National Lifeline Week at UC in December to bring experts together

October 10, 2013

University of Canterbury (UC) is becoming a national strategic hub for applied research targeting resilience enhancement for lifeline infrastructures.

The availability of lifeline services such as water, power, telecommunications and transport are essential and become critical in the event of a disaster, UC lifelines engineering expert Dr Sonia Giovinazzi says.

``Resilient lifeline infrastructure has the ability to recover quickly and continue providing services following a major disaster or an unplanned event.

``The National Infrastructure Unit requires that national networks are able to deal with significant disruption and changing circumstances, such as major earthquakes.

``Lifeline utilities are legally required under the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act 2002 to function to the fullest possible extent during and after an emergency.

``The 2010 and 2011 earthquakes have highlighted the importance of resilient lifeline infrastructures in New Zealand. This can only be achieved by combining efforts and disciplines in an integrated way.

``UC is pioneering the concept of integrated resilience with its UC Resilience Network, comprising four distinct centres, the UC Quake Centre, the CEISMIC digital archive, UCR3 (risk, resilience and renewal) and NZi3, which is the national ICT innovation institute and a hothouse of strategic research. At UC we integrate technical, organisational, economic and social-human resilience.

``The UC Lifelines Week in early December aims to connect national and international experts researching on strategies for enhancing lifelines from different perspectives with local and government authorities that have done an amazing job in New Zealand.’’

Dr Giovinazzi says invited speakers will include international experts and high-level local and government authorities including the Treasury and the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA).

National and international academics and experts will have an opportunity on campus at UC to have their theories and hypotheses tested against what utility managers and stakeholders dealt with after the earthquakes.

Local and central government experts will have the chance to acquaint themselves with the most advanced researchers, techniques and applied strategies for enhancing resilience.

The December 2-6 event will be organised under the umbrella of the UC Resilience Network in collaboration with the NZ National Infrastructure Unit (NIU), the National Engineering Lifelines Committee (NELC) and the Natural Hazard Research Platform (NHRP). The event will be held at UC’s NZi3.

UC Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research Professor Steve Weaver says UC is achieving great results in connecting researchers, end users, stakeholders and the broader community.

from left to right: Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Steve Weaver, co-organiser Dr Sonia Giovinazzi, UC Resilience Network directors Chris Hawker, Associate Professor Paul Millar, Robert Finch, co-organiser Dr Deirdre Hart and network director Hamish House.

ENDS

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