New Disaster Risk Reduction Study Findings Recently Were Reported by Researchers at Victoria University (Reactions to earthquake hazard:…

New Disaster Risk Reduction Study Findings Recently Were Reported by Researchers at Victoria University (Reactions to earthquake hazard: Strengthening commercial buildings and voluntary earthquake safety checks on houses in Wellington, New ...)

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Politics & Government Week -- Investigators discuss new findings in Disaster Risk Reduction. According to news reporting originating from Wellington, New Zealand, by VerticalNews correspondents, research stated, "Although many countries have legislation requiring strengthening of earthquake prone buildings, there are significant obstacles to retrofitting these buildings to make them more resilient. This research examines actions in regard to earthquake prone commercial and public buildings in Wellington and checks on private homes following the 2010/2011 Canterbury earthquakes and the 2013 Seddon/Cook Strait earthquakes."

Financial support for this research came from MBIE National Science Challenge on Resilience to Nature's Challenges.

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from Victoria University, "The study obtained data on commercial and public buildings removed from the Wellington City Council Earthquake-prone Buildings List (EQPB List) from 2012 to 2016 due to various mitigation actions (e.g., demolition and strengthening). The study also obtained rates of self-initiated voluntary Quakecheck home assessments for the same period. Results indicate ongoing removal of significant numbers of buildings from the EQPB List in this period, with strengthening being the most frequent action. This finding suggests that despite real obstacles, various incentives including legislation are leading to consistent earthquake preparation over time, often before the legislative deadline. In contrast with the EQPB data, the Quakecheck data indicate a sharp but short-lived spike after the Seddon / Cook Strait earthquakes. As a marker of self-initiated mitigation action, this brief spike suggests that in the absence of relevant legislation or insurance incentives, citizens' actions are only briefly influenced by the experience of an earthquake."

According to the news editors, the research concluded: "These contrasting findings for EQPBs and Quakechecks suggest the value of legislation to drive mitigation actions for all buildings."

For more information on this research see: Reactions to earthquake hazard: Strengthening commercial buildings and voluntary earthquake safety checks on houses in Wellington, New Zealand. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 2018;28():465-474. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction can be contacted at: Elsevier Science Bv, PO Box 211, 1000 Ae Amsterdam, Netherlands. (Elsevier - www.elsevier.com; International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction - www.journals.elsevier.com/international-journal-of-disaster-risk-reduction/)

The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting J. McClure, Victoria University, Sch Psychol, Wellington, New Zealand. Additional authors for this research include C. McRae, L. Henrich, C. Leah and A. Charleson.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2017.12.007. 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.

Keywords for this news article include: Wellington, New Zealand, Australia and New Zealand, Disaster Risk Reduction, Victoria University.

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