Canterbury Technical Clearinghouse Newsletter: 5 October 2010
Dear Colleagues;
This is the second summary newsletter that I have prepared on behalf of the NZSEE to brief technical groups on activities and resources pertaining to the Darfield (Canterbury) Earthquake of 4 September. This is being distributed to members of the NZ Society for Earthquake Engineering (NZSEE), the Structural Engineering Society NZ (SESOC) and the NZ Geotechnical Society (NZGS), as many from outside Canterbury have contributed to the work in Canterbury, either recently or in the past, and are interested in our activities.
The Canterbury Structural Group (CSG) and the NZSEE hosted a forum on " The earthquake and what do we do next" on 22 September, which began with an overview of the scientific investigations into the earthquake and its effects. Questions and answers about the earthquake and the types of damage observed in larger structures were outlined. There was an open discussion on a number of response and recovery related topics. Several structures-related decision questions are being discussed in a blog in preparation for a second forum on Wednesday 6 October.
The Canterbury Branches of the NZGS and the NZSEE hosted a Special Meeting on Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering in Canterbury on 28 September. This meeting began with a presentation on the National Seismic Hazard Model and the ground motion recorded at several sites. This was followed by an overview of the geotechnical response and subsequent investigations. Subsequent comments and discussions mostly centred on house foundations, ranging from how to design for liquefaction as an Ultimate or Habitability Limit State, to how it should be incorporated into standards like NZS 3604, to how to reinstate or repair damaged foundations and structures. A follow-up meeting is scheduled for Tuesday 12 October.
Environment Canterbury is gathering metadata on remote sensing and aerial photography datasets captured since the earthquake. The metadata summary currently lists seven sets of LiDAR, photos and video available for earthquake recovery work.
There are several overseas investigation teams planning to arrive over the next month. Specifically, Australian and US Engineering Lifelines teams will be in Canterbury for the week beginning 11 October. Most of the NZ and overseas investigation teams have returned home and are posting their observation reports in their newsletters and websites and are submitting longer articles to international journals.
The first newsletter and the information and links provided above are available from the private Canterbury Technical Clearinghouse website. There is also an independent public NZSEE Clearinghouse.
Finally, future newsletters will only be distributed to Canterbury members of the technical groups; there is a signup form on the Canterbury Technical Clearinghouse if you are from outside Canterbury and would like to receive future issues.
With regards,
Bruce Deam
Canterbury Technical Clearinghouse & Visiting Scientist Coordinator
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