Post-earthquake Christchurch Research Articles

On the intersection of geographical thought and artistic practice: DIY urbanism, flow, and imagining urban futures

In this commentary, I explore what an artists’ process offers to city-making: how urban experimentation can open up hopeful, surprising, and imaginative urban encounters and futures. By doing so, I imagine a future for geographical thought and praxis lying partly in the interesting places where they overlap with artistic practice. I ground this thinking on the unstable surface found in the years immediately following the 2010–11 earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was into a wasteland of post-earthquake demolition that ‘ordinary citizens’ started to insert creative interventions (known in the literature as do-it-yourself, or DIY, urbanism). I explore how an understanding of creative ‘flow’ helped me untangle what was particular and unique about the uprising of DIY urbanism in post-earthquake Christchurch. From the ‘doing’ of creative practitioners in the city during this time emerged a different and new energy: an imaginative, hopeful, open-ended feeling of the possibilities hidden behind the facade of grey rubble. In particular, I examine how existing work in the geohumanities around hope and temporalities resonates with DIY urbanism and consider what artistic practices may have to offer geographical thought and praxis.

To Linger in Post-Earthquake Christchurch: The Responsibility of Waiting

Following natural disasters in urban environments, those who remain are left not only to occupy an unfamiliar space but also to experience a painfully drawn out temporality: the time of waiting. A decade after earthquakes struck Christchurch city, some residents are still inhabiting a time of limbo, awaiting decisions on the fate of their homes and businesses. In this paper, I examine various creative projects that appeared in exposed and vacant sites in post-earthquake Christchurch. These projects turned such sites into dwelling spaces in which passers-by are encouraged to hesitate and linger. Such sites thus encourage people to experience the temporality of waiting, but in a different and I argue more enabling way. This paper examines the ethical possibilities that emerge from lingering before such sites. Drawing on the notion that ethics is not so much a normative procedure and more an impetus that opens up the space of the encounter, I argue that when Cantabrians tarry before such sites, they recognise a world which is not constituted by replaceable objects, but, instead, in their responsiveness, they experience a self that is constituted by its immersion in the world. Keywords: natural disaster; waiting; temporality; Christchurch earthquakes; ethical responsiveness

Excess aspirations: Migration and urban futures in post-earthquake Christchurch

Migration and urbanisation are characterised by multiple temporalities: arrival, durations of migration, daily rhythms, migration regulation, aspirations for urban futures and the impacts of changing social, economic or environmental fortunes. In this paper, we address the temporalities of migration and urbanisation by focusing on the post-disaster context of Christchurch, New Zealand, which suffered destructive earthquakes in 2011 and 2012. While the immediate post-quake context was characterised by outward migration, rebuilding has occurred through the migration of thousands of workers and their families, particularly from Asia, Europe and the Pacific. The presence of new migrants has led to unexpected migrant-driven diversification that has potential to reconfigure Christchurch’s image as a city that privileges whiteness over Indigenous and non-white settler identities. The migration of rebuild workers, however, also occurs in a national context of increasingly stratified migration management with few opportunities for migrants to settle long-term. Drawing on interviews with stakeholders in central government, local organisations and migrants themselves we examine countervailing aspirations and responses that emerged within the earthquake rebuild: attempts by local organisations to reconfigure Christchurch as a diverse future-oriented city, migrant aspirations and tactics for long-term settlement and family stability and national government efforts to contain aspirations for a diverse future-oriented city that exceed the intent of migration management. Through this analysis our paper examines the discrepant temporalities of migration and urban futures involved in the rebuilding of post-quake Christchurch, as well as the multiple forces that impinge on the very possibility of migrant-led diversification of cities.

The dead centre of town: tribalism, dark tourism and the quest for belonging in post-earthquake Christchurch, New Zealand

The dead centre of town: tribalism, dark tourism and the quest for belonging in post-earthquake Christchurch, New Zealand

Elite interview, urban tourism governance and post-disaster recovery: evidence from post-earthquake Christchurch, New Zealand

ABSTRACT Despite the long tradition of fieldwork and qualitative research practice in tourism studies, the reporting of methodological notes and reflections is limited in the literature. Many excellent methodological remarks in research reports and graduate theses find few outlets in academic journals and those few contributions that are eventually published often emphasize the novelty of the method rather than crucial aspects such as positionality and embeddedness. This is further evident in urban studies with regard to post-disaster recovery research. This article seeks to fill the current gap in the field by providing a reflective methodological account on fieldwork and elite interviews in post-earthquake Christchurch, New Zealand. It does so by implementing a framework addressing key points in the elite interview process, with emphasis on access to fieldwork sites, power relations, positionality, rapport and ethical issues. The manuscript presents aspects of fieldwork, spatiality and power relations that tend to be overlooked in the literature. Albeit being context-specific, it is argued that the evidence from this study can also have relevance to the understanding of fieldwork in other post-disaster and tourism contexts.

ON THE CLASSIFIER PERFORMANCE FOR SIMULATION BASED DEBRIS DETECTION IN SAR IMAGERY

Abstract. Urban areas struck by disasters such as earthquakes are in need of a fast damage detection assessment. A post-event SAR image often is the first available image, most likely with no matching pre-event image to perform change detection. In previous work we have introduced a debris detection algorithm for this scenario that is trained exclusively with synthetically generated training data. A classification step is employed to separate debris from similar textures such as vegetation. In order to verify the use of a random forest classifier for this context, we conduct a performance comparison with two alternative popular classifiers, a support vector machine and a convolutional neural network. With the direct comparison revealing the random forest classifier to be best suited, the effective performance on the prospect of debris detection is investigated for the post-earthquake Christchurch scene. Results show a good separation of debris from vegetation and gravel, thus reducing the false alarm rate in the damage detection operation considerably.

Impact of post-disaster government policy on reconstruction: A case study of post-earthquake Christchurch, New Zealand

The New Zealand government, following the Canterbury earthquakes 2010-2011, adopted new ways to rebuild the city. Given an opportunity to find solutions to pre-existing issues in the city, the government was keen to rebuild faster and better. The blueprint that was finalised mid-2012, had 17 anchor projects to lead its rebuilding efforts along with governance and legislative changes to facilitate rebuilding. Drawing on past literature using the case study of Canterbury earthquakes 2010-2011, this paper first reviews the rebuilding process in Christchurch. 14 face to face interviews were held with those involved in and subjected to these governance and structural changes. The study suggests the complex post-disaster environment limit the effectiveness of the imposed changes. Rebuilding efforts were hindered by the absence of a proper legislative framework, the ambiguity in defining roles and responsibilities of recovery agents, the time-pressure to rebuild resulting in hasty planning, limited public involvement in rebuilding and the lack of strategic relevance to ensure the outcomes are accepted by the public and fit with the city’s image in the long run. It is recommended that future research focuses on implications of post-disaster rebuilding practices on the wider community, businesses, and the government.

Women’s place-making through craft in post-earthquake Christchurch

INTRODUCTION: There is little research on the role of creative arts and craft in disaster recovery. This article reports findings about the emergent role of crafting from research conducted after the 2010–2011 series of earthquakes in Christchurch and surrounding districts in Aotearoa New Zealand. In particular, the article focuses on the significance and differing interpretations of the notion of place expressed by participants through their craftwork, in this case led by women and mediated by the post-earthquake geographic and temporal context.METHOD: This qualitative research included nine individual interviews and five focus group interviews with crafters from Christchurch and surrounding districts. There were 35 participants in total, 33 were women. Applied thematic analysis was used to code the data and identify themes. These themes included connection to place, the symbolism of craft, the healing experience of craft groups and places for women. The notion of place was evident across all three themes.FINDINGS: The findings from the research demonstrate differing ways in which the significance of place was reflected in the craftwork. Participants interpreted the concept of place in descriptive, symbolic, and therapeutic ways.IMPLICATIONS: More understanding about the way creative endeavours like crafting can be used to help ameliorate the impact of natural disasters is needed. Social work practitioners are encouraged to explore place-based wellbeing during their work with service users and to include aspects of artistry, craft and creativity.

Ballerinas and Band Aids: The Performances of Urban Art in Post-Earthquake Christchurch

While graffiti and street art span generations and all corners of the globe, it was still unexpected when Christchurch,a New Zealand city identified by many as a colonial English transplant with a perceived conservative air, was positionedas an urban art ‘destination’ in the wake of the devastating cluster of earthquakes in 2010 and 2011.1 Historically lacking a strong sense of street culture, such as that in New Orleans (which suffered similar devastation after Hurricane Katrina, 2005), Christchurch's post-quake landscape encouraged public discourses and as such required new approaches to shared space.2 As public expressions with do-it-yourself qualities already predisposed to make use of the post-quake landscape, graffiti and street art proved fitting additions to this terrain. They signified life and rebirth, while also engaging with loss and change, revealing the structures of urban and suburban existence, and creating political discourses.

Tourism expenditure in post-earthquake Christchurch, New Zealand

ABSTRACTThis paper investigates whether tourism expenditure and exchange rates influence local GDP for the city of Christchurch (New Zealand), following the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes. Domestic and international expenditures are analysed separately using vector auto-regression (VAR) models. We perform Granger causality tests to determine the directionality of the relationships uncovered. Our results show that increased domestic and international visitor spending is followed by a measurable and significant increase in local GDP. Exchange rates have a small but non-significant impact on international tourist spending. Stimulating tourism demand will be an essential element to achieve substantial economic growth in Christchurch. The findings have implications for policy making in terms of promoting economic growth in disaster prone areas.

Architecture as a pathway to reconciliation in post-earthquake Christchurch

<p>This community-based and culturally-situated design research project reflects on issues of community empowerment and activism through speculative design meant to provoke discourse within the wider New Zealand community. As design-led speculative architectural research, it reaches beyond the confines of professional practice. It challenges the norms of contemporary New Zealand architecture by investigating new architectural approaches to explicitly reflect the cultural identity of New Zealand Māori. The devastating earthquakes of September 4, 2010 and February 22, 2011 destroyed much of Christchurch. While a terrible tragedy, it also opened up the city for fundamental community based discussion. The idea of a post-colonial not just a post-earthquake city emerged, driven by Māori design and planning professionals following the leadership of local elders. The situated community for this design-led research investigation is the Ngāi Tahu iwi (Māori tribe) of Ōtautahi / Christchurch. Ngāi Tahu professionals in Ōtautahi / Christchurch developed key design aspirations pertaining to the future architecture and urban design of the new city. The city rebuild offered an opportunity to present a Ngāi Tahu vision that reflected its place identity in the new city. The site for this design research investigation is the Ngāi Tahu owned King Edward Barracks, within the Ōtautahi / Christchurch central business district. This traditional Māori settlement site had been covered with a disparate collection of urban colonial buildings, several of which were destroyed or damaged in the earthquakes. If this Ngāi Tahu owned site (and the city as a whole) is to be rebuilt, is there an opportunity for its architecture to reflect Ngāi Tahu, rather than Eurocentric models? And if so, how might such a design embody Māori and Ngāi Tahu identity, while enhancing New Zealanders’ awareness of traditional Māori design, values, and customs – all within the context of a contemporary urban fabric?</p>

They never said ‘Come here and let's talk about it’: Exclusion and non-decision-making in the rebuild of Christchurch, New Zealand

Decision-making in urban contexts is increasingly characterized by a depoliticized environment that has normalized neoliberal urban policies. These are further pursued in post-disaster contexts across the globe with narratives that overshadow the views and demands of the affected communities. Spatial contestation, exclusion of certain groups from key decisions and episodes of non-decision-making thus shape urban redevelopment through top-down governance. This paper provides a Lukesian narrative on post-earthquake Christchurch, where the redevelopment of the city has been characterized by a strong command-and-control rebuild agenda emanating from the national government, regardless of the feedback and criticisms from the affected community.

Modelling Seismic effects on a Sewer Network using Infoworks ICM

Objectives: The effects of earthquakes on a sewer network can be assessed using different well established methods such as flow monitoring, visual inspection, condition assessments and engineering survey. The main objective of this study is to investigate how hydraulic models were developed and used to assess the immediate devastating impacts of seismic activities on Christchurch’s sewer network. Methods: Infoworks ICM (Integrated Catchment Management) and InfoNet hydraulic modeling tools were used for this investigation. Two hydraulic models (2010 pre-quake model and 2011 postquake model) were developed for Christchurch’s sewer network as part of this assessment. Findings: Hydraulic modelling was found to be a very powerful tool engineers can use to assess the impact of an earthquake and quantify the performance of sewer network. In Christchurch earthquakes caused significant damage to the waste water network. In post-earthquake Christchurch, there was an increase of 33% in the flows to the treatment plant due to earthquake related damage in the network. Application/Innovation: This paper summarizes hydraulic-model building and calibration works for preearthquake and post-earthquake Christchurch to evaluate the impacts of seismic activities on the sewer network. This paper suggests that any modern water authority could implement appropriate hydraulic modelling tools to prepare for any unforeseen situation. Keywords: Earthquake, Infoworks ICM, Modelling, Seismic Effects, Sewer Network

Intersections of History, Media, and Culture

Intersections of History, Media, and Culture

A case-based methodology for investigating urban comfort through interpretive research and microclimate analysis in post-earthquake Christchurch, New Zealand

This paper explores how an interpretive case-based research strategy can reveal new empirical and theoretical insights into microclimate design. Innovative fieldwork in Christchurch, New Zealand investigated the nature and social meanings of urban comfort in a city with a seasonal climate featuring microclimatic variability, and with a physical landscape undergoing rapid change following a series of major earthquakes. Ethnographic methods were combined with microclimate measurements in four Christchurch-based case study locations to identify ways in which people adjust their cultural and lifestyle values and expectations to the actual microclimatic conditions. The field investigation had to capture data relevant to the microclimatic variability and be suitable for rapidly changing urban settings. Results suggest this integrative methodology successfully adapts to challenging physical contexts, and is able to provide a coherent body of evidence. Important insights revealed through this methodology may not have become apparent if only conventional microclimate methods were used.

Shaking for innovation: The (re)building of a (smart) city in a post disaster environment

This paper begins by exploring a smart city approach in post-earthquake Christchurch, New Zealand, by telling the city's story so far. We take the position of critical scholars who are engaged in a live smart cities project that involves the measurement of air quality by using sensor tools. As the project is still ongoing, the final results of the work are yet to be seen, but, nonetheless worth documenting. This article is composed as an early analysis of the air quality sensing project as a framework for the larger smart city story of Christchurch. It provides an overview of the experiences and lessons learned about the implementation of new technologies in a post-disaster environment. We examine how the narrative of the smart city is constructed, with focus on the terminology used by citizens, academicians, government and corporations. We then argue that top-down technocratic solutions to urban problems alone do not suffice to improve life in the city; rather, they can result in misaligned expectations or outcomes for stakeholders at the government and citizen level. We conclude by suggesting that citizen-led initiatives may be a way to promote more nuanced and inclusive ways of addressing local urban problems in a smart cities context.

Testing the Performance of Pressure Sewer Systems to Reduce Wastewater Overflow

Wastewater overflow is one of the major sources of surface water pollution. A pressure sewer system is considered to be effective for reducing wastewater overflow by controlling the operation of pump stations during different storm events. It is a challenge to control pressure sewer systems efficiently and effectively especially in a complex sewer network. In a simple, well-defined sewer network, pressure sewers are highly effective in controlling sewer overflows in the downstream network. But in a complex sewer network pressure sewer systems may, in some cases, even increase the sewage overflows due to complexity in the network and area-wide variation of wet weather response in the network. This paper reviews the pressure sewer systems in post-earthquake Christchurch. The paper examines how reliable a pressure sewer system is in reducing wastewater overflows during different storm events. Hydraulic modelling tools have been used for this research.

Public space and recovery: learning from post-earthquake Christchurch

How might the urban structure and public space of Christchurch change as a result of the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes? This paper will look at council and community led post-earthquake urban space projects in Christchurch, New Zealand, to investigate the potential reconfiguration of urban public space and structure and the balance of top-down and bottom-up design processes for the delivery of these projects. This will be achieved by comparing the performance of the urban public space and structure of the city during the post-earthquake emergency and recovery phases, with a view to understanding the contribution that these elements can make to the resilience of Christchurch. The paper will argue that Christchurch’s nineteenth century urban structure served the population well during the emergency phases of the disaster and that post-earthquake community-led initiatives model innovative capabilities which may enhance urban design practice in the future.

Disaster impact and recovery: what children and young people can tell us

Christchurch's earthquakes revealed children's vulnerability to disaster but also their ability to respond and play an active role in recovery. We argue that children's voices need to be heard and given priority in the recovery process because the disaster impacts on them and their families in ways that are not recognised or well understood. We report the findings of a study undertaken with 94 Christchurch children. Its aim was to give voice to children's experiences of post-earthquake Christchurch and in doing so contribute to post-disaster recovery. The experiences of these Christchurch children offer other children, parents, government and agencies valuable insights into how to manage the recovery process in ways that best meet children's needs. In the post-disaster recovery period, decision-makers need to recognise children as authentic actors in the recovery process and should commit to hearing children's voices throughout the rebuilding. Children and young people's resilience and positive commitment to Christchurch are assets that should be capitalised on in the longer-term recovery process.

Resilience? Contested meanings and experiences in post-disaster Christchurch, New Zealand

The purpose of this paper is to improve understanding of the relationship between sense of place and community resilience, two concepts described and defined differently reflecting different disciplinary research, policies and practices. We draw on international literature that has focused on the interrelationship between these concepts in the context of natural disasters, as well as the findings of a multidisciplinary project in the post-earthquake Christchurch recovery context. We describe how we developed indicators of resilience linked to sense of place as it relates to home, neighbourhood and the city, including place-based social interaction and the role of scientific and technical information. Through integrating literature with the findings from project interviews and a survey, we offer new ways of considering ‘resilience’ and we discuss the implications of our findings for not just the Christchurch recovery, but for future response and recovery to natural disasters throughout New Zealand.