MEDIA RELEASE

February 4, 2013

Dunedin Landslide Information To Become Part Of Natural Hazards Database

Up-to-date information on landslide hazards in the greater Dunedin area is to be added to the Otago Natural Hazards Database.

The Otago Regional Council (ORC), which manages and maintains the database, last year commissioned GNS Science to collate existing landslide hazard information held by the council into one dataset.

ORC director of environmental engineering and natural hazards Gavin Palmer said the information also included existing material that was held by GNS, but not by ORC. The dataset did not include information held by Dunedin City Council on individual property files, or mapping of any new landslide features.

Dr Palmer said the term ‘landslide’ describes a variety of processes which result in the downward and outward movement of rock, soil, artificial fill, or a combination of these.

”The materials may move by falling, toppling, sliding, spreading, or flowing. Slides can vary in size from a single boulder in a rockfall, to tens of millions of cubic metres of material in a debris avalanche,” Dr Palmer said.

“Understanding the location, extent, and characteristics of historic and prehistoric landslide movements is a primary means of identifying and minimising hazards posed by these processes,” he said.

Dr Palmer said the work done by GNS ensured that the dataset was up-to-date and reliable, as well being more accessible to the public.

ORC’s engineering and hazards committee last week approved the addition of the dataset to the database.

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On Failures Of Care For Those With Mental Disabilities

Hard to imagine a more disturbing insight into the treatment of the vulnerable than the Health Ministry report on Te Roopu Taurima o Manukau. The Ministry has found that the country’s only kaupapa Maori intellectual disability residential care provider has been “seriously dysfunctional.”

The ministry says the business has failed to recruit and retain quality staff – and says the kaimahi (caregivers) that have been employed are seriously unsuitable for the job, lacking basic knowledge. But Te Roopu Taurima o Manukau doesn’t get all the blame. The report says there’s a significant gap under disability laws to ensure there’s oversight by qualified clinical professionals. More>>