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The complexity of the Kaikōura earthquake rupture and tsunami generation presented a unique opportunity to examine and learn from a modern event. This paper reviews how the five years of research following the Kaikōura tsunami have improved our understanding of the event and our knowledge of tsunami science across a range of disciplines. Teams of researchers and practitioners across disciplines of tsunami hazard modelling, palaeotsunami, risk and impact science, early warning, and emergency management learned from the event to calibrate models, enhance proxies for interpreting palaeotsunami deposits, and improve disaster risk readiness, reduction and response measures. While new scientific knowledge has been developed about the co-seismic hazard and risk facing Aotearoa-New Zealand, fundamental questions nonetheless remain about tsunami-generating sources and the likely return period for high impact events in Aotearoa-New Zealand. Further scientific endeavour is needed to investigate the onshore and offshore geological records to help improve understanding of tsunami hazard and history to underpin risk and impact assessments informing more effective disaster risk management. Lessons also emphasise a need for more effective partnership, participation, education, and engagement to increase local community capacity and capability to respond to local source tsunami events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on the geographies of emotion and masculinities literature to explore rural men's experiences of the 2016 Kaikōura/Waiau earthquake in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 men affected by the earthquake. Geographies of emotion enable reflection on the social context and individual circumstances of those impacted by natural hazard events, thereby contributing to understanding the way local constructions of gender influence people's experiences of disasters. The paper highlights how emotions are present regardless of how antipodean notions of hegemonic masculinity, reflecting stoicism and reserve, shape disaster responses. The research identified that two years on from the earthquake, men were still emotional when talking about the earthquake, yet attempted to silence their emotional distress. Through an analysis of emotion, men's hidden vulnerabilities and capacities, which are linked to sets of understandings about masculinities in place, are captured. This research illustrates the value of undertaking analysis of men's emotions in disaster spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The capacity of Indigenous communities to respond collectively to crises consistently shows the importance of shared traditions values and practices and genealogical ties. Government responses to traumatic events that affect whole communities tend to be generic in their scope overlooking the significant strengths and resources held by Indigenous peoples. This study presents a Kaupapa Māori case study of collaborative efforts to respond to traumatic events between several communities of local tribes, immigrant tribes, and tau-iwi (non-Indigenous people). Concentrated on a rural community prone to flooding, this study examined community efforts to provide support for those affected by flooding in the Southern Rangitīkei area of New Zealand. Key informants included 10 Indigenous community leaders (ICL), and 22 health and social service community practitioners. Four key themes were identified: Collective aspirations mobilise in traumatic events; genealogical relationships bring people together; collective leadership drives the vision; and Indigenous values inform responses to traumatic events. A salient outcome was that shared historical connection, and shared aspirations for cultural regeneration activated Indigenous communities to engage in collective action. Key barriers and enablers to collective action between Māori and tau-iwi are presented. Recommendations for analysing further responses to trauma in Indigenous communities are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrological impacts of climate change are prompting water resource and flood hazard management to adapt to non-stationary conditions. Among the factors influencing these policy decisions is the question of timing: when are we likely to see climate change effects? Using a national climate-hydrology model cascade over the 21st century, times and extents of emergence of six hydrological metrics are evaluated across New Zealand rivers. While the stringency of the emergence criteria has a significant effect on timing and extent, emergence for all metrics generally occurs after mid-century, if at all, and in the country's South Island. Looking at the first emerging metrics, in contrast, allows us to sidestep the high uncertainties of the time of emergence, revealing mean winter flows to be the most extensive sentinel of climate change in New Zealand rivers among the metrics considered. This has implications for hydrological monitoring to inform timely climate change adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of information technology during the COVID-19 pandemic raises significant questions around the protection of personal data in a disaster. This paper considers how the clear benefits of using and sharing such data in disaster scenarios can be achieved while recognising an individual's right to privacy through examining the experiences of Taiwan and New Zealand. These states represent two successful COVID-19 response strategies which utilised different approaches to the use of technology. In Taiwan, the response made significant use of personal data and information technology. New Zealand, by contrast, has relied upon stringent lockdowns and extreme limits upon personal freedoms. The paper considers the different approaches to data and privacy that underpinned these responses and considers whether New Zealand can learn from the Taiwanese experience in future disaster planning. In doing so, the paper concludes by examining the wider question of when and if the community's expectation of a safe environment should trump the rights of individuals to retain personal data both in the context of pandemics and in other emergency or disaster scenarios. It also raises deeper questions, exposed by the COVID-19 response, about whether our current approach to privacy is sustainable in the digital age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many policy makers today accept that climate change poses substantial risks to human and natural systems and that effective adaptation is essential. An important element of adaptation policy making and disaster risk management is how to best combine individual with communitarian approaches to resilience building. The difficulty for effective leadership in this effort resides in comprehending various understandings of, and approaches to, resilience and their real-life consequences for affected populations to deal with disasters induced by climate change. Here, we conduct a comparative analysis of 89 influential disaster management leaders in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. We examine the extent to which their perspectives on resilience and vulnerability are framed by either communitarian or individual-focused notions. Our quantitative analysis of an initial questionnaire and subsequent content analysis of interview transcripts indicate three core findings. Firstly, a tendency towards a communitarian understanding of resilience emerging from the questionnaire was replaced by a more diverse picture during the interviews, including a stronger focus on individual resilience. Secondly, most leaders asserted it was reasonable to expect citizens to be resilient to climate change, particularly when feeling overwhelmed by their responsibility for providing protection during extreme events. Finally, world views among leaders that encourage individual responsibility occluded systemic or reflexive thinking and action to minimize loss. Our study highlights the need for a relational leadership framework underpinned by an ethic of compassion that supports leaders pursuing and implementing policies that reduce harm and suffering in the face of disasters influenced by climate change. Key policy insights Communitarian approaches to resilience and vulnerability provide opportunities for disaster management leaders to better appreciate human suffering and improve their policy advice and decision making to minimize it. Conversely, individualistic approaches drive disaster management leaders' narrow world views that downplay vulnerability whilst shifting responsibility for resilience too far towards individuals. Governments would be well advised to specifically address the root causes of socio-economic vulnerability in resilience policy frameworks. Disaster management leaders would benefit from an ethic of compassion supported by a relational leadership framework that guides their resilience policy advice and decision making to further minimize suffering from disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of the New Zealand case, this paper presents a review of international studies that use cost-benefit analysis to estimate the economic effects of marine spatial data infrastructures (MSDIs.).Cost-benefit ratios for investing in MSDIs range between 1:2 and 1:18. Benefits arise from efficiency of data collection, improved risk assessment for navigation, more effective marine spatial planning, supporting of marine science, reduced mineral exploration costs and disaster management. The research provides evidence for investing in an MSDI in New Zealand and stimulates debate on the varying methods underpinning economic studies in the marine geospatial context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pre-existing longitudinal studies of people affected by disasters provide opportunities to examine the effects of these events on health. Data used in the current investigation were provided by participants in the New Zealand Health, Work and Retirement longitudinal surveys conducted in 2010, 2012 and 2014 (n = 428; aged 50-83), who lived in the Canterbury region of New Zealand during the 2010-2011 earthquakes. Latent profile growth analyses were used to identify groups of respondents who had similar pre-post-disaster physical and mental health profiles. These groups were compared in terms of demographic factors, personal impact of the earthquakes assessed in 2012 and the overall negative-positive impact of the earthquake assessed in 2014. There was little evidence of change in health status overtime. Groups did not differ in their experiences of threat or disruption, however those in poorest health reported greatest distress and a more negative overall impact of the earthquake. Although results suggest little impact of disasters on health of surviving older adults, pre-disaster vulnerabilities were associated with distress. Social workers and agencies responsible for disaster response can play a key role in pre-disaster planning and assessment of vulnerabilities of older adults to enhance potential for positive outcomes post-disaster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The media plays a significant role in constructing the public meanings of disasters and influencing disaster management policy. In this article, we investigate how the mainstream and LGBTI media reported—or failed to report—the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) populations during disasters in Brisbane, Australia and Christchurch, New Zealand. The implications of our work lie within recent disasters research suggesting that marginalized populations—including LGBTI peoples—may experience a range of specific vulnerabilities during disasters on the basis of their social marginality. In this article, we argue that LGBTI experiences were largely absent from mainstream media reporting of the Brisbane floods and Christchurch earthquake of 2011. Media produced by and about the LGBTI community did take steps to redress this imbalance, although with uneven results in terms of inclusivity across that community. We conclude by raising the possibility that the exclusion or absence of queer disaster narratives may contribute to marginality through the media’s construction of disasters as experienced exclusively by heterosexual family groups. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Following the 2010–2011 earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand, many nonprofit organizations changed or expanded services to address emergent or compounded risks. This research is based on interviews with thirty local community nonprofit managers and discussions with five staff focus groups conducted in 2014. Preexisting nonprofits with flexible organizational structures and emergent nonprofits succeeded in providing services during the emergency response and early recovery phases; nonprofits contracted with the government were better suited for long-term recovery. Shared resources among nonprofit agency connections contributed to successful transitions from response to recovery. Similar organizational resilience factors might occur in other major cities following disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reports part of a larger exploratory research study of social workers' preferred models of critical incident stress management and experiences of critical incident stress debriefing. Social workers were invited to contribute to the research through an advertisement in the national association's newsletter for Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers. Using a qualitative methodology involving in-depth interviews with 13 social workers, participants were asked about their experiences of critical events encountered within their workplaces over the last five years. Interviews were recorded by audiotape with consent and analysed using thematic analysis. Four main themes emerged: the importance of preparation for critical incidents, the role of relationship between line managers and social workers, specifically the line manager's support immediately after the critical incident, and the availability of peer/colleague networks. An unexpected finding was that social workers interviewed noted that the pre-existing relationship with the line manager influenced their experience of the debriefing process itself. The more engaged and emotionally aware the manager was seen, the more the social worker claimed the debriefing process had been successful from their perspectives. The implications for social workers and their employing agencies are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Community engagement in natural hazard preparedness is crucial to ensure sustainable initiatives. Children are important members of communities, and can actively contribute to community preparedness. This article presents research undertaken with 11- to 12-year-old students from a school in Auckland, New Zealand, and leaders associated with the school community regarding their perceptions of the role of schools, communities and children in natural hazard preparedness. The findings show that the students believe they can be effective in promoting preparedness in their school, homes and community, and act as leaders in this capacity. Community leaders stated that preparedness actions should be culturally relevant, community initiated and owned and inclusive of child perspectives. From the combined perspectives of students and community leaders, this work concludes that emergency management must engage in culturally responsive ways with Māori and Pacific communities to enable community preparedness initiatives that are tailored to the cultural values and practices of communities most at risk from natural hazards. Further, it concludes that children have an important voice in community preparedness, which could be encouraged through school and community initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The earthquakes that rocked the city of Christchurch and surrounding districts in Canterbury, New Zealand, were to take their toll on families, schools and communities. The places that had once represented safety and security for most children were literally and figuratively turned upside down. Rather than reinforce the trauma and continue to frame children as passive victims, the study reported here aimed to help children reframe their experiences through active engagement in participatory research projects. This article reports on three schools drawn from a UNESCO-funded project in which schools recorded their earthquake stories. While children were the centre of each of the school’s earthquake stories, schools engaged children to different extents in their chosen projects. These three schools exemplify different places along a continuum of children’s engagement in research on their own experiences. In one school, children, families, teachers and the principal all contributed to an illustrated book of their experiences. In another school, children created a series of mosaic panels to record the community’s story before, during and after the earthquakes. In the third school, children became documentary makers and interviewed other children about their earthquake experiences. In all cases, children found their projects positive and helpful activities, enabling them to put their experiences into a broader context. This article argues that schools have an important role to play in providing emotional processing activities which help children gain perspective and distance as part of their recovery from large-scale disaster events. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

On 22 February 2011, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake killed 185 people in Christchurch, New Zealand. On 11 March 2011, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck eastern Japan, and was followed by a devastating tsunami and a nuclear plant crisis. As of 16 November 2011, the official death toll in Japan had reached 15,839, with a further 3467 people still missing. This article presents two case studies of the experiences and the responses of schools in New Zealand and Japan in the immediate aftermath of these events. Although the magnitude of the events is significantly different, the authors argue that there are many similarities in their responses. These provide an opportunity to consider the manner in which schools in other settings might prepare for such events. This comparative case study includes practical recommendations for schools to consider in their pastoral care of students in the immediate aftermath of a disaster. Research in New Zealand and Japan, undertaken separately by the authors, attempted to capture the voices of principals, teachers and students to inform a series of recommendations and guidelines created from the real-life experiences of the research participants. They were collected with the primary focus of wishing to better inform the decision-making responsibilities of others who may be in a similar situation, or to guide future disaster prevention and management policies in schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to contextualise the articles in this special issue, this introductory article surveys the relevant literature from recent disasters in mostly developed countries in order to explore the wider role of schools in disaster preparedness, response and recovery. The first section argues that as schools are hubs of their communities, it is important to understand the literature on communities in disaster contexts. This is followed by recent examples of school experiences of disasters, particularly in Japan, New Zealand and Australia. The final section synthesises the literature on children and young people in disaster contexts. The article closes with a set of recommendations for integrating schools into disaster planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper makes the case for natural disaster emergency planning to be incorporated into sustainable tourism strategies, using seismic risk scenario planning as a technique, and the Southern Alps of the South island of New Zealand as an example. The Alpine Fault is a 450-km-long geological structure running the length of the Southern Alps in New Zealand. Paleoseismic evidence suggests that a significant earthquake of magnitude (M) ∼ 7.8–8.0 is overdue. Coincident with this area of high seismic potential is a growing tourism industry, capitalising on the region's international reputation for nature-based tourism experiences. The scenario planning approach uses an isoseismal modelling methodology to describe a range of specific vulnerabilities in the tourism sector and highlight the physical outcomes and consequences for tourism-related infrastructure, transport, food supply, rescue, and survival likely to result from a future M8 earthquake on the Alpine Fault. Interviews with hazard management agencies investigated how tourism is considered in the context of current hazard management policies, and the urgent need to bring industry policies into partnership with other planning agencies and policies. Risk management is shown to be essential to address the triple bottom line of sustainable tourism management. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Livestock evacuation from farms affected by volcanic ashfall during or following a moderate to large volcanic eruption of Taranaki volcano would pose serious logistical challenges for emergency organisations. The volcanic hazards present during the eruption (such as volcanic ashfall) have the potential to significantly disrupt farming and transport operations in widespread areas both near to and far from the volcano. This paper presents a simplistic model that estimates the time and resources required to evacuate dairy cows from a large eruption from Taranaki volcano in New Zealand. Whilst intended to highlight the scale of time, money and logistics required for a large livestock evacuation, the model also provides a first step towards a model which can be run during periods of volcanic crisis to aid decision making. The model estimates that for a total evacuation of cows from dairy farms impacted by 100 mm of ashfall 208 000 cows would need to be evacuated and it would take at least 43 600 man-hours and cost >NZ$2,000,000. It would take 264 livestock truck and trailer units to evacuate this number of cows in 7 days, or 88 units in 21 days. It is therefore recommended that large-scale livestock evacuation and relocation should not be considered in future volcanic crisis planning, due to the large logistical requirements a large livestock evacuation would require in terms of time, livestock evacuation transport units, and lack of capacity of farms in surrounding regions to support the massive influx of additional livestock. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent eruptions from Tongariro volcano, particularly from Ngauruhoe, have been small (Volcanic Explosivity Index or VEI ≤3), but between 11 000 and 12 000 cal. yr BP there was a series of larger subplinian eruptions (VEI 4) from Tongariro volcano (Mangamate Formation), the last of which formed the Poutu Lapilli. This unit is considered to have had a volume of 1.1 km³, distributed in three main lobes (NW, NE, E) around a possible source or sources close to the present site of Ngauruhoe. Column height during the eruption ranged from 16 to 23 km. If such an eruption occurred today it would have a significant impact on the surrounding area. In the proximal zone (>25 km from the source) <20 cm of ash/lapilli would be deposited, sufficient to cause collapse of some buildings in Tokaanu and the surrounding communities and damage to the Tokaanu Power Station. Much of the other infrastructure in the area (e.g., electricity transmission lines, water supply and distribution, roads) would also be affected, as would the tourist industry. Evacuation may be necessary from this proximal area, and plans for this should be drawn up well before the event. Adequate provision also has to be made for disposal of ash from towns/communities and from key roads. Medial and distal areas (up to 100 km from the source) would be affected, but to a decreasing extent with distance from the source. An eruption such as that which the Poutu Lapilli is possible at any time in the future from Tongariro, and an effective management system must be established to deal with such an event. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]