LEAD Projects

Funder: 
QuakeCoRE (Flagship 3) 

Lead Researchers:
John Hopkins, Toni Collins, Cameron Eade and Holly Faulkner 

Project Description:
The project provides an assessment of the current regulatory environment and the level of building stock resilience the system is likely to deliver, with a focus on multi-storey, multi-occupancy buildings in the Wellington CBD. The project aims to other aspects of QuakeCoRE’s research programmes to provide an overall regulatory map. On the basis of this, the Wellington Case Study project will incorporate comparative understandings from overseas examples, particularly focussing on intensively developed CBDs with similar regulatory models with a view to providing future directions for seismic regulation. 

Funder:
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)

Lead Researchers:
John Hopkins, Finau Leveni, Leticia Smith and Holly Faulkner 

Project Description:
Pacific Island Countries are extremely vulnerable to climate change and natural hazards; the region hosts five of the ten most at-risk countries in the world. As such, it is critical that domestic laws and policies provide clear rules of the road to guide national and international humanitarian efforts. The project examined the legal preparedness for international disaster assistance across the 16 English-speaking member states of the Pacific islands Forum and provides an assessment of domestic disaster risk management arrangements against the ‘Guidelines for the domestic facilitation and regulation of international disaster relief and initial recovery assistance’ (IDRL guidelines) as promulgated by the IFRC and accepted by all UN member states as the key measurement in its assessment. The complete work is freely available online via the IFRC Asia-Pacific website.

Funders:

• National Science Challenges (NSC): Resilience to Nature’s Challenges
• Urban Theme
• Determining Volcanic Risk in Auckland (DEVORA)

Lead Researchers:
John Hopkins and Thomas Wilson 

Project Description:
Building upon existing work in the field, this project will examine the resilience of New Zealand’s legal and constitutional framework in the wake an Auckland Volcanic Field Eruption. The project will utilise scenarios developed by the DEVORA research programme, assess the ability of the current structures to deal with such an event and consider how such structures could be further developed to increase their resilience. Working alongside DEVORA stakeholders (including Auckland Council), the project aims to provide not only a better understanding of the specific issue of volcanic risk to the legal framework (and thus effective response and recovery) but more generally expand our knowledge of disaster law and governance in a New Zealand context. The project will be undertaken by a funded PhD scholarship. 

Funders:
Collaboration between Resilience to Nature’s Challenges (RNC), Urban Theme and QuakeCoRE (Flagship5).

Lead Researchers:
John Hopkins and Helen O’Connor (in collaboration with David Johnston, Joint Centre for Disaster Research, Massey University) 

Project Description:
The project examines the potential use of smart technology to provide increased public safety around seismic risk and wider hazards. It will explore the use of such technology and the issues around privacy and information sharing in all aspects of the disaster cycle both in a New Zealand and global context.

Funder:
BRANZ

Lead Researchers:
John Hopkins and Cameron Eade 

Project Description:
The sudden closure of public buildings and amenities due to seismic risk can have a negative effect on local communities. LEAD is part of a joint team led by BRANZ, aiming to help local authorities make well-informed decisions about earthquake-prone buildings.

Funder:

UC School of Law Research Fund

Lead Researchers:

Elizabeth Toomey and Toni Collins, in collaboration with Emily Walton (Wynn Williams)

Funder: 
QuakeCoRE (Strategic Funding) 

Lead Researchers:
Annick Masselot, Toni Collins, Beatrice (Bea) Holman (PhD student)

Project Description:
Bea is soon to start a QuakeCore PhD Scholarship relating to women’s employment and disasters under the supervision of Annick Masselot and Toni Collins.

Funder: 
QuakeCoRE (Strategic Fund) 

Lead Researchers:
Annick Masselot, Roxy Matheson (student)

Project Description:
Gender-based violence law in the midst of earthquakes.