By removing elected officials and installing a powerful command-and-control agency, the government’s approach to recovery has left many of the city’s people feeling disenfranchised and excluded.
Terry Flew, Queensland University of Technology and Axel Bruns, Queensland University of Technology
When disaster strikes, more people than ever are turning to social media to find out if they’re in danger. But Australian emergency services need to work together more to learn what works to save lives.
Three recent events in the New Zealand city of Christchurch, almost four years on from the magnitude 6.3 earthquake in February 2011, suggest that arts and culture are playing a central role in the recovery…
February 22 is the third anniversary of the powerful earthquake that killed 185 people and radically altered the New Zealand city of Christchurch. The city centre is flattened and empty, with thousands…
Last Friday marked two years since the earthquake which devastated the Christchurch CBD, and caused the death of over 180 people. The quake destroyed or severely damaged thousands of homes and businesses…
New Zealand goes to the polls today to elect both a government and conduct a referendum on the nation’s electoral system. It will cap off fifteen tumultuous months in the country. Christchurch has endured…
With new technology comes new ways of communicating with one another in times of crisis. Platforms such as Twitter and Facebook allow important information to be shared widely and instantaneously. But…
Since the 2004 Sumatra earthquake, there have been several major events, and a large number of magnitude-8 earthquakes – a cluster, it could be said, of large earthquakes. The last time we saw this was…
Martha Savage, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
Why have so many lives been lost in Japan and New Zealand recently? And why have so many survivors – the so-called “lucky ones” – had their livelihoods and homes destroyed? As a seismologist, I ask myself…