News
RiskScape News
9 August 2011: Historic Weather Event Catalogue for New Zealand.
The HWE is a RiskScape project to research and collate information about historic weather events such as storms, floods, lightning strikes etc. After a year of collating data from old newspapers, journals etc the huge spreadsheets of original data are now being transferred into an online data system. NIWAs Systems Development Team designed a new XML schema to represent the weather event data and provided an XML database to hold the records. The new Web UI provides search and browse facilities allowing users to select weather events matching specific criteria such as all tornadoes causing casualties from 1990 to 2000. Each returned document then describes the impacts of the weather event and shows their locations on a map allowing you to get a clear idea of the areas affected by the event. Visit the catalogue….
4 May 2011: Preparing New Zealand for Storms: lessons from Yasi.
Cyclone Yasi, which hit Australia in February, was a massive storm that destroyed hundreds of homes and devastated tropical rainforests. Understanding the risks posed by natural hazards like Cyclone Yasi, and how to mitigate their impact, is an important priority for New Zealand as extreme weather resulting in emergency situations can be expected to become more frequent. Our climate is becoming increasingly variable, while more people are living in coastal areas which are vulnerable to storms. Read more.....
11 February 2011: Just How Windy Can Wellington Get?
We all know it can get pretty windy in New Zealand. In the past few years, severe winds have caused destruction in many places: Taranaki was torn by tornadoes in 2007, downslope winds with gusts of 160 kilometres per hour wreaked havoc in Greymouth in 2008, and in March 2010 a severe front, with gusts of 220 km/h, caused considerable building damage in the Wellington Region. But there is still a lot to learn about how the terrain affects wind speed and behaviour. Over the next few months scientists from NIWA, GNS Science, Opus International Consultants, and the University of Auckland, will be probing the wind in Belmont Regional Park near Wellington, to investigate wind 'speed-up' effects around the hills in one or two strong north-westerly events. Read more….
27 January 2011: NIWA Scientists Travel to Flood Stricken Australia
NIWA scientists leave for Brisbane this Friday 28 January. They will join Geosciences Australia in assessing the impacts of the devastating floods that recently hit eastern Australia. These floods, which peaked in the final weeks of 2010 and into 2011, are some of the worst ever experienced in Australia. The scientists will be conducting post-disaster surveys with flood victims who have experienced damages and losses. This will build a valuable base of information for assessment of economic impacts, and for future prevention. It will also help scientists to gain a better understanding of natural hazards. Read more….
4 December 2009: NZ Scientists Learn Lessons from Samoa Tsunami
A team of NZ scientists say the results of their field work after the Samoa Tsunami are of interest internationally and here in New Zealand. This project was unique in that it involved a coordinated team of international scientists who sought to collect evidence across a wide spectrum of the tsunami’s impact on communities, individuals, infrastructure, and the environment. “We broke new ground for the disaster loss assessment research community. Our results illustrate an effective use of cutting edge field methods,” says NIWA’s Dr Shona van Zijll de Jong. Read more….
9 October 2009: NZ Scientists to Study Tsunami Impacts in Samoa
A team of New Zealand scientists and engineers will travel to Samoa this weekend to gather information on the impact of the September 30 tsunami on coastal communities and infrastructure. The team comprises four specialists from GNS Science and four from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA). The 15-day mission is jointly funded by both organisations. They will spend five days in American Samoa studying the impact of the tsunami on buildings and infrastructure, mostly in urban areas. They are particularly interested in how different construction types handled the tsunami. They also intend to compile information on the forces exerted by the tsunami and the amount of damage caused by incoming and retreating waves. Read more….
31 July 2006: NZ Engineers Study Tsunami Damage in Java
A group of New Zealand engineers and scientists has gone to Indonesia to study the impact of the recent tsunami in Java on buildings and other structures. Led by earthquake engineer Jim Cousins of GNS Science, the team will work with Indonesian colleagues to collect information on how water depths and flow speeds affected structures as the tsunami waves travelled inland. The information will be valuable for engineers and risk modellers in New Zealand. It will be particularly useful for refining inundation and damage models developed in a report on New Zealand’s tsunami hazards, commissioned by the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management in 2005. Read more.....
Latest Prototype Updates
The next prototype release is expected for Aug/Sep 2011. Amongst other things the new version will have an extended set of damage and fragility functions to cover a wider range of impacts. A draft landslide model will also extent the list of perils that RiskScape covers to six.
Next Prototype Release
Release of the next RiskScape model prototype version 0.2.63 is scheduled in Aug/Sep 2011. Please register as a RiskScape user for a free two month license and download the latest RiskScape model prototype.
End-user Workshops
Four end-user workshops have been held along with numerous presentations introducing the RiskScape program and model to councils, civil defence emergency management groups, utility companies and the scientific community. Should you or your organisation be interested in hearing more about the RiskScape model, it's functionality and how to assist in its future development, please contact us.
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