Our people

Project Co-Leaders: 

Programme Leader: Tim Sullivan

Programme Co-Leader: Julia Becker

Project Contact Person: 

Tim Sullivan

Project Investigators: 

Natalie Baird, John Hopkins, Liam Wotherspoon, Gabriele Chiaro, Greg MacRae, Maxim Millen, Catalina Miranda, Kakati Royal, Ilan Noy, Angela Liu, David Carradine, Minghao Li, Rajesh Dhakal, James Lin, Charles Clifton, Alessandro Palermo, Wendy Saunders, Charlotte Brown, Tom Francis, Pouya Lofti Rad, Charlotte Toma, Richard Mowll.

Project PhD students: 

Project Research Assistant and Wiki Page Administration:

Tom Francis: tom.francis@canterbury.ac.nz 

Project Proposal

Project Abstract:

The Canterbury earthquakes illustrated the potential for large financial losses ($16B of $40B total) and multi-year disruption to NZs residential sector, with significant implications on mental health and the disaster insurance market. This programme will tackle the problem of resilient housing – including effective engineering and technological solutions, land-use planning, improved insurance processes and frameworks, effective legal frameworks, and communication and engagement strategies.

Programme Structure:

The research aims to achieve the objectives of the Thriving Residential Communities theme through the activities described below:

Legal Frameworks and Planning for Thriving Residential Communities (Natalie Baird, John Hopkins, Wendy Saunders)

Recent events such as the 2010-11 Canterbury earthquake sequence and 2016 Kaikōura earthquake have brought to attention issues related to recovery processes, and have highlighted that certain legal circumstances can affect the resilience of communities to earthquakes. In IP2, research will look to understand how legal frameworks contribute to creating earthquake resilient communities, and will identify tools to support this. This will include consideration of the legal mechanisms to improve choices of more resilient new housing solutions or voluntary retrofitting, as well as the complex legal issues that arise with the development of medium density housing solutions. As land-use planning is a key component in new development, this aspect will also be considered in our research. In the first three years, the research will co-fund (50%) a law PhD candidate (or research associate) working on the topic of residential legislation.

Resilient Infrastructure for Residential Communities (Liam Wotherspoon, Richard Mowll)

The Canterbury earthquake sequence caused widespread damage to infrastructure that took considerable time to restore in some regions. In IP2 research will continue to develop tools and methodologies for more resilient infrastructure and strategies to communicate and identify acceptable post-earthquake service levels. Identification of such levels prior to an event, will aid with planning for more resilient infrastructure before an event and aid response and recovery, contributing to thriving residential communities. The research will benefit from aligned research in the Built Environment Theme of the Resilience to Natures Challenge, with funding in the first year directed towards supporting PhD candidate Richard Mowll.

Foundation Systems (Gabriele Chiaro, Greg MacRae, Tim Sullivan, Maxim Millen)

Recognizing the large damage and disruption the Canterbury earthquakes caused because of poor site and foundation systems, the geotechnical engineering research will aim to (i) Critically review and improve existing post-earthquake self-levelling foundation systems and (ii) Develop innovative foundation systems that are cost-effective and are characterized by good post-earthquake reparability. Funding in the first year will contribute towards experimental testing costs associated with “eco-rubber geotechnical seismic-isolation (ERGSI) foundation systems”. Following the initial experimental work, the proposed project focuses on the evaluation of the field performance of a large-scale structure supported on ERGSI foundation and the validation of a numerical model for parametric analysis to inform the development of a refined performance-based design framework for implementation by engineering practitioners.

Additionally, new research will be initiated aimed at developing low-cost resilient foundation systems for lightweight houses on soils that may not be deemed “good ground” and/or TC3 land (prone to liquefaction).

Seismic Performance Expectations (Julia Becker, Catalina Miranda, Charlotte Brown, Kakati Royal, Tim Sullivan)     

Current research is revealing that residents expect their houses to perform well in a future seismic event, despite many houses not necessarily being structurally sound (e.g. having poorly secured foundations).  This is a concern as much of today’s housing stock will be subject to the earthquakes of the future. This research will explore the reasons why there are gaps between expectations of performance and actual likely performance in an earthquake,  and will look at ways of addressing such gaps, so that residents gain a more realistic understanding of the current status of their house, and are motivated to retrofit their houses in ways that meet performance expectations. We will also consider communities, who may be disadvantaged and have limited control over retrofitting (e.g. are renters, or are of limited socio-economic means).  We will explore mechanisms that can support residential retrofitting across the spectrum (e.g. from provision of information through to specialist support).  We will link with other research that investigates expectations of performance (e.g. expectations of functional recovery via QuakeCoRE IP1, EQC projects), and will hold a workshop to share research approaches and findings on performance expectations.  Funding will support Catalina Miranda (University of Auckland/Massey University) and a PhD and moving into post-doc research, and future emerging students such as Kakati Royal (University of Canterbury).

Earthquake Insurance for Residential Communities (Ilan Noy, John Hopkins, Tim Sullivan)

Earthquake insurance of housing is widespread in New Zealand, a fact that helped mitigate the economic impact of recent earthquakes in New Zealand. However, questions have been raised as to whether the insurance model currently adopted in New Zealand is the most appropriate. It may be possible that certain insurance models could be used to incentivize the adoption of more resilient housing solutions and part of the research will consider an experiment on insurance incentives, to get insight into how big these need to be in order to change behaviour. There may also be a potential tension between what the insurers, the insured, and the government might want to achieve in such a system and thus understanding these tradeoffs/tensions, especially in a system where part of the risk is insured by the government (the EQC, and not the private insurers), would also be a very useful investigation. Finally, the traditional wording of insurance policies that endeavor to restore a building to the “as-new” condition has been the cause for demolition of buildings that might otherwise have been considered reparable. Research into alternative insurance policy wordings would need to consider the potential implications for the insurance industry, the engineering community and also within the legal system. In the first three years, IP2 has agreed to co-fund (50%) a PhD candidate from DT3, Law Planning and Economics, who will be exploring these insurance issues.

Understanding and reducing the vulnerability of the existing housing stock (Angela Liu, David Carradine, Minghao Li, Rajesh Dhakal, Catalina Miranda, Charlotte Toma, Julia Becker)   

Recent earthquakes in New Zealand has generated an extensive amount of data on the vulnerability of our housing stock. However, this vulnerability could be quantified better so that potential improvements and changes to building and design procedures can be properly quantified. Thus, IP2 will look to undertake analytical studies and draw from the results of parallel investigations (such as that being undertaken by Tonkin and Taylor for EQC) to quantify the vulnerability of traditional housing systems. As discussed previously, research is also planned on the public expectations of existing residential housing and performance, with the objective of identifying effective means of increasing retrofitting.  The research will also look to support research into hill-side housing, which has been identified as having potential issues with torsion and could be most at need of retrofit. BRANZ are currently undertaking a 3-year project into hillside housing and IP2 plans to supplement efforts in this area with provision of student scholarships and travel to support the collaboration between UC academics (Minghao Li and Rajesh Dhakal), students and BRANZ researchers (Angela Liu and David Carradine).

Low-damage systems for traditional housing (Tim Sullivan, Tom Francis, James Lin, Charles Clifton, Pouya Lofti Rad, Greg MacRae) 

While existing New Zealand houses are generally characterised with good life-safety performance, damage and repairs were extensive in the Canterbury earthquake sequence. Consequently, in Flagship 4 of QuakeCoRE I, work was initiated on the development of low-cost base-isolation systems for housing that would significantly reduce the vulnerability of traditional single-dwelling housing. Funding will co-fund a post-doc for Tom Francis in order to assist in transitioning the knowledge generated into practice. In addition, the University of Auckland has been helping develop light-gauge steel framed housing solutions that promise high seismic resilience. Further research is planned in IP2 of QuakeCoRE II to generally develop the relevant findings from QuakeCoRE I to arrive at products and design procedures that are ready for implementation and begin improve the resilience of New Zealand’s building stock. Part of this research will look at the development of engineering solutions and technologies while another part will look at identifying the factors that either discourage or encourage the uptake of more resilient housing solutions.

Resilient medium-density housing solutions (Alessandro Palermo, Minghao Li, Rajesh Dhakal, David Carradine, Angela Liu,)     

Medium density housing is expected to increase in coming years, given the current housing shortage in New Zealand. Research in IP2 plans to develop seismically resilient solutions for medium density housing that fulfill multiple performance criteria, including environmental sustainability, durability, thermal performance and construction speed. This will include consideration of timber, steel and pre-cast concrete (including modular) medium density housing solutions. Furthermore, it is well understood that residential buildings contain an increased number of non-structural partition walls and special linings (e.g. tiled surfaces) that present a challenge from a post-earthquake seismic resilience point of view. Thus, IP2 will look to link up with the MBIE-BIP programme to advance the understanding and resilience of non-structural elements in medium density housing systems.  BRANZ are currently undertaking a 3-year project into medium density housing and IP2 plans to supplement efforts in this area with provision of student scholarships and travel to support the collaboration between UC students and BRANZ researchers (Angela Liu and David Carradine).

Programme Deliverables: