Building and infrastructure impact

Summary

This research assesses potential housing damage, habitability, human displacement and sheltering needs following a large tsunami. This includes a literature review and assessment of existing impact models to identify lessons and gaps in research, to inform the development of a new model for estimating habitability, displacement and sheltering needs. This model is applied to Christchurch for three tsunami scenarios.

For the largest scenario, 14,695 residents are displaced on the first day, with 1795 displaced residents requiring sheltering assistance. The number of displaced residents reduces to 9014 on Day 4, 7131 on Day 7, and 4366 at one month.

Emergency management relevance

This research can be used to help assess potential housing damage, habitability, human displacement and housing needs in Christchurch in different tsunami scenarios.

Additional information

Authors: Finn Scheele, Thomas Wilson, Emily Lane, Kate Crowley, Matthew Hughes, Tim Davies, Nicks Horspool, James H. Williams, Lina Le., S.R. Uma Biljana Lukovic, Marion Schoenfeld, James Thompson

Date: 2020

Funders: Environment Canterbury, Canterbury Civil Defence Emergency Management, NIWA Taihoro Nukurangi, GNS Science, Toka Tū Ake EQC, Resilience to Nature's Challenges – Resilient Rural Backbone research programme, Natural Hazards Research Platform, Mason Trust Fund

Format: Published - International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction

Reference: Scheele, F., Wilson, T., Lane, E. M., Crowley, K., Hughes, M. W., Davies, T., Horspool, N., Williams, J. H., Le, L., Uma, S. R., Lukovic, B., Schoenfeld, M., & Thompson, J. (2020). Modelling residential habitability and human displacement for tsunami scenarios in Christchurch, New Zealand. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 43, 101403. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2019.101403