bachelor Degree in Civil Engineering Management in 2004 and then was recommended by her University (Central South University) to pursue Mater degree in Management Science and Engineering with entrance examination exempted. In 2007, she was awarded First Honor Master Degree and successfully obtained Joint Scholarship for PhD study from Chinese Government and The University of Auckland. Since her second year of college study, Alice has been involved in a wide range of research projects nationally and locally in project management and construction management. Now she is concentrating on the resourcing in project management for post-disaster reconstruction and aiming to apply the lessons and experiences learned from Indonesia after Indian Ocean tsunami and China following Wenchuan earthquake within New Zealand context.
Research Objectives
The overarching goal of Alice’s research is to develop an integrated resource allocation framework under the circumstances of post-disaster reconstruction for the purpose of improving decision making at a strategic level.
To realize this, the study seeks to achieve the following sub-objectives:
- To identify the factors affecting resource availability in the aftermath of a disaster and their interrelations
- To investigate the particularity of post-disaster circumstances and implications of resource availability on post-disaster reconstruction performance
- To ascertain the dynamics and the working mechanism of each dynamic on the resource availability system
- To establish the resource allocation framework for post-disaster reconstruction planning and conceive the possible solutions to ensure resource availability for reconstruction implementation
- To compare the modeling outcomes between New Zealand earthquake scenario and other two countries’ real post-disaster practice to generate lessons and experiences
To contact Alice directly, click here.
Charlotte Brown; PhD Student
Charlotte has a Bachelor of Engineering (Civil) with Honours (2002) from the University of Canterbury. Charlotte has worked for four years at a New Zealand environmental and engineering consultancy in Auckland, working mainly on infrastructure, solid waste and contaminated land design and site supervision projects. Charlotte has also worked for one year as a water and sanitation project manager for a humanitarian organisation in Kenya. Charlotte is now combining her experience in solid waste management, emergency and development engineering and her interest in complex systems engineering towards her PhD research into Disaster Debris Management.
Research Objectives
The aim of the research is to develop an understanding of the role of debris in a disaster recovery, in particular the environmental, social and economic impacts of various management strategies. The output of the research will be a universal decision making framework for disaster debris managers.
To contact Charlotte directly, click here.
Zach Whitman; MSc Student
Zach earned his BA with a major concentration in Geology and a minor concentration in Geography from Colgate University in the US. He then continued on to University of Canterbury to study Hazard and Disaster Management, with a specific focus on business resiliency in all hazard environments. His work looks at the effects external aid has upon small to medium sized enterprises’ resilience in both rural and urban settings in New Zealand. The research objectives are to:
- Determine the resilience of small to medium sized enterprises in New Zealand.
- Assess the incentives in place for businesses to be self-reliant during a disaster.
- - public incentives
- - private incentive
- Model the effects of natural disasters on the private sector in New Zealand.
To contact Zach directly, click here.
Completed Students
- Frederico Ferreira; PhD
- James Olabode B. Rotimi; PhD
- Sonia McManus; PhD
Research Steering Group
Our Research Steering Committee meets once every 6 months. The objectives of the committee are:
1) To provide an external perspective to the research team, with particular emphasis on:
2) To promote
awareness of the research and its objectives in the marketplace,
and to identify linkages with other activities or opportunities
that would be of interest to the research team.
3) To provide advice on implementation
of the research outcomes and outputs .
Members are:
David Middleton (Chair)
General Manager :: Earthquake Commission, Wellington
Dave Brunsdon
Director :: Kestrel Group, Wellington
Erica Seville
Research Programme Leader :: University of Canterbury, Christchurch
John Balmforth
Chief Executive :: AMI Insurance, Christchurch
Dave Bates
Network Operations Manager :: Transit NZ National Office, Wellington
Jason Clement
Risk & Assurance Manager :: The New Zealand Refining Company
Andrew Hazelton
Partner :: Hazelton Law, Wellington
Pat Helm
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
Richard Smith
Research Advisor :: Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency
Management, Wellington
Lawrence Yule
Mayor, Hastings District Council :: President, Local Government New Zealand
Andre
Dantas