Announcing the 2nd Annual Urban Theme Research Wānanga
The 2nd Annual Urban Theme Research Wānanga will be held on Monday 30th November 2020 on the Waipapa Marae at the University of Auckland City Campus, Auckland. This event gives researchers and stakeholders a chance to build and strengthen relationships. Meetings like these play an important role in keeping everyone up to date on current research and recent findings, as well as allowing stakeholders to communicate their needs to the researchers. The first Annual Research forum held last year was a great success. We welcomed over 50 participants from a wide range of organisations and disciplines related to risk, resilience and natural hazards research.
This year we are excited to have the opportunity to host our annual meeting at the Waipapa Marae at the University of Auckland, where we hope to continue our research journey in line with our Tikanga (see below).
You will have received an invitation to the Annual Research Wānanga in your emails, but if not, you can RSVP here:
http://urbantheme2020.rsvpify.com
There are still some spots available in the schedule of activities, so if you have new (or planned) research you would like to present, or perhaps a participatory activity that you would like to organise as part of the Research Wānanga (hui, workshop etc.), please get in touch with Ben Simons (benjamin.simons@auckland.ac.nz).
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Urban Theme Welcomes Recipients of the Urban Resilience Innovation and Collaboration Hub
In the first half of 2020 the Urban Theme established the Urban Resilience Innovation & Collaboration Hub, a round of contestable funding with the purpose of supporting research and research-related activities that promote urban resilience in New Zealand. The fund provides up to NZD $10,000 for projects that add value to the existing work within the Urban Theme of the Resilience to Nature’s Challenges National Science Challenge. Projects will run up for up to two years.
Applications closed in July with the final decisions made in August by the Urban Theme Steering Committee and co-opted panel members Josh Te Kani (RNC VM knowledge broker) and Jo Horrocks (EQC). We are pleased to announce that twelve projects have been selected. These projects represent a diverse range of topics and involve researchers representing universities, institutes, iwi, NGOs, schools, and community groups. We are very pleased to welcome them into the Urban Theme waka.
A list of the twelve funded projects, with primary investigators (PI), project titles, and associated organisations is below.
| PI Name(s) |
Project title |
Organisation(s) |
| Siautu Alefaio |
Talanoa Podcast: Educating and strengthening resilient communities in Manurewa |
Massey University and Roscommon School |
| Carel Bezuidenhout |
Impacts of an urban shock to local food supply chains |
Massey University |
| Denise Blake |
Sex work for Māori: Covid-19 and beyond |
Massey University, The University of Auckland and New Zealand Prostitutes’ Collective |
| Edward Challies; Frances Charters |
Assessing co-benefits of blue-green infrastructure for urban social-ecological resilience |
University of Canterbury |
| Kaye-Maree Dunn |
I-Hono ki te Hapori |
Making Everything Achievable Limited |
| Jenny Lee-Morgan |
Urban Marae Responses to COVID19: Creative Pikitia Series |
Nga Wai a Te Tui – Unitec Institute of Technology NZ |
| Jesse Grayman |
The Role of Faith-Based Institutions in Auckland’s Disaster
Resilience During and After Covid-19 |
University of Auckland, Faculty of Arts |
| Tom Logan |
Multi-criteria spatial optimisation for guiding long-term land use planning for resilience and sustainability |
University of Canterbury |
| Steve Ronoh; Loic Le De |
Good and Ready New Zealand |
New Zealand Red Cross and Auckland University of Technology |
| Finn Scheele |
Development of a population exposure model for New Zealand |
GNS Science |
| Marion Tan |
CRISiS Lab Education and Outreach Project |
Joint Centre for Disaster Research, Massey University
Civil and Environmental Engineering, and The University of
Auckland |
| Sophia Tsang |
Living with hazards and risks in Auckland: Which locations in Tāmaki Makaurau do we value the most? |
University of Auckland |
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Creation of The Urban Theme Tikanga
We are excited to share our Tikanga for the Urban Theme. Our Tikanga (a commitment to values and practices) is informed by a combination of the overarching goals of the Resilience National Science Challenge; the priorities highlighted during our Values Hui (held in 2019); and several key academic works emphasising the importance of including indigenous ways of understanding in disaster studies, as well as developing respectful, reciprocal and genuine relationships between local and external researchers. Researchers involved in the Urban Theme project are expected to carry out their mahi (work) in line with our Tikanga.
The Urban Theme Tikanga can be found here:
https://resiliencechallenge.nz/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/RNC2-Urban-Theme-Tikanga-2020.pdf
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Researcher Profiles
In this newsletter, we profile members of the Inclusive Urban Resilience Workstream
Inclusive Urban Resilience is one of three research worskstreams of the Urban Theme (along with Smart Resilient Cities and Pathways to Urban Resilience, see figure). Inclusive Urban Resilience focuses on how to most effectively enable our diverse urban dwellers to become advocates for resilience. Building resilience through fostering inclusion of diverse urban dwellers has become a central focus of policies and practices geared towards reducing the risk of disaster. The guiding principles of this project are based around the recommendations of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR), which require us to recognise the unique and diverse vulnerabilities and capacities of all urban dwellers; build rapport and trust to recognise and include all people in policy and practice; address the unequal power relations that marginalise and neglect those most vulnerable; and to work to make inclusion culturally-relevant and acceptable to all urban dwellers.
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JC Gaillard - Workstream Co-lead
Kia tātou te hunga ora
Tēna rā tātou katoa
Ko Mont Blanc te maunga
Ko Rhône te awa
Nō France ahau
Ko wīwī te iwi
Ko Gaillard tōku whānau
Ko JC tōku ingoa
No te Whare Putāio ki te Whare Wānanga o Tāmaki Makaurau ahau
JC Gaillard is Professor of Geography at the University of Auckland and a former member of the faculty of the University of the Philippines Diliman. He trained as a geographer, with particular interest in disaster risk reduction (DRR) in Asia and the Pacific. His work focuses on power, knowledge and inclusion in DRR. It includes developing participatory tools for engaging minority groups in disaster risk reduction with an emphasis on ethnic and gender minorities, prisoners, children and homeless people. JC collaborates in participatory DRR trainings with local governments, NGOs and other civil society organisations. He also serves as editor of the journal Disaster Prevention and Management and was co-editor, with Ben Wisner and Ilan Kelman, of the Routledge Handbook of Hazards and Disaster Risk Reduction. More details from: https://jcgaillard.wordpress.com
JC is co-leader of the Inclusive Urban Resilience workstream and currently supervises Urban Theme PhD student Lousie Baumann.
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Loïc Le Dé – WorkstreamCo- Lead
Loïc is a Senior Lecturer at Auckland University of Technology (AUT) where he leads the Master of Disaster Risk Management and Development. Loïc's research is driven by the gaps in policy and practice seen through his on-going engagement in disaster risk reduction and disaster management. Over the years, Loïc's research has focused on bridging the knowledge and action gaps between local people and agencies involved in disaster risk reduction and emergency management. Loïc has thus worked on developing and/or applying approaches and tools to foster participation of local people in disaster risk reduction and for them to play a key role in the decision-making process on matters that affect their lives. In recent years, Loïc has focused on how to better support transnational remittances towards the Pacific island region in the face of disasters, explored ways for children to have more voice in disaster preparedness such as through participatory mapping and technology, and currently works on developing community-centred resilience indicators with CDEM groups from different parts of New Zealand.
Loïc is co-leader of the Inclusive Urban Resilience workstream, is a co-leader of one of our new Urban Hub projects, and also supervises PhD student Lousie Baumann alongside JC Gaillard.
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Daniel Hikuroa
Dr Daniel (Dan) Hikuroa is an Earth Systems Scientists who integrates mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge, culture, values and worldview) and science to realise the dreams and aspirations and help solve challenges of the communities he works with. He is an established world expert on integrating indigenous knowledge and science and has undertaken many projects including co-writing the 2014 State of the Hauraki Gulf Environment Report, geothermal developments, co-writing iwi environmental management plans, hazard and vulnerability assessments and industrial waste rehabilitation. Dan is currently Co-Deputy Director for Te Pūnaha Matatini, UNESCO Commissioner for Culture and Chair, Ngā Kaihautū Tikanga Taiao (Statutory Māori Advisory to the Environmental Protection Authority) was the Research Director for Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga from July 2011 - December 2015.
Dan will supervise our incoming Urban Theme PhD student Te Kerekere Roycroft.
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Louise Baumann - PhD Candidate
Louise is a French PhD candidate at the University of Auckland. She holds a bachelor’s degree of Sociology from Universite Paris-Sorbonne (France) and a master’s degree of Gender Studies and Law from SOAS University of London (UK). Her current interests are in gender, the structural dimension of vulnerability and disaster laws and policies. She takes a fundamentally transdisciplinary approach to her research, and draws upon feminist and post-colonial theory, radical interpretations of disasters, and socio-legal studies. She speaks French, English and some basic Spanish.
Louise’s PhD project is titled Fostering Inclusion and Equity in Disaster Risk Reduction. This project sits within the workstream on Inclusive Urban Resilience. The project will focus on people who are often labelled ‘vulnerable’ and ‘marginalised’ in dealing with natural hazards, especially people from diverse cultural backgrounds; how to foster their participation in DRR and enhance their resilience to natural hazards; how to enhance our policy makers’ and practitioners’ ability to engage with these people to enhance the resilience of New Zealand society at large; and how to more broadly promote equity and justice in DRR.
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Te Kerekere Roycroft - PhD Candidate
Ngāpuhi
Ngāti Korokoro – Ngāti Whārara – Te Poukā
Te Kerekere has developed through a progression that began in an amenity horticulture background, while extramurally studying a Bachelor of Applied Science at Massey University. To follow a deeper path into how our whenua and whakapapa anchor identity she has completed a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture (Hons) and Master of Landscape Architecture (with Distinction) at Unitec Institute of Technology.
The projects undertaken to complete both of these latter degrees were based around how to improve individual connection to collective association to whenua, rohe, hapū and whānau. This was achieved initially through the creation of a guiding master process; followed in Masters, with the creation of mapping platform that will aid in connecting whanaunga to how the pasts of their tūpuna have woven through the whenua and moana of their rohe. It is only when we understand all the interactions and involvements of whakapapa, that we can truly begin to move forward with agency to advocate on behalf of our own aspirations from the position of our own world view.
Her doctoral candidacy project, titled Urban Māori DRR, will focus on how urban Māori perceive their identity in a rohe that may not be their own. The ability to act as kaitiaki is an important aspect of Māori identity, but how can one exercise mana when they may not be mana whenua. How do they then contribute to the health of and access to water, be it stream or tap supply? How is it possible to awhi the connectivity of habitat for our native insect and bird species when so much of it has been broken up within urban spaces? How do urban Māori perceive their resilience as kaitiaki, especially within power structures that may not provide agency for Te Ao Māori.
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Anthony Gampell
Anthony Gampell is a PhD candidate and graduate teaching assistant in the School of Environment at The University of Auckland. His work focuses on exploring disaster-based video games, both ‘serious’ and mainstream, as tools to foster participation in learning about disaster and DRR.
As part of his PhD research, Anthony recognised that museum visitors, students and teachers are often not included within the video game development process, an assessment process based upon their teaching and learning needs, nor in the development of video game pedagogy (game-based learning and game pedagogy). Constructivist learning theory underpins his research epistemology, allowing Anthony to draw upon his knowledge of participatory techniques to foster and facilitate the participation of students and teachers within the research process.
Anthony’s work on P-TECH in CITSCI in the cultural resilience stream of phase 1 of the RNC enabled an opportunity for the inclusion of academics, teachers, students and emergency management personnel in co-designing a teaching pedagogy and co-developing a geo-referenced Minecraft game world to foster participation in learning about local hazards, vulnerability and capacities to inform the area’s disaster resilience plan.
Anthony is also interested in exploring various elements of disaster popular culture and these items allow insights into how people conceptualise and reflect upon disasters and DRR within everyday life. Anthony’s overarching aim is to understand how to enhance the processes enabled by video games, among other dimensions of popular culture, to foster people’s participation and inclusion in disaster and DRR. To this end, Anthony is working within the Urban Theme alongside Surf Life Saving NZ to explore opportunities around helping to prevent coastal drownings at urban beaches in New Zealand (e.g. Piha) including the development of a video game with practitioners and end-users.
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Highlights
Below are a collection of activity highlights from our researchers.
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CRISiS LAB Website Recently Launched
A new website has been launched by the Crisis Response and Integrated Simulation Science Laboratory (CRISiS Lab), a research and learning laboratory based in the Joint Centre for Disaster Research (JCDR) at Massey University, Wellington. CRISiS Lab provides a platform to conduct transdisciplinary socio-technical research at the human-technology interface. It provides a physical space as well as software and hardware resources for various research and learning activities. Lab activities include design, development and testing of technology and systems supported by simulations and experiments. Beyond physical space, the lab provides a collaborative environment for learning. Currently, the lab is composed of researchers and PhD students conducting research on artificial intelligence, big data analytics, decision support systems, warning systems, technology acceptance and user behaviour. The lab looks to attract researchers and research students to engage in more technologically aligned projects for crisis management.
For more information about CRISiS Lab, or to get in touch with them, please visit their website at http://crisislab.org.nz/
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John Hopkins in the Media
Professor John Hopkins has authored and featured in several news articles and interviews providing expert insights and opinion into the discussion around the implementation of lockdown and social distancing laws in response to COVID-19.
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Recent publications
The following list outlines some recent publications by our Urban Theme researchers, related to resilience to natural hazards.
- Algiriyage N., Prasanna, R., Stock, Kristin., Johnston, David. (2020). Traffic Flow Estimation based on Deep Learning for Emergency Traffic Management using CCTV Images, Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management. Blacksburg VA
- Balaei, B.,Wilkinson, S., Potangaroa, R.,McFarlane, P. (2020), Investigating the technical dimension of water supply resilience to disasters, Sustainable Cities and Society 56, 102077
- Cubrinovskia, M., Bradley, B., Elwood, K. J., Johnston, D., Orchiston, C., Sullivan, T., Wotherspoon, L.M., (2020) Wellington’s Earthquake Resilience: Lessons from the 2016 Kaikōura Earthquake. Earthquake Spectra
- Harrison, S., Potter, S., Prasanna, R., Doyle, E.H.E., Johnston, D. (2020). Volunteered Geographic Information for People-Centred Severe Weather Early Warning: A Systematic Review. Australasian Journal of Disaster and Trauma Studies
- Huggins, T. J., & Prasanna, R. (2020). Information Technologies Supporting Emergency Management Controllers in New Zealand. Sustainability, 12(9), 3716.
- Odiase, S Wilkinson, A Neef (2020) Risk of a disaster: Risk knowledge, interpretation and resilience. Journal of Disaster Risk Studies 12 (1), 9
- Odiase, S Wilkinson, A Neef (2020) South African community in Auckland Natural hazards and the resilience to a potential disaster event, Disaster Prevention And Management 29 (3), 390-404
- Odiase, S Wilkinson, A Neef (2020) Urbanisation and disaster risk: the resilience of the Nigerian community in Auckland to natural hazards, Environmental Hazards 19 (1), 90-106
- Tan, M. L., Prasanna, R., Stock, K., Hudson-Doyle, E., Leonard, G., & Johnston, D. (2020). Usability Framework for Disaster Apps: A Qualitative Thematic Analysis of User Reviews. International Journal of Disaster Risk Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13753-020-00282-x
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Next newsletter in April 2021
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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