Data on Disaster Risk Reduction Reported by Researchers at GNS Science

2021 JAN 27 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Disease Prevention Daily -- Researchers detail new data in Disaster Risk Reduction. According to news reporting originating in Lower Hutt, New Zealand, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “The November 14, 2016 M(W)7.8 Kaikoura Earthquake was one of the largest earthquakes to occur in New Zealand in the past 100 years and resulted in two deaths and 618 injuries. Understanding the context and cause of casualties from earthquakes is important for informing risk reduction activities such as building codes, education of protective actions, and casualty modelling.”

Financial supporters for this research include EQC, GNS Science, LINZ.

The news reporters obtained a quote from the research from GNS Science, “Data on casualties (deaths and injuries) from the Kaikoura earthquake were sourced from New Zealand’s publicly funded accidental injury insurance scheme. Casualties were compared to a control group of uninjured people using a case-control design. Odds ratios were calculated through multivariate logistic regression to quantify the influence of individual, seismological and contextual factors on casualty risk. Females were twice as likely to be injured than males, and injury risk increased 30% with every 10 year increase in age. People were 2.9 times more likely to be injured if they were in non-residential buildings, and injury risk increased 2.2 times for every unit increase in MMI shaking intensity. Thirty-seven percent of casualties were from falls, 44% were from actions of people during shaking and 8% were due to being hit by contents. Nine percent of people were injured after shaking stopped during evacuations, or clean-up.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “The results indicate that in regions with a well-regulated building industry with modern building codes such as New Zealand, casualties are dominated by non-fatal injuries, and the number of these injuries are determined by the behaviour of individuals during and immediately following earthquake shaking.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Factors Influencing Casualty Risk In the 14th November 2016 M(W)7.8 Kaikoura, New Zealand Earthquake. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 2020;51. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction can be contacted at: Elsevier, Radarweg 29, 1043 Nx Amsterdam, Netherlands. (Elsevier - www.elsevier.com; International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction - http://www.journals.elsevier.com/international-journal-of-disaster-risk-reduction/)

Our news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Nick Horspool, GNS Science, Pob 30368, Lower Hutt 5040, New Zealand. Additional authors for this research include Ken Elwood, David Johnston, Joanne Deely and Michael Ardagh.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2020.101917. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)