Housing the Workforce Following the Canterbury Earthquakes in New Zealand

Temporary housing following a large-scale disaster has a positive effect on household welfare and community recovery. Following the 2010 and 2011 Canterbury earthquakes, a shortage of temporary accommodation created barriers for the outside construction workforce to engage in repairs and rebuild in Christchurch. This study investigates the impacts of housing shortages for the overall recovery and the strategies adopted by both households and the workforce in the building industry. Findings suggest that the interplay among the industry strategies and household strategies for securing housing determines the magnitude and scope of economy-wide inflation. One unfortunate consequence of these industry strategies is that the pressures of resource shortages are likely to transit from the construction sector to quake-affected households. These findings have implications on the nature and design of pre and postdisaster planning programs in order to reduce the impacts of housing issues on household welfare and, at the same time, to the meet the needs of the construction sector if the scheduled rebuild works are to be achieved

The role of commercial insurance in post-disaster recovery: Quantitative evidence from the 2011 Christchurch earthquake

We examine the role of business interruption insurance in business recovery following the Christchurch earthquake in 2011 in the short- and medium-term. In the short-term analysis, we ask whether insurance increases the likelihood of business survival in the aftermath of a disaster. We find only weak evidence that those firms that had incurred damage, but were covered by business interruption insurance, had higher likelihood of survival post-quake compared with those firms that did not have insurance. This absence of evidence may reflect the high degree of uncertainty in the months following the 2011 earthquake and the multiplicity of severe aftershocks. For the medium-term, our results show a more explicit role for insurance in the aftermath of a disaster. Firms with business interruption insurance have a higher probability of increasing productivity and improved performance following a catastrophe. Furthermore, our results show that those organisations that receive prompt and full payments of their claims have a better recovery, in terms of profitability and a subjective ‘”better off” measure’ than those that had protracted or inadequate claim payments (less than 80% of the claim paid within 2.5 years). Interestingly, the latter group does worse than those organisations that had damage but no insurance coverage. This analysis strongly indicates the importance not only of good insurance coverage, but of an insurance system that also delivers prompt claim payments. As a first paper attempting to empirically identify a causal effect of insurance on business recovery, we also emphasize some caveats to our analysis

In terpreting resourcing bottlenecks of post‐Wenc huan earthquake reconstruction in China

Post‐disaster reconstruction is likely to suffer resource shortages and supply disruptions. The devastating Wenchuan earthquake on 12 May 2008 in China served as a typical example. After the catastrophe, resource problems such as price escalation and market inflation posed a significant challenge to Chinese policy makers and reconstruction team. Based on field surveys, the study attempts to examine the Wenchuan earthquake reconstruction practice and identify the most vulnerable resources along with their resourcing impediments inherent in the reconstruction process. The research findings show that at the early stage of reconstruction, labour and materials such as brick, cement, steel and aggregate were the most needed yet vulnerable resources. Procurement of these resources was mainly hindered by (1) reconstruction schedule and speed, (2) the impacts of the 2008 global financial crisis, (3) inadequate local transportation capacity, (4) dysfunction of the construction market, and (5) insufficient engagement of local construction industry. While the interventions and measures Chinese government adopted after the earthquake seem to be able to deal with resourcing bottlenecks in a short time; different efforts to reduce the impacts of these five areas are needed with a view to expediting longer‐term disaster recovery and reconstruction. Santruka Atstatant po nelaimiu tiketina, kad truks ištekliu ir kartais nutruks tiekimas. 2008 m. gegužes 12 d. Kinija supurtes niokojantis Wenchuan žemes drebejimas – būdingas pavyzdys. Po katastrofos kilusi ištekliu problema, kaip antai pakilusios kainos ir padidejusi rinka, Kinijos politikams ir atstatymo komandai tapo rimtu iššūkiu. Remiantis praktiniais tyrimais, darbe meginama išnagrineti atstatymo veikla po Wenchuan žemes drebejimo ir nustatyti sunkiausiai gaunamus išteklius kartu su atstatymo procesui būdingomis kliūtimis ju gauti. Tyrimo išvados rodo, kad ankstyvajame atstatymo darbu etape labiausiai reikejo, bet daugiausiai trūko tokiu ištekliu, kaip darbo jega ir medžiagos: plytos, cementas, plienas ir užpildai. Šiu ištekliu isigyti labiausiai trukde (1) atstatymo darbu tvarkaraštis ir sparta, (2) 2008 metu pasaulines finansu krizes poveikis, (3) nepakankamas vietinio transporto našumas, (4) sutrikusi statybu rinka ir (5) nepakankamas vietines statybu pramones dalyvavimas. Nors po žemes drebejimo Kinijos valdžios pasirinktos priemones ir intervencijos būdai lyg ir leido trumpam pašalinti ištekliu trūkumus, šiu penkiu punktu poveikiui mažinti reikia ivairiu pastangu, kad spartus atsigavimas ir atstatymas po nelaimiu būtu ilgalaikis. First Published Online: 10 Feb 201

Want to Improve Resilience to Seismic Events in New Zealand

To demonstrate a variety of investment options available across a broad spectrum of disciplines covering the built, social, economic, natural, and cultural environments

A Multi-Criteria Decision Tool to Support Seismic Resilience Investments Under Deep Uncertainty

Project Aim Create a tool to assist decision makers in understanding the synergies and trade-offs between different resilience investments. Create a process for using the tool that enables decision makers to acknowledge and work with an uncertain future. Considering the long-term impacts of major investment decisions, in particular for land-use and infrastructure, the context gets more complicated under deep uncertainty. The solution included using plausible future scenarios and Multi-Criteria Decision Support methods to draw out assumptions, preferences, and uncertainties within the decision making process

Modeling post-earthquake business recovery time:An analytical framework

This study develops an analytical framework for modeling business recovery times after seismic events. These recovery times are important to understand, as business interruption (BI) is a significant factor in the survival of businesses and communities after disasters, and can cause a large proportion of the losses in such events. To date however, few post-earthquake recovery studies specifically account for business recovery time. The proposed framework considers multiple types of earthquake-induced downtime that may impact business recovery, such as building recovery and disruption to the wider community, as well as tactics employed by businesses to mitigate these times. The framework’s potential to provide insight on business recovery is evaluated using observed recovery time data for 22 businesses affected by the 2011 Mw 6.1 Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand. It is found that recovery times calculated according to the framework align significantly better with observed business recovery times compared to calculated downtimes of businesses’ pre-earthquake physical locations, which are often used as proxies for business recovery. These findings highlight the importance of accounting for multiple factors when modeling business recovery due to seismic events

Creating the business case for investment in organisational resilience

- To provide data to demonstrate the value of investment in organisational resilience; - To map the 5 year recovery trajectory of organisations; - To better understand the contextual factors that affect long term recovery

Resources and capacity: Lessons learned from post-disaster reconstruction resourcing in Indonesia, China and Australia

Post-disaster reconstruction poses resourcing challenges specific to the construction practitioners and requires constant improvements of the construction industry and of the environment in which it operates. By drawing on in-field surveys and observations in the disaster affected areas in Indonesia, China and Australia, the research examines their respective resourcing practice following a disaster with a particular focus on identifying the resource and capacity constraints that confronted the reconstruction practitioners in a post-disaster situation. This mapping exercise helps draw attention from decision makers and the construction sector to the vulnerable areas in post-disaster reconstruction and also generates lessons and experiences worthy of adoption in other disaster situations. Practical measures are suggested to improve the implementation of physical reconstruction through laws, regulations and policies, along with the according mechanisms in the industry and at a project level

LINKING BUILDING PROPERTIES TO EARTHQUAKE-INDUCED DAMAGE AND BUSINESS DOWNTIME USING FEMA P-58 AND REDI ASSESSMENTS

The 2010-2011 Canterbury earthquake sequence, and the resulting extensive data sets on damaged buildings that have been collected, provide a unique opportunity to exercise and evaluate previously published seismic performance assessment procedures. This poster provides an overview of the authors’ methodology to perform evaluations with two such assessment procedures, namely the P-58 guidelines and the REDi Rating System. P-58, produced by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in the United States, aims to facilitate risk assessment and decision-making by quantifying earthquake ground shaking, structural demands, component damage and resulting consequences in a logical framework. The REDi framework, developed by the engineering firm ARUP, aids stakeholders in implementing resilience-based earthquake design. Preliminary results from the evaluations are presented. These have the potential to provide insights on the ability of the assessment procedures to predict impacts using “real-world” data. However, further work remains to critically analyse these results and to broaden the scope of buildings studied and of impacts predicted

Identifying factors affecting resource availability for post-disaster reconstruction: a case study in China

The availability of resources allows for the rapid and cost-effective delivery of a construction project. For rebuilding programmes after a disaster, the need for better understanding of factors affecting resource availability and their potential impacts on resourcing outcomes can be of crucial importance to effective reconstruction performance. Drawing on an empirical survey in China following the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, the critical factors affecting resource availability for post-quake reconstruction of housing are identified. Resource availability in a post-disaster situation is not only associated with (1) project-related factors such as quantity of resources required, project schedule, project resourcing plan, and resource procurement lead time; and (2) factors related to the reconstruction practitioners, including competency of resourcing manager and qualification of contractor; but is also related to (3) factors external to reconstruction projects including legislation and policy, general economic environment, and resource transportation cost and method. To address these factors, a multi-sector approach is needed for reconstruction decision makers and practitioners. A planned procurement strategy in the implementing contractors, a range of training initiatives for small and medium businesses, along with augmented regulatory, economic and transport infrastructure systems are likely to improve resource availability for post-disaster rebuilding projects.Disasters, post-disaster reconstruction, resource availability, construction projects, China,