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Flagship 3

Researchers from Flagship 3 are combining empirical data from the Canterbury earthquakes with shaking simulations provided by researchers from Flagship 1. Communities across New Zealand, but more specifically in the South Island, are being visited as part of the exercise of developing asset inventories and understanding the role of early unreinforced masonry buildings in the character and economic prosperity of the community. Drone footage is being used to generate point clouds of entire precincts of buildings, and numerical models are being developed to simulate building failure mechanisms.  In time, the intent is that geotechnical information from Flagship 2 will be incorporated so that liquefaction and soil-structure interaction are included in the simulations. The goal is to forecast building damage response including debris fall zones, in such a way that fatality forecasts can be attempted when accounting for pedestrian counts. The debris data will also be helpful for forecasting cordon zones.  The effects of seismic retrofit strategies can then also be simulated. The longer-term aspiration is to explore the viability of using gaming software to provide visual representation of building damage for an entire community of buildings, with the information being scientifically robust.  The thinking is that such simulations will assist decision makers in planning for future earthquake scenarios.

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