Congratulations to UC Civil and Natural Resources Engineer Dr Gabriele Chiaro, who has been presented with the 2020 NZSEE Otto Glogau 2020 Award for the best earthquake engineering paper published in the Bulletin of the NZSEE within the previous three years.
The paper ‘Reconnaissance report on geotechnical and geological aspects of the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake, Japan’ provides a reconnaissance-level description of the types and extent of landslides and other ground damage triggered by the Kumamoto earthquakes of 14 to 16 April 2016, and the consequent damage to infrastructure and the built environment. It also provides discussion about the significance of the observations in the context of the potential for earthquake-induced ground damage and consequent damage to the built environment in New Zealand. Such observations can, therefore, help identify where similar hazards and impacts could occur in New Zealand, as well as provide insights on how to mitigate against such hazards.
The paper was co-authored by Gavin Alexander (Beca Ltd.), Brabhaharan Pathmanathan (WPS Opus), Chris Massey (GNS), Junichi Koseki (University of Tokyo), Suguru Yamada (Osaka City University) & Yudai Aoyagi (University of Tokyo).
Dr Chiaro says it was a nice surprise, especially coming from the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering (NZSEE) – “This is a prestigious award in NZ. I’m happy our paper was well-received by NZSEE, particularly for the technical outcomes and recommendations we provided that contribute at reducing the impacts of earthquakes on NZ communities.”
