Improving Wellington region’s resilience through integrated infrastructure resilience investments
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5459/bnzsee.54.2.117-134Abstract
Infrastructure networks (e.g. transport, water, energy, telecommunications) support life and the economy of communities of all sizes. New Zealand has witnessed several damaging earthquakes in the last decade that provide a compelling case to accelerate building resilient infrastructures in the country, so we can minimize any adverse impacts from future earthquakes. One of the regions that is highly vulnerable to earthquakes is Wellington. With the region’s population continually expanding and placing increased demands on its ageing infrastructures, with limited redundancy in the networks, and with many of its assets close to and / or intersecting fault lines, a large earthquake in the region could be highly disruptive, potentially resulting in serious social and economic consequences. While it may not be possible to completely avoid the impacts, they can be reduced. This paper provides an overview of the process taken in delivering a Wellington Lifelines Group report that demonstrates how impacts from a future major earthquake can be reduced through integrated and targeted infrastructure resilience investments. To quantify the benefits that can be achieved by making the proposed investments, impact modelling on nine different lifeline utilities in the Wellington metropolitan area were conducted; the assessment approach taken, and results derived and their use to prioritise resilience investments, are shown in this paper for selected key networks. The time-stamped service outage maps and tables produced from this work formed an essential input to evaluate and demonstrate the impact of the proposed resilience initiatives on the regional and national economies.
References
NZSEE (2010). “Special issue on 2010 Darfield earthquake”. Bulletin of the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering, 43(4). http://www.nzsee.org.nz/bulletin_index/43_4.htm
Tang AK (Editor) (2012). “Christchurch New Zealand Earthquake of 2010 and 2011: Lifeline Performance”. Technical Council on Lifeline Earthquake Engineering Monograph No. 41, American Society of Civil Engineers, Reston, 281 pp.
NZSEE (2011). “Special issue on 2011 Christchurch earthquake”. Bulletin of the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering, 44(4). http://www.nzsee.org.nz/bulletin_index/44_4.htm
Holden C, Kaiser A, Van Dissen R and Jury R (2013). “Sources, ground motion and structural response characteristics in Wellington of the 2013 Cook Strait earthquakes”. Bulletin of the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering, 46(4): 188 195. https://doi.org/10.5459/bnzsee.46.4.188-195 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5459/bnzsee.46.4.188-195
Morris GJ, Bradley BA, Walker A and Matuschka T (2013). “Ground motions and damage observations in the Marlborough region from the 2013 Lake Grassmere earthquake”. Bulletin of the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering, 46(4): 169-187. https://doi.org/10.5459/bnzsee.46.4.169-187 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5459/bnzsee.46.4.169-187
Wotherspoon LM, Palermo A, Holden C (2017). “The 2016 Mw7.8 Kaikoura earthquake: an introduction”. Bulletin of the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering, 50(2): i iv. http://www.nzsee.org.nz/db/Bulletin/Archive/50(2)000i.pdf DOI: https://doi.org/10.5459/bnzsee.50.2.i-iv
Davies AJ, Sadashiva VK, Aghababaei M, et al. (2017). “Transport infrastructure performance and management in the South Island of New Zealand, during the first 100 days following the 2016 Mw 7.8 ‘Kaikoura’ earthquake”. Bulletin of the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering, 50(2): 271 299. https://doi.org/10.5459/bnzsee.50.2.271-299 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5459/bnzsee.50.2.271-299
McDonald GW, Smith NJ, Ayres M, Kim J-H and Harvey E (2017). “Economic impact of the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake”. https://transport.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/Our-Work/Documents/KaikouraEarthquake-MERIT-Report.pdf (Accessed 05/07/2020).
Wellington Lifelines Group (2019). “Protecting Wellington’s Economy through Accelerated Infrastructure Investment Programme Business Case. Revision 3”. https://www.wremo.nz/assets/Uploads/191111-Wellington-Lifelines-PBC-MAIN-20191009.pdf (Accessed 09/04/2021)
Kestrel Group Ltd (2011). “Resilience Lessons: Orion’s 2010 and 2011 Earthquake Experiences: Independent Report”. September 2011, Kestrel Group Ltd, Wellington, 42pp. https://www.oriongroup.co.nz/assets/Customers/Kestrel-report-resilience-lessons.pdf
Sadashiva VK (2019). “Potential Earthquake and Volcanic Losses to Housing New Zealand Portfolio – 2019 Update”. Consultancy Report 2019/73. GNS Science, Lower Hutt, 42pp.
Rhoades DA, Van Dissen RJ, Langridge RM, Little TA, Ninis D, Smith EGC and Robinson R (2011). “Re-evaluation of conditional probability of rupture of the Wellington-Hutt Valley segment of the Wellington Fault”. Bulletin of the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering, 44(2): 77-86. https://doi.org/10.5459/bnzsee.44.2.77-86 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5459/bnzsee.44.2.77-86
Beetham RD, Cousins WJ, Craig M, Dellow G and Van Dissen R (2012). “Hutt Trunk Wastewater Earthquake Vulnerability Study”. Consultancy Report 2012/234, GNS Science, Lower Hutt, 51pp.
Langridge RM, Ries WF, Litchfield NJ, Villamor P, Van Dissen RJ, Rattenbury MS, Barrell DJA, Heron DW, Haubrock S, Townsend DB, Cox SC, Berryman KR, Nicol A, Lee JM and Stirling MW (2016). “The New Zealand active faults database”. New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics 59 (1): 86–96. https://doi.org/10.1080/00288306.2015.1112818 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00288306.2015.1112818
Stirling M, McVerry G, Gerstenberger M, Litchfield N, Dissen R, Berryman K, Barnes P, Wallace L, Villamor P, Langridge R, Lamarche G, Nodder S, Reyners ME, Bradley B, Rhoades DA, Nicol A, Pettinga J, Clark KJ and Jacobs K (2012). “National seismic hazard model for New Zealand: 2010 update”. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 102(4): 1514-1542. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1785/0120110170
Bradley BA (2013). “A New Zealand‐specific pseudospectral acceleration ground‐motion prediction equation for active shallow crustal earthquakes based on foreign models”. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 103(3): 1801-1822. https://doi.org/10.1785/0120120021 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1785/0120120021
Dellow GD, Perrin ND and Ries WF (2018). “Liquefaction Hazard in the Wellington Region”. Science Report 2014/16, GNS Science, Lower Hutt, 71pp.
Tonkin & Taylor Ltd. (2017). “MINERVA Earthquake Loss Model”. Liquefaction Module Technical Document.
Sadashiva VK, King AB and Matcham I (2017). “Exploring a risk evaluation tool for New Zealand state highway network national resilience project”. 16th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, 9-13 January, Santiago, Chile, Paper 3957.
Townsend DB, Begg JG, Van Dissen RJ, Rhoades DA, Saunders WSA and Little TA (2016). “Estimating co-seismic subsidence in the Hutt Valley associated with rupture of the Wellington fault”. Bulletin of the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering, 49(3): 283-291. https://doi.org/10.5459/bnzsee.49.3.283-291 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5459/bnzsee.49.3.283-291
Sadashiva VK, Nayyerloo M, Williams J, Heron DW, Uma SR, Horspool NA, Buxton R, Lin S-L, Lukovic B, King AB, Berryman K and Daly M (2020). “Potential benefits of implementing water network resilience projects in Wellington region of New Zealand”. 17th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Sendai, Japan, Paper No. C002641.
Sadashiva VK, Mowll R, Heron DW and Lukovic B (2020). “Reducing transportation network outages through integrated infrastructure resilience investment programme”. 17th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Sendai, Japan. Paper No. C002636.
King AB, Sadashiva VK, Dellow GD, Paulik R, Bell R, Smart G, Wadhwa S and Matcham I (2015). “Highway Network Risk Evaluation Tool – Proof of Concept”. Consultancy Report 2015/223. GNS Science, Lower Hutt, 93pp.
Brabhaharan P and Mason D (2012). “Wellington Region Road Network Resilience Study”. Report No. GER 2012-21. Prepared by Opus for the NZ Transport Agency, Wellington City Council, Hutt City Council, Upper Hutt City Council, Porirua City Council and Kapiti Coast District Council. September 2012. 79pp.
Uma SR, Sadashiva VK, Horspool N and Mueller C (2017). “Natural Hazard Loss Estimates for Z Energy Assets in Canterbury, Lower North Island, Auckland, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne, Napier and Wellington Regions”. Consultancy Report 2017/29. GNS Science, Lower Hutt, 58pp.
King A, Rosser B, Matcham I, Dellow S, van Balegooy S and Lacrosse V (2017). “Liquefaction risk evaluation modelling for Hawkes Bay region, New Zealand”. 16th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, 9-13 January, Santiago, Chile, Paper 2970.
Xie L, Tang J, Tang H, Xie Q and Xue S (2012). “Seismic fragility assessment of transmission towers via performance-based analysis”. 15th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, 24 28 September, Lisbon, Portugal, 10pp.
Federal Emergency Management Agency (2015). “Hazus-MH 2.1 Technical Manual: Earthquake Model”. https://www.fema.gov/media-library-data/20130726-1820-25045-6286/hzmh2_1_eq_tm.pdf (Accessed 27/3/2018).
Lin S-L, Nayyerloo M and Zhang H (2016). “Seismic performance of buried cables during the Canterbury earthquake sequence”. Australasian Earthquake Engineering Society Conference, 25 27 November, Melbourne, Australia, Paper 372.
Uma SR, Syed Y, Karalliyadda SC and Prasanna R (2020). “Modelling Interdependencies of Critical Infrastructure Network Recovery Using a Decision Support System”. Science Report 2020/18. GNS Science, Lower Hutt, 42pp.
Wellington Electricity (2015). “Wellington Electricity 10 Year Asset Management Plan (1 April 2016 – 31 March 2026)”. Wellington Electricity, Wellington.
