Recovering from disasters

Earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, fires and wars: major disasters occur around the world each year but recovering from them takes many years and vast resources.

Five years after Canterbury was first shaken by a major quake, Christchurch still faces years of rebuilding. Australian communities affected by the devastating bush fires in February 2009 are still trying to rebuild their communities.

Professor Suzanne Wilkinson from the University of Auckland is a leading disaster recovery and reconstruction researcher who will give her inaugural lecture on disaster recovery and the complexity of the problems faced by different groups.

This free public lecture will focus on the significant role the construction industry plays in how communities recover from disasters and discuss how they can recover well.

She will also discuss future earthquake research including how best to help communities rebuild and how better buildings and better planning can help communities become stronger than they were pre-disaster.

Based within the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Professor Wilkinson has been a lead researcher on the Christchurch earthquake recovery programme through projects with BRANZ, EQC and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

Her research has been assisting the Government to understand how to improve recovery as it proceeds, including managing shortages of builders and engineers and shortages of materials to build with.

Her lecture also includes a look at what would happen if Auckland suffered a significant disaster event and how the lessons learned from Christchurch could be applied during future events.

Professor Wilkinson leads the Bush Fire Recovery Project, a longitudinal study of recovery and reconstruction following the 2009 Australian bush fires.

This public lecture will be held from 5pm to 6pm at the Faculty of Engineering, 20 Symonds St, Auckland in lecture theatre 423.342.

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