Search

During the last decades, liquefaction damages induced by earthquakes have underlined the importance of identifying effective soil improvement techniques for mitigation purposes. Vibratory methods, such as rammed aggregate piers, are commonly used to densify sands and silty sands, erroneously neglecting the influence of the lateral stress. This paper presents the results of a series of liquefaction mitigation case studies carried out using rammed aggregate piers in Christchurch (New Zealand), Boca de Briceño (Ecuador), and Bondeno (Italy) following the 2010–2011 Canterbury seismic sequence, the 2016 Muisne earthquake, and the 2012 Emilia seismic sequence, respectively. The availability of coupled piezocone and seismic dilatometer tests before and after treatment enabled a geotechnical characterization of the three sandy sites to be made, along with estimating the at-rest lateral earth pressure coefficient, and comparing the effectiveness of the treatment at the trial sites. Finally, the paper proposes an updated procedure for liquefaction assessment that takes into account both the increase in soil density and lateral stress produced by ground improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a tsunami inundation model, filling the current void between industry applied simplified methods (bathtub and attenuation) and comprehensive numerical modeling. The proposed model utilizes two‐dimensional equations established on hydraulic principles (energy conservation and friction loss) to produce the finite‐difference, two‐dimensional model. While the sophistication of depth‐averaged numerical modeling has not been entirely replicated, the incorporation of hydraulic roughness and gravitational effects (slope) through the Bernoulli energy equation, accompanied by suitable assumptions, significantly improves performance over simplified bathtub and attenuation methods. This improvement not only retains excellent efficiency (completing case studies in under 100 s) but also yields inundation results comparable to traditional numerical modeling, which typically takes multiple hours to days. This is the first application of such equations to a two‐dimensional tsunami inundation model, leading to simulations at Gisborne and Christchurch, New Zealand, for validation against the numerical model, COMCOT. F1 scores produced from inundation extent comparisons were upwards of 84%. Inundation depth discrepancies recorded 77% within a ±$\pm$1 m range, while over 93% within a ±$\pm$2 m range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Court proceedings against the alleged perpretrator of the Christchurch mosque attacks in 2019 led to what may be ground-breaking cooperation between the judicial system and the media to balance fair trial rights and a determination to (a) avoid retraumatisation and (b) prevent the court being used as a platform for white supremacist propaganda. The case, and the willingness of media to honour these imperatives, demonstrates the centrality of publicity in acts of terrorism known as 'propaganda of the deed'. The research outlined in this article suggests that institutional cooperation can avoid 'giving oxygen' to perpetrators and their causes without sacrificing journalistic integrity or a duty to bear witness in the interests of open justice. A change of plea resulted in proceedings being limited to a sentencing hearing. A lengthy trial may have tested the robustness of the measures put in place but, nonetheless, the planning processes employed in New Zealand lead to a conclusion that they could provide a basis for similar cooperation in other judicial jurisdictions, such as Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twitter analysis through data mining, text analysis, and visualization, coupled with the application of actor-network-theory, reveals a coalition of heterogenous religious affiliations around grief and fascination. While religious violence has always existed, the prevalence of social media has led to an increase in the magnitude of discussions around the topic. This paper examines the different reactions on Twitter to violence targeting three religious communities: the 2015 Charleston Church shooting, the 2018 Pittsburgh Synagogue shooting, and the 2019 Christchurch Mosque shootings. The attacks were all perpetrated by white nationalists with firearms. By analyzing large Twitter datasets in response to the attacks, we were able to render visible associations among actors across religions communities, national identities, and political persuasions. What this project revealed is that if we apply actor-network-theory and data visualization to look at networks created by human/non-human (text, computer, phone, meme, tweet, retweet, hashtag) actors, we can see that knowledge, empathy, and fascination drive communication around mass violence against religious communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new framework for the seismic loss prediction of residential buildings in Ōtautahi / Christchurch, New Zealand. It employs data science techniques, geospatial tools, and machine learning (ML) trained on insurance claims data from the Earthquake Commission (EQC) collected following the 2010–2011 Canterbury earthquake sequence (CES). The seismic loss prediction obtained from the ML model is shown to outperform the output from existing risk analysis tools for New Zealand for each of the main earthquakes of the CES. In addition to the prediction capabilities, the ML model delivered useful insights into the most important features contributing to losses during the CES. ML correctly highlighted that liquefaction significantly influenced building losses for the 22 February 2011 earthquake. The results are consistent with observations, engineering knowledge, and previous studies, confirming the potential of data science and ML in the analysis of insurance claims data and the development of seismic loss prediction models using empirical loss data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of College of Sharia & Islamic Studies is the property of Qatar University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper reports the partial findings of in-depth life history interviews undertaken with three women who have received the Domestic Purposes Benefit (a benefit for single parents and their children) for most of the past five years, who live in poor-quality double-storied state units in Aranui, the poorest part of Christchurch. The research presented here is part of a larger study that seeks to understand and explain why these women, these families are 'at the bottom of the heap'. Part of the rationale for choosing the particular housing structures in this area are that they are universally hated. My theory was that the families living in these units do so by default, because others have been able to negotiate their ways out of these units. Those left are thus the choiceless, the powerless. Now part of the way through my interviews I am not sure that this is the case, although certainly these families have limited choices. This paper has been structured into three parts. The first part provides an overview of the literature which demonstrates the relationship between low income and poor health, educational and social outcomes. The second part recounts what Kath, Mary and Kim (not their real names) said about their own educational experiences. The final section considers the education of the children of these families in terms of aspirations, support and poverty issues. The conclusion looks at the implications for practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A geospatial data processing tool, GEO4PALM, has been developed to generate geospatial static input for the Parallelised Large Eddy Simulation (PALM) model system. PALM is a community-driven large eddy simulation model used for atmospheric and environmental research. Throughout PALM's 20-year development, research interests have been increasing in its application in realistic conditions, especially for urban areas. For such applications, geospatial static input is essential. Although abundant geospatial data are accessible worldwide, currently, no tools are available in the community to automatically generate PALM's geospatial static input for most areas of the world. In addition, geospatial data availability and quality are highly variable and inconsistent. Therefore, PALM users face significant challenges, particularly regarding data acquisition, data pre-processing, and conversion of all information and metadata into PALM Input Data Standard (PIDS). This paper presents and describes a free and open-source tool, GEO4PALM, to help users generate the PALM static input with a simple and standardized process. GEO4PALM is compatible with geospatial data obtained from any source provided that the data sets comply with common geo-information formats. Users can either provide existing geospatial data sets or use the embedded data interfaces to download geo-information data from free online sources for any global geographic area of interest. All online data sets incorporated in GEO4PALM are globally available with several data sets having the finest resolution of 1 m. Two application examples are presented to demonstrate successful PALM simulations driven by geospatial input generated by GEO4PALM using different geospatial data sources for Berlin, Germany and Christchurch, New Zealand. GEO4PALM provides an easy and efficient way for PALM users to configure and conduct PALM simulations for applications and investigations such as urban heat island effects, air pollution dispersion, renewable energy resourcing, and weather-related hazard forecasting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A set of Python-based tools, WRF4PALM, has been developed for offline nesting of the PALM model system 6.0 into the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) modelling system. Time-dependent boundary conditions of the atmosphere are critical for accurate representation of microscale meteorological dynamics in high-resolution real-data simulations. WRF4PALM generates initial and boundary conditions from WRF outputs to provide time-varying meteorological forcing for PALM. The WRF model has been used across the atmospheric science community for a broad range of multidisciplinary applications. The PALM model system 6.0 is a turbulence-resolving large-eddy simulation model with an additional Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) mode for atmospheric and oceanic boundary layer studies at microscale. Currently PALM has the capability to ingest output from the regional scale Consortium for Small-scale Modelling (COSMO) atmospheric prediction model. However, COSMO is not an open source model and requires a licence agreement for operational use or academic research (http://www.cosmo-model.org/ , last access: 23 April 2021). This paper describes and validates the new free and open-source WRF4PALM tools (available at https://github.com/dongqi-DQ/WRF4PALM , last access: 23 April 2021). Two case studies using WRF4PALM are presented for Christchurch, New Zealand, which demonstrate successful PALM simulations driven by meteorological forcing from WRF outputs. The WRF4PALM tools presented here can potentially be used for micro- and mesoscale studies worldwide, for example in boundary layer studies, air pollution dispersion modelling, wildfire emissions and spread, urban weather forecasting, and agricultural meteorology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to outline the impact Coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 has had on health research in New Zealand. We used data from the University of Otago, Christchurch, a research intensive satellite campus of the University of Otago with a large number of research only grant funded staff to highlight challenges and opportunities. All non-COVID-19 related laboratory and clinical research was suspended under New Zealand COVID-19 alert level 4 and the majority under level 3. To date, researchers predict that 95% of research projects have been affected. During the periods of lockdown research salaries continued to be paid from grants resulting in a 'salary gap' to support research staff (both academic and technical). Most funders have indicated there will be no additional funding to support researchers affected by the delays. Early and mid-career researchers have been particularly affected and are currently unable to travel for post-doctoral training and networking. A more robust career structure with adequate funding, particularly for early and mid-career researchers is required to ensure that New Zealand has a stable research work force to address the next health crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a way of mitigating adverse environmental effects, sustainable construction practices require the cooperation of all stakeholders. Assessing people's underlying ecological worldviews could be a first step in changing behaviours towards more sustainable approaches. Affecting behavioural change requires a better understanding of people's beliefs and values as drivers in decision-making processes. The New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) scale is a method for measuring people's ecological worldviews, and those who demonstrate a pro-ecological score on it will also tend to support environmental actions. This can, in turn, lead to increased uptake of environmentally conscious building construction practices. This paper reports on the findings of research aimed at understanding the levels of support New Zealanders hold for the environment. The study consulted 662 residents in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, most of whom were building industry stakeholders, using an international 6-item NEP rating scale. Each of these three cities faces distinct environmental challenges in the near future, yet the results suggest that their residents have relatively consistent pro-ecological attitudes. The results also revealed that these respondents have more positive outlooks when compared with other similar studies. However, when comparing the sample according to demographic characteristics such as education level, occupation and whether or not they owned a home, significant differences emerged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Geotechnical Journal is the property of Canadian Science Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper examines the global provenance of Australian Islamophobia in the light of the Christchurch massacre perpetrated by a white-supremacist Australian. Anti-Muslim racism in Australia came with British imperialism in the nineteenth century. Contemporary Islamophobia in Australia operates as part of a successor empire, the United States-led 'Empire of Capital'. Anti-Muslim stories, rumours, campaigns and prejudices are launched from Australia into global circulation. For example, the spate of group sexual assaults in Sydney over 2000-2001 were internationally reported as 'ethnic gang rapes'. The handful of Australian recruits to, and supporters of, IS, is recounted in the dominant narrative as part of a story propagated in both the United Kingdom and Australia about Islamist terrorism, along with policy responses ostensibly aimed at countering violent extremism and targeting Muslims for surveillance and intervening to effect approved forms of 'integration'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In February 2017, a wildfire occurred in the Port Hills on the southern boundary of Christchurch city in New Zealand. It was one of the country's most severe fires of the last decade in terms of the scale of evacuation, infrastructure damage, and property loss. On the third day of the fire, fire behavior was unexpectedly active, and two rapid downhill fire-spread events took place, creating a dangerous situation for firefighters. The aim of this paper is to explore the atmospheric processes that influenced the fire behavior at a range of meteorological scales, from the synoptic to meso- and microscales. Meteorological and fire data analyzed include observed data together with model simulations of weather conditions at different scales: 1) the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) numerical weather prediction model, which provided the regional context of the fire; and 2) the California Meteorological (CALMET) diagnostic model, which was used to undertake a higher-resolution investigation of atmospheric processes near the fire. Results indicate that the fire was not strongly seasonally influenced. Instead, it appears the fire conditions were the effect of a specific combination of synoptic weather conditions and local meteorological conditions. The first rapid downhill fire-spread event was the result of airflow interaction with the intricate terrain of the Port Hills under stable nocturnal conditions. The second downhill fire-spread event bears similarities to vorticity-driven lateral spread, because the downhill component of the spread happened on a broad fire flank perpendicular to the surface wind direction and characteristic pyrocumulus convection occurred. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new framework for the seismic loss prediction of residential buildings in Christchurch, New Zealand. It employs data science techniques, geospatial tools, and machine learning (ML) trained on insurance claims data from the Earthquake Commission (EQC) collected following the 2010-2011 Canterbury Earthquake Sequence (CES). The seismic loss prediction obtained from the ML model is shown to outperform the output from existing risk analysis tools for New Zealand for each of the main earthquakes of the CES. In addition to the prediction capabilities, the ML model delivered useful insights into the most important features contributing to losses during the CES. ML correctly highlighted that liquefaction significantly influenced buildings losses for the 22 February 2011 earthquake. The results are consistent with observations, engineering knowledge, and previous studies, confirming the potential of data science and ML in the analysis of insurance claims data and the development of seismic loss prediction models using empirical loss data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genetic variants in the apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene affect the onset and progression of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The APOE Christchurch (APOE Ch) variant has been identified as the most prominent candidate for preventing the onset and progression of AD. In this study, we generated isogenic APOE3Ch/3Ch human-induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from APOE3/3 healthy control female iPSCs and induced them into astrocytes. RNA expression analysis revealed the inherent resilience of APOE3Ch/3Ch astrocytes to induce a reactive state in response to inflammatory cytokines. Moreover, cytokine treatment changed astrocytic morphology with more complexity in APOE3/3 astrocytes, but not in APOE3Ch/3Ch astrocytes, indicating resilience of the rare variant to a reactive state. Interestingly, we observed robust morphological alterations containing more intricate processes when cocultured with iPSC-derived cortical neurons, in which APOE3Ch/3Ch astrocytes reduced complexity compared with APOE3/3 astrocytes. To assess the impacts of tau propagation effects, we next developed a sophisticated and sensitive assay utilizing cortical neurons derived from human iPSCs, previously generated from donors of both sexes. We showed that APOE3Ch/3Ch astrocytes effectively mitigated tau propagation within iPSC-derived neurons. This study provides important experimental evidence of the characteristic functions exhibited by APOE3Ch/3Ch astrocytes, thereby offering valuable insights for the advancement of novel clinical interventions in AD research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Due to the remarkable growth in online retail sales in New Zealand, a large number of parcels are needed to be delivered to consumers' doorsteps. Home deliveries in major New Zealand cities (e.g., Christchurch) typically occur between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. on weekdays, when many home delivery attempts fail. This leads to adverse effects, such as vehicular traffic in residential areas and greater air pollution per parcel delivered. However, home deliveries outside of typical business hours (i.e., before 9 a.m. and after 5 p.m.) might be worthwhile to help subside the above issues. Therefore, this study investigated consumers' preferences for receiving home deliveries during various times, such as early morning, morning, afternoon, late afternoon, and evening. Methods: The data used in this study were obtained via an online survey of 355 residents of Christchurch city. Non-parametric tests, namely the Friedman test, Wilcoxon signed-rank test, and ordinal logistic regression, were carried out to examine consumer preferences for the above time slots. Results: The results showed that consumers preferred the late afternoon (3 p.m. to 6 p.m.) time slot the most for receiving home deliveries. Conclusion: It appeared that the off-peak delivery option is less likely to draw the desired consumer patronage and is thus less likely to assist in lowering the number of unsuccessful home deliveries, the transportation costs incurred by service providers, traffic congestion, and pollution in urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Acta Scientiarum Polonorum. Formatio Circumiectus is the property of Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Rolniczego im. Hugona Kollataja w Krakowie and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Rarely does a city find the opportunity to comprehensively reinvent itself. Following a spate of devastating earthquakes in 2010-11, the city of Christchurch in New Zealand has been presented with just that. With the city thrown into physical and emotional turmoil, the rebuild has been slow to gain traction. Indeed, many people still live in houses that remain unrepaired. Seeing the enormous opportunity, the local council quickly launched into a process of planning the shape of the new city. International experts were consulted, as were local residents and others. The Share an Idea campaign, an intensive public consultation, generated more than 100,000 ideas for how the city could be rebuilt better and these became the basis for the aspirational draft city plan. This plan was then taken by the government minister through a top-down refinement to create the Recovery Plan or Blueprint. The paper discusses key attributes of the Blueprint along with the context for its development and implementation over time. The slow speed with which the recovery has unfolded in the central area can be attributed to lack of certainty for investors, many of whom have chosen to take their funds elsewhere, a receptive environment in surrounding suburbs that enabled business activity to continue and expand, difficulties with insurance settlements and continued residential development around the fringes of the city. The paper concludes with comments about leadership, emphasizing the importance that accurate and consistent communication with all parties plays in a successful recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of spatial variability on the liquefaction prediction and liquefaction-induced ground failure of a soil profile with thinly interbedded layer of sand and clay was examined using simplified procedures and fully coupled two-dimensional (2D) nonlinear dynamic analysis (NDA). The Palinurus Road site in Christchurch, New Zealand, subjected to the 2010 Darfield and 2011 Christchurch events, was selected for the analyses. The liquefaction vulnerability of the site was estimated using one-dimensional (1D) liquefaction vulnerability indices (LVIs), and the results were compared with the results of NDAs and field observations. Spatially correlated random fields conditioned on corrected cone penetration tests (CPTs) were generated based on sand-like and claylike portions of the interbedded soil profile. CPT data were corrected for the thin-layer and transition zone effects. The generated random fields were assigned to the interbedded layer of the stochastic model to examine the effect of spatial variability on the system dynamic response, cross-interaction between layers, and liquefaction-induced diffusion during the evolution of liquefaction and postliquefaction. The potential of sediment ejecta manifestation using the artesian flow potential (AFP) and ejecta potential index (EPI) also was investigated for the stochastic models and compared with those of deterministic models. This study demonstrates the value of advanced 2D NDA modeling with realistic soil spatial variability for understanding inconsistent ejecta predictions from simplified tools. The approach can guide future refinements to assessment procedures and provide insights into key factors controlling manifestation in complex stratified sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A set of Python-based tools, WRF4PALM, has been developed for offline-nesting of the PALM model system 6.0 into the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) modelling system. Time-dependent boundary conditions of the atmosphere are critical for accurate representation of microscale meteorological dynamics in high resolution real-data simulations. WRF4PALM generates initial and boundary conditions from WRF outputs to provide time-varying meteorological forcing for PALM. The WRF model has been used across the atmospheric science community for a broad range of multidisciplinary applications. The PALM model system 6.0 is a turbulence-resolving large-eddy simulation model with an additional Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) mode for atmospheric and oceanic boundary layer studies at microscale (Maronga et al., 2020). Currently PALM has the capability to ingest output from the regional scale Consortium for Small-scale Modelling (COSMO) atmospheric prediction model. However, COSMO is not an open source model which requires a licence agreement for operational use or academic research (http://www.cosmo-model.org/). This paper describes and validates the new free and open-source WRF4PALM tools (available on https://github.com/dongqi-DQ/WRF4PALM). Two case studies using WRF4PALM are presented for Christchurch, New Zealand, which demonstrate successful PALM simulations driven by meteorological forcing from WRF outputs. The WRF4PALM tools presented here can potentially be used for micro- and mesoscale studies worldwide, for example in boundary layer studies, air pollution dispersion modelling, wildfire emissions and spread, urban weather forecasting, and agricultural meteorology [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic spread globally from its outbreak in China in early 2020, negatively affecting economies and industries on a global scale. In line with historic crises and shock events including the 2002-04 SARS outbreak, the 2011 Christchurch earthquake and 2017 Hurricane Irma, COVID-19 has significantly impacted global economic conditions, causing significant economic downturns, company and industry failures, and increased unemployment. To understand how conditions created by the pandemic to date compare to the aforementioned shock events, we conducted a thorough literature review focusing on the presentation of panic buying and herd mentality behaviours, changes to discretionary consumer spending as defined by Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, and the impact of global media on these behaviours. The methodology utilised to analyse panic buying, herd mentality and altered patterns of consumer discretionary spending (according to Maslow's theory) involved an analysis of consumer spending data, largely focused on Australian and American markets. Here, we analysed the volume and timing of consumer spending patterns; the volumes of spending on specific, highly-demanded consumer goods during the investigative period; and the distribution of spending on luxury and non-durable goods to identify the occurrence of these consumer behaviours. Moreover, to identify the presence of the media in influencing consumer behaviour we focused on web traffic to media sites, alongside keyword and phrase data mining. We conclude that, to date, consumer behaviour during the COVID-19 crisis appears to align with behaviours exhibited during historic shock events. We hope to contribute to the body of research on the early months of this pandemic before longer-term studies are available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coupled surface–atmosphere high-resolution mesoscale simulations were carried out to understand meteorological processes involved in the radiation fog life cycle in a city surrounded by complex terrain. The controls of mesoscale meteorology and microscale soil moisture heterogeneity on fog were investigated using case studies for the city of Ōtautahi / Christchurch, New Zealand. Numerical model simulations from the synoptic to microscale were carried out using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model and the Parallelised Large-Eddy Simulation Model (PALM). Heterogeneous soil moisture, land use, and topography were included. The spatial heterogeneity of soil moisture was derived using Landsat 8 satellite imagery and ground-based meteorological observations. Nine semi-idealised simulations were carried out under identical meteorological conditions. One contained homogeneous soil moisture of about 0.31 m3m-3 , with two other simulations of halved and doubled soil moisture to demonstrate the range of soil moisture impact. Another contained heterogeneous soil moisture derived from Landsat 8 imagery. For the other five simulations, the soil moisture heterogeneity magnitudes were amplified following the observed spatial distribution to aid our understanding of the impact of soil moisture heterogeneity. Analysis using pseudo-process diagrams and accumulated latent heat flux shows significant spatial heterogeneity of processes involved in the simulated fog. Our results showed that soil moisture heterogeneity did not significantly change the general spatial structure of near-surface fog occurrence, even when the heterogeneity signal was amplified and/or when the soil moisture was halved and doubled. However, compared to homogeneous soil moisture, spatial heterogeneity in soil moisture can lead to changes in fog duration. These changes can be more than 50 min , although they are not directly correlated with spatial variations in soil moisture. The simulations showed that the mesoscale (10 to 200 km) meteorology controls the location of fog occurrence, while soil moisture heterogeneity alters fog duration at the microscale on the order of 100 m to 1 km. Our results highlight the importance of including soil moisture heterogeneity for accurate spatiotemporal fog forecasting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil liquefaction often occurs as a secondary hazard during earthquakes and can lead to significant structural and infrastructure damage. Liquefaction is most often documented through field reconnaissance and recorded as point locations. Complete liquefaction inventories across the impacted area are rare but valuable for developing empirical liquefaction prediction models. Remote sensing analysis can be used to rapidly produce the full spatial extent of liquefaction ejecta after an event to inform and supplement field investigations. Visually labeling liquefaction ejecta from remotely sensed imagery is time-consuming and prone to human error and inconsistency. This study uses a partially labeled liquefaction inventory created from visual annotations by experts and proposes a pixel-based approach to detecting unlabeled liquefaction using advanced machine learning and image processing techniques, and to generating an augmented inventory of liquefaction ejecta with high spatial completeness. The proposed methodology is applied to aerial imagery taken from the 2011 Christchurch earthquake and considers the available partial liquefaction labels as high-certainty liquefaction features. This study consists of two specific comparative analyses. (1) To tackle the limited availability of labeled data and their spatial incompleteness, a semi-supervised self-training classification via Linear Discriminant Analysis is presented, and the performance of the semi-supervised learning approach is compared with supervised learning classification. (2) A post-event aerial image with RGB (red-green-blue) channels is used to extract color transformation bands, statistical indices, texture components, and dimensionality reduction outputs, and performances of the classification model with different combinations of selected features from these four groups are compared. Building footprints are also used as the only non-imagery geospatial information to improve classification accuracy by masking out building roofs from the classification process. To prepare the multi-class labeled data, regions of interest (ROIs) were drawn to collect samples of seven land cover and land use classes. The labeled samples of liquefaction were also clustered into two groups (dark and light) using the Fuzzy C-Means clustering algorithm to split the liquefaction pixels into two classes. A comparison of the generated maps with fully and manually labeled liquefaction data showed that the proposed semi-supervised method performs best when selected high-ranked features of the two groups of statistical indices (gradient weight and sum of the band squares) and dimensionality reduction outputs (first and second principal components) are used. It also outperforms supervised learning and can better augment the liquefaction labels across the image in terms of spatial completeness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of seismically low-damage structures was introduced by researchers to decrease the likelihood of irreparable damage as well improving the response of the structure. The need to shift from conventional ductile design to a less ductility (damage) oriented design was emphasised by different researchers in New Zealand and across the world back in the 1990s and 2000s. Damage Avoidance Design (DAD) philosophy introduced in the early 2000s took the idea of low-damage design to another level. Self-centring is the main aspect of a DAD designed. However, the need to change the seismic design philosophy was mostly felt by the community and decisions makers after the considerable financial and social loss resulted from the 2011 Christchurch earthquake. Several damage-avoidance concepts and solutions have been introduced and developed in the past. However, most of these solutions haven't been widely implemented in practice because of the complexity and extra construction costs. This research aims to overcome this gap by introducing a new solution that can be easily adopted by the construction industry without imposing extra complexity and construction costs. This paper presents the development of a new innovative seismic device named as Self-Centring Structural Connector (SSC) as a new self-centring friction damping device. The main purpose of this device is to provide a cost-efficient yet flexible solution to achieve a range of efficient DAD structures in practice. In this paper, the principles of the force-deflection relationship for the SSC is analytically developed and validated through experimental investigation. In addition, the influence of various parameters affecting joint performance are studied through an analytical model. Finally, some possible applications of this device are introduced. As per the findings based on the analytical modelling and experimental investigation, it can be observed that the joint performs well to achieve the design and construction objectives making it a suitable solution for DAD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Machine learning algorithms are used successfully in this paper to forecast reliably upcoming short-term high concentration episodes, or peaks (<60-min) of fine particulate air pollution (PM 2.5) 1 h in advance. Results are from a network around Christchurch, New Zealand, with an objective to forecast the occurrence of short-term peaks using a gradient boosted machine with a binary classifier as the response (1 = peak, 0 = no peak). Results are successful, with 80–90% accurate forecasting of whether a peak in PM 2.5 would occur within the next 60-min period. Elevated and variable nitrogen monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and lower temperatures and wind gusts are found to be important precursors to the occurrence of PM 2.5 peaks. The use of meteorological data from a network of personal weather stations across the monitored area and from the measurement instruments was able to identify local-scale peak differences in the network. Boosted models using hourly-averaged and daily-averaged peaks as the response are developed separately to showcase differences in precursors between short-term and long-term peaks, with recent wind gusts and nitrogen oxides linked to hourly-averaged peaks and aloft air temperatures and atmospheric pressure linked to daily-averaged peaks. Results could prove useful in exposure mitigation strategies (e.g. as a short-term warning system). • High short-term (<60 min) PM2.5 concentrations were forecast, 1 h in advance. • Significant precursors were nitrogen monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, temperature and wind. • Personal weather stations helped identify local-scale processes affecting PM2.5 • Short-term results were different to daily-averaged forecasts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remote sensing images are important data sources for land cover mapping. As one of the most important artificial features in remote sensing images, buildings play a critical role in many applications, such as population estimation and urban planning. Classifying buildings quickly and accurately ensures the reliability of the above applications. It is known that the classification accuracy of buildings (usually indicated by a comprehensive index called F1) is greatly affected by image quality. However, how image quality affects building classification accuracy is still unclear. In this study, Boltzmann entropy (an index considering both compositional and configurational information, simply called BE) is employed to describe image quality, and the potential relationships between BE and F1 are explored based on images from two open-source building datasets (i.e., the WHU and Inria datasets) in three cities (i.e., Christchurch, Chicago and Austin). Experimental results show that (1) F1 fluctuates greatly in images where building proportions are small (especially in images with building proportions smaller than 1%) and (2) BE has a negative relationship with F1 (i.e., when BE becomes larger, F1 tends to become smaller). The negative relationships are confirmed using Spearman correlation coefficients (SCCs) and various confidence intervals via bootstrapping (i.e., a nonparametric statistical method). Such discoveries are helpful in deepening our understanding of how image quality affects building classification accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A characteristic feature of lightweight constructions is their low thermal mass which causes high internal temperature fluctuations that require high heating and cooling demand throughout the year. Phase change materials (PCMs) are effective in providing thermal inertia to low-thermal-mass buildings. This paper aims to analyse the thermal behaviour of two proposed lightweight buildings designed for homeless people and to investigate the potential benefit achievable through the use of different types of PCM in the temperate climatic conditions of Christchurch, New Zealand. For this purpose, over 300 numerical simulations were conducted using DesignBuilder® simulation software. The bulk of the simulations were carried out under the assumption that the whole opaque building envelope is equipped with PCM. The results showed significant energy saving and comfort enhancement through the application of PCMs. The integration of PCM in single-structure components led to substantial energy savings between 19% and 27% annually. However, occupant behaviour in terms of ventilation habits, occupancy of zones, etc. remains one of the biggest challenges in any simulation work due to insufficient data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The applicability of four existing empirical cone penetration test to shear wave velocity (CPT- V s) correlations to Holocene soils in the Christchurch region of New Zealand was assessed using over 1400 CPT- V s data pairs. While most existing correlations used seismic CPT (sCPT) or other downhole-based methods in their development, this paper uses a database based on the direct push crosshole (DPCH) method. This database allowed for an assessment of the influence of the V s measurement method on correlation performance, with sCPT and downhole methods based on vertically propagating, horizontally polarized shear waves, compared to the horizontally propagating, vertically polarized shear waves used for the DPCH. Across the CPT- V s correlations considered, different ranges of over- or under-predicted V s were presented. In general, the correlations tend to underestimate the measurements for low cone tip resistance and sleeve friction values, while at higher values, they provide more reasonable estimates or slight overestimates. The correlation developed based on a sCPT database from Christchurch significantly underestimates V s at depths less than 4 m, likely due to a combination of factors including issues with the assumed wave propagation path used in sCPT processing, variability in soil characteristics within mapped geologic units and extrapolation of the correlation beyond the original database characteristics. Underestimation at greater depths was generally within 10% which likely reflects the influence of soil anisotropy on the measured V s from each method. The performance of these correlations demonstrates that investigation methods and the characteristics of the databases used in correlation development should be considered when they are applied in practice. • An assessment of CPT- V s correlations using a DPCH database in Holocene soils. • Soil types and database characteristics influence the correlation applicability. • Differences in seismic methods strongly influence the correlation performance. • Caution is recommended when using V s from correlations in engineering applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, earthquake-induced economic loss of buildings with the eccentrically braced frame as the lateral load resisting system is investigated. Economic loss in this paper includes collapse loss, demolition loss, and structural and nonstructural repair loss. A simplified probabilistic story-based loss estimation procedure is employed for this purpose. A thorough study is conducted on the verification of shear link response with experimental results as shear link is the main source of nonlinearity in eccentrically braced frames. Nonlinear response history analyses are conducted on four, eight and sixteen story prototype models and engineering demand parameters such as story drift ratio, peak floor acceleration, shear link rotation, and residual story drift ratios are extracted for each story in all analyses. The effect of shear tab connection in the gravity framing and various design methods, equivalent lateral force and response spectrum analysis, are also investigated on the economic loss. The results show that the buildings with eccentrically braced frames as the lateral resisting system have a superior performance during earthquakes, especially when the effect of gravity framing is included. This is in confirmation with the observations after the 2010/2011 Christchurch earthquake. • A story-based loss estimation methodology is employed for loss assessment of buildings with eccentrically braced frames. • Economic loss is divided into collapse loss, demolition loss, and structural and nonstructural repair loss. • 12 archetypes buildings designed with ELF and RSA methods are modeled in two-dimensions in OpenSees. • Shear links are modeled by a zero-length hinge with modified IMK model. • EBFs have a reliable performance during earthquakes especially considering the effect of gravity frames. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hart, D.E.; Pitman, S.J., and Byun, D.-S., 2020. Earthquakes, coasts and climate change? Multi-hazard opportunities, challenges and approaches for coastal cities. In: Malvárez, G. and Navas, F. (eds.), Global Coastal Issues of 2020. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 95, pp. 819–823. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Aotearoa New Zealand (ANZ) experienced several major earthquake disruptions to coastal environments between 2010 and 2016, including to the natural and built environment components of coastal cities and rural centers. Key places affected included Ōtautahi Christchurch city and the town of Kaikōura. Lessons learned about coastal environment/ earthquake interactions are useful in transforming our approach to adapting to climate change in coastal settlements. This paper reviews highlights of the temporary and lasting effects of the recent ANZ 'coastal quake' events in sand beach, mixed sand and gravel beach, estuary, delta and lagoon settings. Key topics include sediment budgets and beach states, estuary stability, ecosystem translation and squeeze, liquefaction, and effects of relative sea level change. Findings include the potential robustness of open coast beach systems to both uplift and subsidence, the relative sensitivity of estuarine and delta city hydraulics and ecosystem resilience once built environment boundaries and interactions are considered, and the potential for coastal hazard interactions and cascades with both negative and positive consequences. Analysis of these earthquake events can be used, not only to 'build back better', but also to underpin a shift in approaches to coastal hazards and climate change challenges, via a multi-hazards perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Earthquakes can influence flood hazards by altering the flux, volumes, and distributions of surface and/or subsurface waters and causing physical changes to natural and engineered environments (e.g., elevation, topographic relief, permeability) that affect surface and subsurface hydrologic regimes. This paper analyzes how earthquakes increased flood hazards in Christchurch, New Zealand, using empirical observations and seismological data. Between 4 September 2010 and 4 December 2017, this region hosted one moment magnitude (Mw) 7.1 earthquake, 3 earthquakes with Mw ≥ 6, and 31 earthquakes with local magnitude (ML) ≥ 5. Flooding related to liquefaction-induced groundwater pore-water fluid pressure perturbations and groundwater expulsion occurred in at least six earthquakes. Flooding related to shaking-induced ground deformations (e.g., subsidence) occurred in at least four earthquakes. Flooding related to tectonic deformations of the land surface (fault surface rupture and/or folding) occurred in at least two earthquakes. At least eight earthquakes caused damage to surface (e.g., buildings, bridges, roads) and subsurface (e.g., pipelines) infrastructure in areas of liquefaction and/or flooding. Severe liquefaction and associated groundwater-expulsion flooding in vulnerable sediments occurred at peak ground accelerations as low as 0.15 to 0.18 g (proportion of gravity). Expected return times of liquefaction-induced flooding in vulnerable sediments were estimated to be 100 to 500 years using the Christchurch seismic hazard curve, which is consistent with emerging evidence from paleo-liquefaction studies. Liquefaction-induced subsidence of 100 to 250 mm was estimated for 100-year peak ground acceleration return periods in parts of Christchurch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unexpected failure modes were observed in RC walls in the 2010 Chile and 2011 New Zealand earthquakes. A peculiar failure mode, not previously reported in the structural engineering literature, was the brittle collapse of one of the structural walls of the 28-story Grand Chancellor Hotel in Christchurch, New Zealand. As one of the first steps toward the understanding of this failure mode, three rectangular RC walls were tested under bidirectional quasi-static cyclic loading. The only parameter varied among the three specimens was the structural detailing associated to various level of ductility design of the wall cross section. It was found that whereas the wall with nominal ductility section detailing (μ=1.25) experienced an out-of-plane shear-axial failure, those with higher ductility section detailing (1.25<μ<3 and μ>3) performed reasonably well. However, a relatively abrupt axial crushing failure was observed in the ductile walls at higher drift levels that needs further investigation. The bidirectional loading, rarely adopted in experimental tests or in numerical simulation due to its inherent complexity, was found to be one of the key factors in the development of out-of-plane shear-axial failure. Moreover, it was observed that walls with 0.3Agfc′ axial load, which is the maximum limit of the current New Zealand standard for concrete structures, and designed according to nominal ductile detailing might be prone to out-of-plane shear-axial failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arsenic contamination in groundwater affects tens of millions of people worldwide and is regarded as a major groundwater issue in New Zealand. This study was conducted to evaluate the connection between elevated groundwater arsenic concentrations and inferred redox state of aquifers across the Canterbury region. In total, 2,428 samples from 1,172 wells were analysed for arsenic concentrations, and groundwater redox state was inferred using geochemical indicators for each well. Most groundwater (~88% of wells; N = 1,031) had arsenic concentrations below laboratory detection limits, ~9.5% (N = 111 wells) had detectable arsenic concentrations below the New Zealand drinking-water Maximum Acceptable Value of 0.01 mg/L, and ~2.6% (N = 30 wells) had concentrations exceeding 0.01 mg/L. Arsenic concentrations were strongly associated with reducing groundwater; 47 (~43%) of 109 wells with reducing groundwater had detectable concentrations of arsenic, including 19 wells (~17%) with arsenic greater than 0.01 mg/L. Conversely, 840 wells had water classified as oxic, and only one of those wells exceeded the 0.01 mg/L Maximum Acceptable Value for arsenic in drinking-water. Arsenic concentrations were higher in coastal areas north of Christchurch, where confined aquifers are overlain and underlain by layers of peat and low-permeability sediment. Biogeochemical processes driving release are the same as those that cause arsenic contamination in groundwater elsewhere in the world. However, differences in regional geology and a relatively lesser availability of labile organic carbon appear to constrain the concentrations and spatial prevalence of groundwater arsenic in Canterbury compared to other arsenic-impacted regions (e.g., Southeast Asia). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the political work of forgiveness in a secular liberal West by examining the aftermath of two white supremacist violent events: the Charleston church attack in 2015 and the Christchurch mosque attacks in 2019. The article examines how the exaltation of forgiveness over anger after such events is symptomatic of what David Theo Goldberg (2015) calls the "postracial" turn which denies the structural harm of racism and privileges social unity at a time when racism bears its most violent face. What can be ascertained in centring forgiveness, and therefore the unifying figure of the victim of white supremacist violence, is how the postracial conceals the persistence of race as the secular investment and regulation in the articulation of religion in public life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A cone penetration test (CPT)-based procedure to estimate liquefaction-induced ejecta severity is developed. The liquefaction ejecta demand parameter (LD) captures the amount of upward seepage pressure that can produce artesian flow due to elevated excess hydraulic head, and the crust layer resistance parameter (CR) captures the strength and thickness of the nonliquefiable crust layer. The procedure is examined using 176 well-documented field case histories consisting of thick, clean sand, and stratified silty soil sites in Christchurch. LD tends to increase systematically as ejecta severity increases at the thick, clean sand sites, and low LD values are estimated at stratified soil sites that did not produce ejecta, which resolves the apparent overestimation by other liquefaction indices at stratified soil sites. CR improves the reliability of the procedure by differentiating the performance of sites with and without a competent crust layer overlying a thick liquefiable layer with a high LD value. The proposed LD–CR liquefaction ejecta severity chart separates cases with severe or extreme ejecta, which have high LD and low CR values, from cases with minor or no ejecta, which have low LD and high CR values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In engineering practice, simplified procedure based on cone penetration test (CPT) results is widely used for evaluating soil liquefaction potential. Since the CPT-based simplified procedure was developed from observations during past earthquakes, it is semi-empirical and involves significant uncertainty (e.g., model uncertainty). In addition, due to time, budget and access constraints, CPTs are often sparsely conducted at a specific site, leading to a significant uncertainty associated with interpolation of the limited CPT soundings, particularly along horizontal direction. Furthermore, it is well-recognized that spatial variability of soil properties has a remarkable effect on soil liquefaction. All these variability and uncertainties greatly affect the seismic liquefaction assessment results, particularly spatial distribution of liquefiable soils in a site, and liquefaction-induced damage. This underscores a question of how to properly incorporate these variability and uncertainties in liquefaction assessment, e.g., how to characterize spatial distribution of soil liquefaction potential in a site with quantitative consideration of the abovementioned variability and uncertainty. To address this issue, this paper develops a novel probabilistic method for characterizing spatial distribution of soil liquefaction potential through factor of safety, FS against liquefaction in a vertical cross-section using Bayesian compressive sampling and Monte Carlo simulation. Using the proposed method, many random field samples of FS cross-section are obtained directly from limited CPT measurements. The proposed method is illustrated using both a simulated data example and a set of real CPT data from Christchurch, New Zealand. It is shown that the proposed method performs well and provides reasonable liquefaction assessment results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Individuals with mood disorders frequently experience cognitive impairment, which impacts on the long-term trajectory of the disorders, including being associated with persisting difficulties in occupational and psychosocial functioning, residual mood symptoms, and relapse. Current first-line treatments for mood disorders do little to improve cognitive function. Targeting cognition in clinical research is thus considered a priority. This protocol outlines a prospectively-registered randomised controlled trial (RCT) which examines the impact of adding group-based Cognitive Remediation (CR) to Interpersonal and Social Rhythm Therapy (IPSRT-CR) for individuals with mood disorders. Methods: This is a pragmatic, two-arm, single-blinded RCT comparing IPSRT-CR with IPSRT alone for adults (n = 100) with mood disorders (Major Depressive Disorder or Bipolar Disorder) with subjective cognitive difficulties, on discharge from Specialist Mental Health Services in Christchurch, New Zealand. Both treatment arms will receive a 12-month course of individual IPSRT (full dose = 24 sessions). At 6 months, randomisation to receive, or not, an 8-week group-based CR programme (Action-based Cognitive Remediation – New Zealand) will occur. The primary outcome will be change in Global Cognition between 6 and 12 months (treatment-end) in IPSRT-CR versus IPSRT alone. Secondary outcomes will be change in cognitive, functional, and mood outcomes at 6, 12, 18, and 24 months from baseline and exploratory outcomes include change in quality of life, medication adherence, rumination, and inflammatory markers between treatment arms. Outcome analyses will use an intention-to-treat approach. Sub-group analyses will assess the impact of baseline features on CR treatment response. Participants' experiences of their mood disorder, including treatment, will be examined using qualitative analysis. Discussion: This will be the first RCT to combine group-based CR with an evidence-based psychotherapy for adults with mood disorders. The trial may provide valuable information regarding how we can help promote long-term recovery from mood disorders. Many issues have been considered in developing this protocol, including: recruitment of the spectrum of mood disorders, screening for cognitive impairment, dose and timing of the CR intervention, choice of comparator treatment, and choice of outcome measures. Trial registration: Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, ACTRN12619001080112. Registered on 6 August 2019. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Christchurch mosque shootings on March 15th, 2019 was the deadliest incident of mass violence in New Zealand for over a century. The present study investigated the psychological impact of these terrorist attacks targeting a specific minority community on the psychological functioning of the wider New Zealand population by examining changes in terrorism anxiety, sense of community, psychological distress, and wellbeing. Data from the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Survey (N = 47,951; age range 18–99 years, M = 48.59, SD = 13.86; 62% female) collected across a year, including approximately 6 months following the terrorist attack, was used. Regression discontinuity analyses found a statistically significant increase in terrorism anxiety and sense of community following the attacks, yet counterintuitively, no significant change in psychological distress or wellbeing. These findings provide unique insight into the psychological implications of politically motivated violence for the wider population when terrorism is directed toward a specific minority group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Canterbury Earthquake Sequence produced a spatial pattern of liquefaction-induced surface ejecta at an open field along Palinurus Road in Christchurch, New Zealand, that would not be expected based on simplified liquefaction evaluation procedures. Half the site discharged sand boils and the other half did not. Two-dimensional fully-coupled nonlinear dynamic analyses (NDAs) were performed to examine why simplified one-dimensional liquefaction vulnerability indices (LVIs) overestimated liquefaction manifestations at this site for the 2010 Darfield and 2011 Christchurch earthquakes and did not distinguish between areas with and without surface ejecta. The NDAs use the PM4Sand and PM4Silt constitutive models for sand-like and clay-like portions of the subsurface, respectively, within the Fast Lagrangian Analysis of Continua (FLAC) finite-difference program. Material parameters are obtained from in situ geophysical and cone penetration test (CPT) data. A sensitivity study is performed to assess the influence of (1) representative soil property selections and the use of a CPT inverse filtering procedure to correct for thin-layer and transition zone effects, (2) ground motions developed by two distinct methods (i.e., recordings and physics-based simulations), and (3) model assumptions affecting diffusion during reconsolidation. Ground deformations and flow patterns during and after ground shaking are examined. The results provide insights on how stratigraphic details and other factors can affect the system response and dictate the degree and extent of liquefaction surface manifestations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MAPM (Mapping Air Pollution eMissions) is a project whose goal is to develop a method to infer airborne particulate matter (PM) emissions maps from in situ PM concentration measurements. In support of MAPM, a winter field campaign was conducted in New Zealand in 2019 (June to September) to obtain the measurements required to test and validate the MAPM methodology. Two different types of instruments measuring PM were deployed: ES-642 remote dust monitors (17 instruments) and Outdoor Dust Information Nodes (ODINs; 50 instruments). The measurement campaign was bracketed by two intercomparisons where all instruments were co-located, with a permanently installed tapered element oscillating membrane (TEOM) instrument, to determine any instrument biases. Changes in biases between the pre- and post-campaign intercomparisons were used to determine instrument drift over the campaign period. Once deployed, each ES-642 was co-located with an ODIN. In addition to the PM measurements, meteorological variables (temperature, pressure, wind speed, and wind direction) were measured at three automatic weather station (AWS) sites established as part of the campaign, with additional data being sourced from 27 further AWSs operated by other agencies. Vertical profile measurements were made with 12 radiosondes during two 24 h periods and complimented measurements made with a mini micropulse lidar and ceilometer. Here we present the data collected during the campaign and discuss the correction of the measurements made by various PM instruments. We find that when compared to measurements made with a simple linear correction, a correction based on environmental conditions improves the quality of measurements retrieved from ODINs but results in over-fitting and increases the uncertainties when applied to the more sophisticated ES-642 instruments. We also compare PM 2.5 and PM 10 measured by ODINs which, in some cases, allows us to identify PM from natural and anthropogenic sources. The PM data collected during the campaign are publicly available from 10.5281/zenodo.4542559 , and the data from other instruments are available from 10.5281/zenodo.4536640. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mapping Air Pollution eMissions (MAPM) is a 2-year project whose goal is to develop a method to infer particulate matter (PM) emissions maps from in situ PM concentration measurements. Central to the functionality of MAPM is an inverse model. The input of the inverse model includes a spatially distributed prior emissions estimate and PM measurement time series from instruments distributed across the desired domain. In this proof-of-concept study, we describe the construction of this inverse model, the mathematics underlying the retrieval of the resultant posterior PM emissions maps, the way in which uncertainties are traced through the MAPM processing chain, and plans for future developments. To demonstrate the capability of the inverse model developed for MAPM, we use the PM2.5 measurements obtained during a dedicated winter field campaign in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019 to infer PM2.5 emissions maps on a city scale. The results indicate a systematic overestimation in the prior emissions for Christchurch of at least 40 %–60 %, which is consistent with some of the underlying assumptions used in the composition of the bottom-up emissions map used as the prior, highlighting the uncertainties in bottom-up approaches for estimating PM2.5 emissions maps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-resolution displacement observations of lateral spreading from optical image correlation are available for the 2011 Christchurch (Mw=6.2), New Zealand, earthquake, and these data were used to provide insights into the detailed displacement patterns during the earthquake and to quantitatively evaluate the performance of existing empirical models for lateral spread displacements. The observed displacements revealed important characteristics influencing the displacement patterns, including topographic terraces enhancing displacements in large regions between the terrace and the river, the combined effects of a free face and sloping ground on displacements near the river, and the effect of multiple free faces. These site characteristics can enhance displacements and should be considered when evaluating lateral spread movements. For the displacement models, on average, the Youd model underpredicts the observed displacements by more than a factor of 2, likely due to the strong magnitude scaling incorporated in the model. On average, the Zhang model is unbiased relative to the observed displacements but systematically overpredicts displacements for slopes greater than 1%. These results indicate the limitations of the existing lateral spread models and point toward the need for improvements in our understanding of lateral spread displacements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In March 2019, a mass shooting at two Christchurch mosques, livestreamed to Facebook, resulted in the deaths of 51 people. Psychologically, this served as a focusing event with high threat salience, shocking a country unused to gun violence despite its comparatively lax firearm legislation. The unprecedented reluctance by the New Zealand media to feature the shooter as a protagonist or even publish his name, concentrating instead on victims and societal issues, helped promote a sense of collective responsibility for change. This was strongly modeled by political leaders. Within weeks, new gun control laws were introduced with bipartisan support. We present this as a national case study, considering psychological and societal enablers for legislative reform in response to extreme gun violence. The shooting also raised the intractable problem of the internet allowing terrorists to promulgate violent content and extremist ideology with regulation in this area harder to achieve than gun control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A city's planted trees, the great majority of which are in private gardens, play a fundamental role in shaping a city's wild ecology, ecosystem functioning, and ecosystem services. However, studying tree diversity across a city's many thousands of separate private gardens is logistically challenging. After the disastrous 2010-2011 earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand, over 7,000 homes were abandoned and a botanical survey of these gardens was contracted by the Government's Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) prior to buildings being demolished. This unprecedented access to private gardens across the 443.9 hectares 'Residential Red Zone' area of eastern Christchurch is a unique opportunity to explore the composition of trees in private gardens across a large area of a New Zealand city. We analysed these survey data to describe the effects of housing age, socio-economics, human population density, and general soil quality, on tree abundance, species richness, and the proportion of indigenous and exotic species. We found that while most of the tree species were exotic, about half of the individual trees were local native species. There is an increasing realisation of the native tree species values among Christchurch citizens and gardens in more recent areas of housing had a higher proportion of smaller/younger native trees. However, the same sites had proportionately more exotic trees, by species and individuals, amongst their larger planted trees than older areas of housing. The majority of the species, and individuals, of the larger (=10 cm DBH) trees planted in gardens still tend to be exotic species. In newer suburbs, gardens in wealthy areas had more native trees than gardens from poorer areas, while in older suburbs, poorer areas had more native big trees than wealthy areas. In combination, these describe, in detail unparalleled for at least in New Zealand, how the tree infrastructure of the city varies in space and time. This lays the groundwork for better understanding of how wildlife distribution and abundance, wild plant regeneration, and ecosystem services, are affected by the city's trees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonlinear time-history analyses are conducted on a flat-plate building to explore the damaging effects of vertical ground acceleration on punching shear failure of slab–column connections, which have been exposed by field observations. The structure is modeled three-dimensionally using grid beam elements for the floor slabs. Twenty unscaled near-source ground motions recorded during the 1979 Imperial Valley, 1994 Northridge, 2010 Darfield, and 2011 Christchurch earthquakes are considered. Both the punching failure criterion recommended by a standard design code and one developed based on a critical crack width theory are employed to identify punching shear failures. The numerical simulations indicate that, although the vertical ground-motion component has negligible effects on interstory drift demand, it can lead to punching failure that would otherwise not occur under horizontal ground motion only. On average, the vertical ground motion can reduce the lateral drift capacity at punching failure by 23%. Moreover, an extraordinarily strong vertical ground motion alone can cause a punching shear failure. The two considered punching failure criteria result in similar predicted failure drifts. The extra gravity load approach suggested by a standard design code to indirectly account for vertical ground-motion effects is found appropriate if the vertical spectral acceleration at the fundamental period of floor slab is less than 1.4g. The simulations also indicate slab-column frames can contribute around 15% of lateral stiffness and strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Earth science information (data, knowledge, advice) can enhance the evidence base for land-use decision-making. The utility of this information depends on factors including the context and objectives of land-use decisions, the timeliness and efficiency with which earth science information is delivered, and the strength, relevance, uncertainties, and risks assigned to earth science information relative to other inputs. We investigate land-use decision-making practices in Christchurch, New Zealand, and the surrounding region in response to mass movement (e.g., rockfall, cliff collapses) and ground-surface fault rupture hazards incurred during the 2010–2011 Canterbury earthquake sequence (CES). Rockfall fatality risk models combining hazard, exposure, and vulnerability data were co-produced by earth scientists and decision makers and formed primary evidence for risk-based land-use decision-making with adaptive capacity. A public consultation and submission process enabled consideration of additional earth science information primarily via stakeholder requests. For fault rupture hazards, pre-disaster geotechnical guidelines and collaboration networks enhanced the ability of earth scientists to rapidly acquire relevant observational data to meet the demands of decision makers. Expeditious decision-making granted permissive consent for rebuilding in the fault rupture zone based on preliminary scientific advice that was subsequently supported by more comprehensive geological investigations. Rapidly fluctuating and diverse demands for post-disaster earth science information may be best met through the prior establishment of (i) land-use policies and technical guidelines tailored for a variety of diverse disaster scenarios, (ii) hazard and risk analyses in land-use plans, including acquisition of geospatial and other earth science data, and (iii) coordinated scientific networks that may comprise subgroups with diverse goals, operational perspectives, and protocols which allow the many facets of scientific information acquisition and delivery to be successfully addressed. Despite the collective knowledge shared here, some recent land-use practices in New Zealand continue to prioritize other (e.g., socioeconomic) factors above earth science information, even in areas of extreme disaster risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]