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The Earthquake Commission (EQC) has renewed its funding of the online database that lets engineers and planners ‘see’ the soil under the ground they are working with.
In 2012, the New Zealand Geotechnical Database was created to enable Canterbury recovery agencies to make the best use of the $30 million worth of soil testing EQC had funded and collected following the earthquakes.
EQC general manager resilience Hugh Cowan said the database provides a “fantastic resource” of information that enables an improved understanding of the risk profile of a site and also optimises costs in doing so.
“This leads to better decisions about things like where to place building foundations such as piles, how deep they need to go, and how to minimise a site’s natural hazards in general,” Cowan said. “It gave us an excellent practical base for our policy work in Canterbury.”
EQC also highlighted the Gold Innovate Award given to EQC and Tonkin & Taylor for a world-leading approach to assessing the vulnerability of 140,000 Christchurch houses to increased liquefaction and flood risk, which wouldn’t have been possible without the Geotechnical Database.
“The vulnerability information also helps us understand what claims we could get in future, supports planning to reduce impacts, and speeds up post-event recovery,” Cowan added. “It’s used by our reinsurers too, to help reduce uncertainty about their risk exposure in New Zealand.”
The database will be receiving a $150,000 funding contribution from EQC over the coming year.
