Lyttleton Earthquake Science Clearinghouse Briefing

3.00pm – 4.30pm, Friday 25 February 2011
NZi3 Lobby, University of Canterbury

This Canterbury Technical Clearinghouse meeting summary was prepared by Bruce Deam on behalf of the NZ Society for Earthquake Engineering (NZSEE). Click on contributor's names to send them an email message.

Steve Weaver (Geological Sciences, University of Canterbury) began the meeting by welcoming the Christchurch-based and GNS Science engineers and scientists to the university to discuss the research response and coordination arrangements over the coming weeks.

Kelvin Berryman (Natural Hazards Platform Manager) then outlined how the research community needed to provide consistent messaging when interacting with the news media. Most government agencies are reporting to the public through the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management. The science community are encouraged to engage with the media themselves, but there need to be standard responses to provide a consistent message with minimal confusion. These are being worked on by GNS Science and will be circulated by email.

Kelvin offered some guidance that included: Kelvin then outlined the significant scale increase with the science effort following the "Lyttleton Aftershock" and that there needed to be good co-ordination between the individual researchers and research teams. He suggested that as no one person was able to, the following people be appointed to coordinate the efforts: Misko Cubrinovski (Geotechnical Engineering, University of Canterbury) outlined how the Geotechnical reconnaissance and reporting following the September earthquake were extremely well coordinated given the large number or researchers and organisations involved in the field work.

Kelvin noted that as much research as possible should be published on the FRST Natural Hazards Platform Wiki to promote the platform, present a united voice to government and to help coordinate the science effort. Hannah Brackley is developing an email distribution list. He also noted that the NZSEE Clearinghouse was a well-established alternative [particularly as it has both public and managed private spaces - Ed].

Kelvin outlined how the privacy commissioner had provided guidance on the sharing of information so the difficulties experienced getting data following the September earthquake would be avoided. He also indicated that significant resources would be required and are being appropriated to combine the information currently being held in databases.

Misko noted that there has been a free exchange of geotechnical engineering data for most of the time since September.

Kelvin indicated that there are overseas teams wanting to visit and that they should be delayed because they need to avoid impacting on the response and recovery effort. There is also an acute lack of accommodation.

After general discussion, it was agreed that there was no need for regular meetings of the science community and that a meeting would be called when there was a pressing need to have one. Email communications should suffice in the meantime.
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