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Kia ora researchers and research colleagues,
We hope you are all well, and managing to keep your heads above water given the challenges you are all facing in this time of COVID-19. The vulnerabilities of communities are also shown at these times. However, we are also seeing the strength and resilience that exists within individuals and communities. Although RNC2 focuses on geological and meteorological hazards, the current pandemic provides many lessons applicable to them and their management.
Despite these times, our RNC2 Urban researchers have continued their work across the many funded and aligned strands, and we are delighted to present an overview of their work. We thank everyone for their continued efforts, support, and interest in the Urban Programme.
Jan and David
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News Express
A selection of important updates
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- Postponement of our RNC2 Urban Theme Annual Research Wānanga. Originally scheduled for 13-14th of October, we were very much looking forward to meeting everyone in the Te Rau Karamu Marae on Pukeahu Campus in Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington). Unfortunately, due to the uncertainty of Covid-19, we have to put this on hold until further notice. However, we are very happy to share updates on some of our key projects in the Research Highlights section.
- Our two remaining overseas PhD students can finally join us in New Zealand! Chanthujan Chandrakumar (Smart Resilient Cities workstream) arrived in Auckland from Sri Lanka on the 27th of October, and Louise Bachmann (Inclusive Urban Communities workstream), from France, successfully got a spot in MIQ in December, so she will have her first Christmas in New Zealand. We warmly welcome you two!
- New leader of the Inclusive Urban Communities workstream. From 2022, Loïc le de will take over leadership of our "Inclusive Urban Communities" workstream from JC Gaillard. Loïc is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Public Health and Interdisciplinary Studies from AUT where he coordinates the Master of Disaster Risk Management and Development and recently worked on developing community-centred resilience indicators with Emergency Management groups from different parts of New Zealand.
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In the Spotlight
An opportunity for our researchers to
share their perspectives and insights
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In this issue, we hear from PhD student Te Kerekere Roycroft who reflects on her studies of the past 7 years. Earlier this year she was one of four authors who spoke at a book launch for their newly published book "Kia Whakanuia te Whenua / People, Place, Landscape". She told us the book launch was very well received; 50 people attended and they sold all the copies presented. "A new path" is what she shared that night.
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A New Path
Watching my cousin walk onto our marae by herself at my father's tangi in 2018 inspired me to think about what would encourage me to do the same. I realised it was like anything, the more knowledge you carry the more confidence you feel. To know why I have the right to walk onto my own marae, and whakapapa gives me that right. The project that culminated my Bachelor of Landscape Architecture (Honours) created a process to enable both to help inform whanaunga to what our rohe means to us, and with increased collective knowledge capacity facilitate advocation on behalf of our aspirations and whenua.
My Master of Landscape Architecture (Distinction, 2019-20) provided an opportunity to follow this kaupapa further. Working with hau kāinga in Hokianga we selected a mapping platform, Kākano Tupu o te Hononga. This self-generated resource would facilitate linking kōrero to known places, helping inform whanaunga like me, who have been raised away from our rohe. Enabling us to provide our own evidence; not having to rely on someone else to prove who we are.
When Masters finished a PhD study opportunity presented itself at Waipapa Tuamata Rau - University of Auckland. To my mind this new kaupapa aligns perfectly with that of my MLA and BLA; If those kaupapa were about bringing our own home to engage, then this kaupapa is the flip side, the urban experience. To explore how tangata whenua express resilience in an urban adoptive versus whakapapa-based tūrangawaewae. In this I will be enlisting my own whanaunga as participants, to help not only inform but guide this research. If we all share a common whakapapa, then it is only our experiences that are different.
It is my view that to be able to identify as Māori, then we must also be able to express and exercise ourselves as Māori; to be able to do this in our work and research environments is important in maintaining the security of the connection to our own whakapapa and tūpuna enables us to step forth with assured identity. We are answerable to what our tūpuna would have wanted for us, what they saw for us and how in this current context we can meet the intent of those aspirations and developing our place to provide space for those that come after.
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People's Profiles
Introducing new faces to the RNC Urban Theme
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In this issue, we introduce the new leader of the Networks Workstream: Alicia Cui, and a student Zara Skuse from the Inclusive Urban Communities Workstream.
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Alicia Cui works at the Joint Centre for Disaster Research (JCDR) at Massey University as a research officer. Actively involved in the CRISiSLab, Earthquake Early Warning project and HIWeather Citizen Science project, she is in charge of extraverted jobs like engagement, coordination and promotion; she writes a project blog for CRISiSLab and manages JCDR's social media.
Her professional background is business communication and project management. Alicia wants to make good research more approachable, more visible, and more interesting through diverse ways of communication. Having taken over from Ben Simons, Alicia will be helping us connect and communicate, including via this Newsletter!
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Zara Skuse recently completed her conjoint degree (BA/BSc) in geography, ecology and environmental science at the University of Auckland and has just begun an honour’s in Geography. Zara is interested in how methods from devised theatre can be used as tools to foster and support community participation in disaster risk reduction.
Zara is also excited to work as a research assistant on a project focused on disaster memorials in Aotearoa New Zealand, with Prof JC Gaillard, Dr Anthony Gampell, and Martin Joe at the University of Auckland. The research involves identifying, documenting, and classifying the diverse range of disaster memorials located throughout New Zealand and investigates how the design and location may influence the way they are interacted with and related to by people who have and haven't experienced these disasters. As disaster memorials physically commemorate past disasters, they can play a unique role in contributing to fostering peoples’ awareness of disaster risk and disaster preparedness.
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Congratulations
Proudly celebrating people's accomplishments
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Syed Yasir Imtiaz is a PhD student in the Smart Resilient Cities workstream. In this issue, we are happy to share his success in recently completing his PhD! He took time to write down some reflections on his PhD journey, including some advice for current students. Congratulations Yasir and good luck for your new job!
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My PhD journey officially began on the 14th of May 2016, 10 days after I entered New Zealand, but perhaps it had already started a year and a half ago when I sent my first email to Dr Raj Prasanna for a potential research opportunity at Joint Centre for Disaster Research (JCDR), Massey University. I did my master’s thesis on a training simulator for forest firefighting and I wanted to continue in the field of natural hazards. I ended up deciding to develop a Decision Support System (DSS) to model Critical Infrastructure interdependencies.
Critical Infrastructures that I included in my research were electricity, potable water and road networks and they are so important for the continuity of most of our daily activities. As I furtherly explored, I started to feel more confident when talking about my research. Doing a PhD in New Zealand was a great experience for me because I was fortunate to work and interact with amazing people who guided me whenever I got stuck.
My advice to fellow PhD students is that they should feel proud and confident about it. Any journey lacking adventure turns out boring and no one remembers it. PhD is a life lasting experience and it does have all the challenges but at the same time exciting. It's challenging because most people start it at a stage where they would rather be doing a job. You may feel that you are behind others in respect of professional and financial growth. There's also the fear of not getting a good job after finishing. After submitting my thesis, I got a job at GNS Science to work as natural hazard and risk scientist. So to all of you who feel struggling and worried, stay confident, optimistic and positive, you've got this.
With time, my friends’ circle started to grow, and I had hobbies that helped to ease up the pressure of my studies. I played cricket at club level and my most amazing experience was when I achieved my dream to play at the Basin Reserve. So having something to do to relax outside of the PhD study is really important.
I am deeply appreciative of the valuable support and an excellent research environment provided by Professor David Johnston, director of JCDR, technical and administrative assistance from fellow staff, post-docs and the support from my fellow PhD students. My deepest appreciation to my family for their continuous motivation, encouragement, and prayers and a very special thanks to my wife, Tehmina, who backed me up and stayed by my side through thick and thin and I appreciate the time and efforts she put in to keep me and my family strong. My love and prayers for my sons, Abdur Rafay and Abdul Hadi for cheering me up and making my days with their beautiful smiles. Finally, I am extremely thankful for the support, care and encouragement I received from my supervisors. I like to share a quote that I read recently, which would sum up their efforts:
“Good supervisors can take you to incredible heights. They help you learn to fly, providing the wind beneath you, and providing a net for when you fall.”
Thanks
Syed Yasir Imtiaz
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We also have Anita Sundararaj from Inclusive Urban Communities who recently submitted her dissertation for her master’s degree in Disaster Risk Management and Development at Auckland University of Technology. Congratulations! Here is something about her research on how disaster risk reduction (DRR) policies target the homeless.
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Anita has always had a keen interest in vulnerable groups and her research focused on how disaster risk reduction (DRR) policies target the homeless. The question of how those that are homeless are navigating through a disaster, and whether policies and actions are effective, point to a longstanding gap within New Zealand based literature.
The COVID-19 pandemic was utilised as a case study as it provided an opportunity to assess how DRR policies interact with the issue of homelessness. The research found that in New Zealand, there is no clear lead agency in charge of the homeless during a disaster. This lack of clarity has led to ambiguity in terms of legislative action, coordination and allocation of resources and funding. The findings also suggest that the definition of homelessness can be broadly applied across several categories, but it is rough sleepers that garner the most attention due to their visibility. This has caused the direction of policies and initiatives to focus mostly on rough sleepers as opposed to other types of homelessness such as those living in temporary accommodation or sharing accommodation with others in overcrowded situations. The nationwide lockdown in 2020 promoted outreach workers to quickly move rough sleepers into emergency accommodation.
In what seemed to be a course of action that temporarily solved homelessness, the research instead highlights the overriding priority of public health in the face of a global pandemic. The research concludes that in New Zealand, there is a need for DRR policies and frameworks that are inclusive to the homeless. The research also concludes that the homeless could be better integrated into DRR if policymakers shift from a reactionary approach to a more preventative approach for disaster response.
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Research Highlights
A platform for our urban theme researchers
to share their progress and milestones
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Since we couldn’t proceed with our Annual Research Wānanga this year, we have decided to showcase our researchers’ updates in this special section. It’s a great opportunity to present the work from our funded PhD students and Urban Resilience Innovation & Collaboration Hub recipients in a different format. Click on the title of their research project to see what has been achieved!
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From Urban Resilience Innovation & Collaboration Hub recipients
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Steve Ronoh and Loïc le de
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Beyond the Research
Sharing what's happening in our communities where our
researchers are making an impact by excellent engagement
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CRISiSLab Challenge 2021
Luckily before the national lockdown, CRISiSLab successfully hosted the Demonstration Day of CRISiSLab Challenge 2021 on 10th August. A bright future for Aotearoa New Zealand in the space of science and technology has been witnessed. Twelve teams from 6 colleges in the Wellington region with over 50 students came to Massey University, Wellington campus to compete.
Throughout the challenge, students in teams worked with a ground motion sensor called Raspberry Shake; played with real-life data grasped from the sensor; used creativity to make their own alerting devices which can be triggered by certain thresholds, and demonstrated their diverse alerts on the final challenge day!
It’s a challenge of multiple skills such as coding ability, innovation and presentation skills! But most importantly, students and teachers all enjoyed the challenge, and it has been a great opportunity to get them interested in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
Check out more interesting photos and details here: College students shine in CRISiSLab Challenge 2021 – CRISiSLab
Here's a glimpse of the winners and their awesome alerting devices.
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Enjoy a short video where you can feel the joy and excitement on the challenge day!
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From Our Partners
A platform for sharing updates from our RNC partners
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DEVORA (DEtermining VOlcanic Risk in Auckland) is a multi-agency, transdisciplinary, collaborative research programme led by volcanologists at the University of Auckland and GNS Science and funded by New Zealand Earthquake Commission and Auckland Council. DEVORA just had their 14th Annual Research Forum and we will share more details in the next issue. In this section, they want to introduce a new MSc student, Siena Brody-Heine and congratulate their PhD student Shaurya Sood on his award.
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Hi everyone! I am a Master of Science student at the University of Canterbury in the School of Earth and Environment. I love spending time outside running, skiing, and climbing with my dog. I have a background in chemistry and am enjoying learning more about the disaster risk and resilience field.
My project is dispersion modelling of volcanic gases from the AVF. I will be modelling the SO₂ dispersion from at least one of the DEVORA scenarios using a Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model output from MetService and HYSPLIT, an air dispersion modelling program. The output can then be used to understand the hazard to communities and infrastructure from SO₂ exposure in the event of an eruption of the AVF.
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We are very pleased to announce that PhD Shaurya Sood, who is undertaking his doctorate, entitled, “Geotechnical characterization of New Zealand volcanic soils for land reclamation purposes,” was recently awarded the ‘Best Paper Presentation Award’ at the ‘7th International Conference on Recent Advances in Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics’ held online during July 12-15, 2021.
For context, this 4-yearly conference is quite prestigious in the Geotechnical EQ Engineering field, so this is a wonderful and notable achievement. He is supervised by Gabriele Chiaro, Prof Tom Wilson, and Mark Stringer (all UC). Huge congratulations to Shaurya!!
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Thank you for reading our newsletter, and hope you enjoyed it!
If you have any feedback, or stories and events to share in the next issue, please send them through to Alicia Cui. |
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