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Kia ora koutou,
Welcome to our very first RNC2 Urban theme newsletter: a bi-yearly publication highlighting stories, publications, media, upcoming events and researcher profiles that are relevant to the Urban theme.
We would first like to acknowledge the difficult times we find ourselves in with the COVID19 pandemic. We appreciate that everyone will be preoccupied and that we are currently far from business as usual. It’s fair to say we are all learning a lot first-hand about what it means to be resilient when faced with one of nature’s challenges! We wish you our entire Urban whānau all the best for the challenging times ahead.
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Overview of the Urban theme
The Urban theme of the National Science Challenge: Resilience to Natures Challenges (RNC) is aimed at developing resilience to natural hazards and disasters within the large urban settings of New Zealand. Our urban settings are growing rapidly, with increasingly diverse populations, greater loads on infrastructure, and increased exposure to natural hazards - including the effects of climate change. In this second phase of the RNC, the Urban theme has expanded its focus from that of an Auckland-centred one to one that focuses on urban resilience across all of New Zealand.
The Urban theme is comprised of four workstreams - three research workstreams and one networks workstream.
The three research workstreams are:
- Smart Cities: focused on how innovative technologies and technological disruption can be harnessed for resilience. Lead by Professor David Johnston (Massey University)
- Resilient Urban Communities: focused on how to most effectively enable New Zealand’s diverse communities to become advocates for resilience. Lead by Professor JC Gaillard (University of Auckland).
- Pathways to Urban Resilience: focused on developing best practice approaches for linking natural hazards research to risk and disaster governance. Lead by Professor Jan Lindsay (University of Auckland).
The Networks workstream is focused on communication within and beyond our theme. We aim to maintain an overview of relevant research programmes, projects, and international and national networks, and to facilitate transfer of information to and from these programmes and networks to the Urban rōpū, via multiple avenues (such as the website, and this newsletter).
More information about the Urban theme can be found on the RNC website:
https://resiliencechallenge.nz/scienceprogrammes/urban/
More information about the National Science Challenges can be found on the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment website:
https://www.mbie.govt.nz/science-and-technology/science-and-innovation/funding-information-and-opportunities/investment-funds/national-science-challenges/
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Planning workshops and reports
Five planning workshops for the Urban theme took place in 2019. These workshops gathered a diverse set of researchers and stakeholders within the fields of natural hazards, disaster studies, risk reduction and resilience. The first planning workshop, held in February 2019 set the stage for the new, second phase of the Urban theme and began to map existing research programmes and networks, and collectively identify emerging research themes that build on the Urban Programme work of RNC1 and that could have the potential for transformative change in urban resilience.
The other four workshops were held in August and were focused around setting research priorities, and building the core values and kaupapa for the Urban theme. These include identifying and fostering the participation of those deemed most vulnerable, improving resilience and post-disaster recovery within the major urban centres, as well as exploring the capabilities of emerging smart-city technology and data processing tools for disaster risk reduction.
Reports of the workshops are made publicly available on the RNC website, Urban theme section, at
https://resiliencechallenge.nz/scienceprogrammes/urban/
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Participants at the recovery workshop at the University of Auckland (9 August 2019). Credit D. Charlton.
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The first annual Urban theme research forum
The first annual Urban theme research forum was hosted at the University of Auckland on the 22nd November 2019. The half-day event brought together a wide range of researchers, stakeholders and students and provided an excellent opportunity to network with each other, catch up on the work done during the first phase of the Urban theme, and hear from current PhD students about their proposed research during phase 2 of the Urban theme. Emily Lambie and Emily Campbell from Massey University ran a short version of a “Smart Cities” workshop based on participatory design methodology that led participants through various problem-solving issues related to earthquake scenarios in Wellington.
The forum was scheduled for the day after the Determining Volcanic Risk in Auckland (DEVORA) research forum held on 21th November 2019. A benefit of this was that many attended both events and helped contribute to the success of both.
Presentations given during the forum will be made available on the RNC website shortly.
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Jan Lindsay speaking at the Urban forum introduces the RNC and Urban theme. Credit E. Smid.
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Attendees break into groups to participate in the smart cities workshop component of the forum. Credit E. Lambie.
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Steering Committee
One of the major establishing goals of the Urban theme was to create a Steering Committee that enables a strong transdisciplinary basis for our research by including key stakeholder representatives from cities across New Zealand. The first Steering Committee meeting was held on the same day as the Urban theme research forum in December. It solidified the membership of the committee and helped to set the direction of the Urban theme as it enters phase 2.
The Steering Committee currently comprises:
- Ross Roberts, Rohan Jaduram, and Angela Doherty (Auckland Council)
- Claire Bryant and Mike Gillooly (Christchurch City Council)
- Dan Neely (Wellington Region Emergency Management Office)
- Karl Wairama (Hawke's Bay Civil Defence Emergency Management Group)
- Richard Smith (GNS, director of RNC phase 2)
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PhD positions
The Urban theme will host five funded PhD students and numerous co-funded and/or aligned PhD students. The projects are currently being advertised and we should be able to introduce you to our new students soon:
- Recovery futures: understanding and planning for recovery trajectories. This project sits within our Pathways to Resilience workstream and will be supervised by Suzanne Wilkinson at Massey University and SR Uma at GNS Science. It is co-funded by the Resilience in Practice model of RNC2.
- Smart Cities: Building a Conceptualisation of Citizen-led Low-cost Early Warning Systems. This project sits within our Smart Cities workstream and will be supervised by Raj Prasanna at Massey University and Max Stevens at the University of Auckland.
- Fostering Inclusion and Equity in Disaster Risk Reduction. This project sits within our Communities/Inclusion workstream and will be supervised by JC Gaillard at the University of Auckland and Loïc Le Dé at Auckland University of Technology https://resiliencechallenge.nz/phd-scholarships/.
- Governing Disaster Response in Aotearoa New Zealand – An Auckland Volcanic Field Case Study. This project sits within the Pathways workstream and will be supervised by John Hopkins and Thomas Wilson from the University of Canterbury.
- A fifth project is under development and is likely to focus on disasters, risk reduction and resilience for urban Māori and will be hosted by Te Wānanga o Waipapa at the University of Auckland.
Once the positions are filled, we will profile the new students on the RNC website and in the next newsletter.
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Researcher profiles
This newsletter will profile researchers involved in the Urban theme. Our first issue profiles the leaders of the Theme and the Networks workstream.
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Jan Lindsay
Professor Jan Lindsay is one of two co-leaders of the Urban theme phase 2 and the leader of the Pathways to Urban Resilience workstream. Jan has been at the University of Auckland since 2006 where her research focuses on making society more resilient to volcanic hazards through improving understanding of magmatic and volcanic processes and developing and testing techniques for better communication between scientists and stakeholders. Jan is also a leader of Determining Volcanic Risk in Auckland (DEVORA). Launched in 2008, the DEVORA Programme brings together researchers from across New Zealand and beyond to assess volcanic hazard and risk in Auckland.
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David Johnston
Professor David Johnston is co-leader of the Urban theme and lead of the Smart cities workstream. David is Director of the Joint Centre for Disaster Research in the School of Psychology at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand. David’s research focuses on human responses to volcano, tsunami, earthquake and weather warnings, crisis decision-making and the role of public education and participation in building community resilience and recovery.
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Ben Simons
Ben Simons is the lead of the Networks workstream of the Urban theme. Ben has recently submitted his PhD thesis the University of Auckland and is eagerly awaiting examination. His research is focused on physical volcanic processes and hazards at active volcanoes. Ben’s PhD was focused on Yasur volcano, Vanuatu, the most frequently erupting volcano on earth and a major site of volcanic tourism.
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Highlights
Rethinking liveable, resilient cities:
Smart Resilience Cities launches its website
Emerging technology and data processing tools, such as self-configurable Sensor Networks, Internet of Things technologies, Next Generation Mobile and Broadcasting platforms, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence are transforming the cities that we live in, and the way we live in them. This project will explore how the Smart City model could be used for pre-disaster recovery planning and post-disaster recovery operations. A new website has been launched to share the projects activities.
A link to the website is here: https://www.smartresilientcitiesnz.org/
Mindset of Design Festival workshop
In November 2019, the Joint Centre for Disaster Research (Massey University) and Toi Āria: Design for Public Good held a Creative Resilience Masterclass as part of Wellington’s Mindset of Design Festival. Participants of the half-day workshop were invited to problem-solve through a progressive, 6-part earthquake scenario designed to explore how we can enable creativity through response and recovery. The workshop was put together by Emily Lambie and Emily Campbell using Participatory Design Methodology.
The themes explored include:
- The nature of behavioural response;
- How the response of individuals varies depending on variables presented in the scenario;
- The actual responses (what groups said they would do) to the activities set in the scenarios.
Two scenarios from the workshop were also practiced by the team for the 2019 Urban Forum in November.
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Participants discuss response and recovery scenarios at the Creative Resilience Masterclass. Credit E. Lambie.
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Next newsletter in September 2020
If you have stories and events to share in the next issue of this newsletter, please send them through to benjamin.simons@auckland.ac.nz
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