Organisations play a vital role in assisting communities to recover from disasters. They are the key providers of goods and services needed in both response and recovery efforts. They provide the employment which both anchors people to place and supports the taxation base to allow for necessary recovery spending. Finally, organisations are an integral part of much day to day functioning contributing immensely to people’s sense of ‘normality’ and psychological wellbeing. Yet, despite their overall importance in the recovery process, there are significant gaps in our existing knowledge with regard to how organisations respond and recover following disaster. This research fills one part of this gap by examining collaboration as an adaptive strategy enacted by organisations in the Canterbury region of New Zealand, which was heavily impacted by a series of major earthquakes, occurring in 2010 and 2011. Collaboration has been extensively investigated in a variety of settings and from numerous disciplinary perspectives. However, there are few studies that investigate the role of collaborative approaches to support post-disaster business recovery. This study investigates the type of collaborations that have occurred and how they evolved as organisations reacted to the resource and environmental change caused by the disaster. Using data collected through semi-structured interviews, survey and document analysis, a rich and detailed picture of the recovery journey is created for 26 Canterbury organisations including 14 collaborators, six non-traders, five continued traders and one new business. Collaborations included two or more individual businesses collaborating along with two multi-party, place based projects. Comparative analysis of the organisations’ experiences enabled the assessment of decisions, processes and outcomes of collaboration, as well as insight into the overall process of business recovery. This research adopted a primarily inductive, qualitative approach, drawing from both grounded theory and case study methodologies in order to generate theory from this rich and contextually situated data. Important findings include the importance of creating an enabling context which allows organisations to lead their own recovery, the creation of a framework for effective post-disaster collaboration and the importance of considering both economic and other outcomes. Collaboration is found to be an effective strategy enabling resumption of trade at a time when there seemed few other options available. While solving this need, many collaborators have discovered significant and unexpected benefits not just in terms of long term strategy but also with regard to wellbeing. Economic outcomes were less clear-cut. However, with approximately 70% of the Central Business District demolished and rebuilding only gaining momentum in late 2014, many organisations are still in a transition stage moving towards a new ‘normal’.

In 2010 and 2011 Christchurch, New Zealand experienced a series of earthquakes that caused extensive damage across the city, but primarily to the Central Business District (CBD) and eastern suburbs. A major feature of the observed damage was extensive and severe soil liquefaction and associated ground damage, affecting buildings and infrastructure. The behaviour of soil during earthquake loading is a complex phenomena that can be most comprehensively analysed through advanced numerical simulations to aid engineers in the design of important buildings and critical facilities. These numerical simulations are highly dependent on the capabilities of the constitutive soil model to replicate the salient features of sand behaviour during cyclic loading, including liquefaction and cyclic mobility, such as the Stress-Density model. For robust analyses advanced soil models require extensive testing to derive engineering parameters under varying loading conditions for calibration. Prior to this research project little testing on Christchurch sands had been completed, and none from natural samples containing important features such as fabric and structure of the sand that may be influenced by the unique stress-history of the deposit. This research programme is focussed on the characterisation of Christchurch sands, as typically found in the CBD, to facilitate advanced soil modelling in both res earch and engineering practice - to simulate earthquake loading on proposed foundation design solutions including expensive ground improvement treatments. This has involved the use of a new Gel Push (GP) sampler to obtain undisturbed samples from below the ground-water table. Due to the variable nature of fluvial deposition, samples with a wide range of soil gradations, and accordingly soil index properties, were obtained from the sampling sites. The quality of the samples is comprehensively examined using available data from the ground investigation and laboratory testing. A meta-quality assessment was considered whereby a each method of evaluation contributed to the final quality index assigned to the specimen. The sampling sites were characterised with available geotechnical field-based test data, primarily the Cone Penetrometer Test (CPT), supported by borehole sampling and shear-wave velocity testing. This characterisation provides a geo- logical context to the sampling sites and samples obtained for element testing. It also facilitated the evaluation of sample quality. The sampling sites were evaluated for liquefaction hazard using the industry standard empirical procedures, and showed good correlation to observations made following the 22 February 2011 earthquake. However, the empirical method over-predicted liquefaction occurrence during the preceding 4 September 2010 event, and under-predicted for the subsequent 13 June 2011 event. The reasons for these discrepancies are discussed. The response of the GP samples to monotonic and cyclic loading was measured in the laboratory through triaxial testing at the University of Canterbury geomechanics laboratory. The undisturbed samples were compared to reconstituted specimens formed in the lab in an attempt to quantify the effect of fabric and structure in the Christchurch sands. Further testing of moist tamped re- constituted specimens (MT) was conducted to define important state parameters and state-dependent properties including the Critical State Line (CSL), and the stress-strain curve for varying state index. To account for the wide-ranging soil gradations, selected representative specimens were used to define four distinct CSL. The input parameters for the Stress-Density Model (S-D) were derived from a suite of tests performed on each representative soil, and with reference to available GP sample data. The results of testing were scrutinised by comparing the data against expected trends. The influence of fabric and structure of the GP samples was observed to result in similar cyclic strength curves at 5 % Double Amplitude (DA) strain criteria, however on close inspection of the test data, clear differences emerged. The natural samples exhibited higher compressibility during initial loading cycles, but thereafter typically exhibited steady growth of plastic strain and excess pore water pressure towards and beyond the strain criteria and initial liquefaction, and no flow was observed. By contrast the reconstituted specimens exhibited a stiffer response during initial loading cycles, but exponential growth in strains and associated excess pore water pressure beyond phase-transformation, and particularly after initial liquefaction where large strains were mobilised in subsequent cycles. These behavioural differences were not well characterised by the cyclic strength curve at 5 % DA strain level, which showed a similar strength for both GP samples and MT specimens. A preliminary calibration of the S-D model for a range of soil gradations is derived from the suite of laboratory test data. Issues encountered include the influence of natural structure on the peak-strength–state index relationship, resulting in much higher peak strengths than typically observed for sands in the literature. For the S-D model this resulted in excessive stiffness to be modelled during cyclic mobility, when the state index becomes large momentarily, causing strain development to halt. This behaviour prevented modelling the observed re- sponse of silty sands to large strains, synonymous with “liquefaction”. Efforts to reduce this effect within the current formulation are proposed as well as future research to address this issue.

The research presented in this thesis provides a quantitative analysis of atmospheric influences on particulate matter pollution in Christchurch across a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. A complex interaction of low level flow characteristics that form in response to local and regional features of complex terrain, together with an urban setting that is characterised by low density housing, mostly comprised of single storey dwellings that are poorly insulated, regularly leads to nocturnal smog events during winter in Christchurch. Provided synoptic flow is weak, the above mentioned flow interaction promotes flow stagnation over the city, when nocturnal katabatic drainage flows and day-time north-easterly on-shore winds converge over the city. Additionally, undercutting of the density currents promotes highly stable atmospheric stratification close to the surface, so that, in combination, both horizontal and vertical air movement is suppressed. As particulate emission release from solid fuel burning for home heating coincides with this poor atmospheric dispersion potential, particle concentrations can increase substantially so that national air quality guidelines are regularly exceeded during winter in Christchurch. At the core of this thesis is a classification based approach that examines the day-to-day probabilities of breaches of the national air quality guideline for PM over the last decade at a single location in Christchurch as a result of variations in meteorological conditions alone. It is shown that, based on variations in temperature and wind speed, up to 85% of exceedence occurrence can be explained. From this, concentration trends over time, when meteorological variability is kept to a minimum, are assessed and evidence is found that recent regulatory measures to enhance air quality are beginning to show positive effects. Atmospheric processes that control pollution dispersion on the mesoscale are investigated through means of atmospheric numerical modelling in a novel approach that assimilates observational climatic wind field averages to drive low level flow for two idealised case studies. It is shown that this approach is able to reproduce the observed diurnal concentration patterns very well and that much of these patterns can be attributed to mesoscale circulation characteristics and associated atmospheric dispersion potential, namely flow stagnation and recirculation of contaminants. When timing of stagnation and subsequent recirculation is such that it occurs within a few hours after peak emission release, concentration increase is enhanced and dilution is delayed, thus severely exacerbating the problem. Links between exceedence probabilities and synoptic situations that favour the degradation of air quality are established and various synoptic transition scenarios are examined with regard to local air quality. The progression of anticyclones across the country is identified to be the dominant synoptic control mechanism and it is shown that latitudinal variation in the progression path determines the extent of expected exceedence probability. On interdecadal hemispheric scales, it is found that a particular combination of local and synoptic atmospheric conditions that favours air quality degradation, shows a re-occurring pattern of frequency maxima (and minima) with a periodicity of approximately 14 - 16 years. For the synoptic part of this interdecadal variability, a close relationship to Southern Hemispheric pressure anomalies in high latitudes is revealed. Finally, for verification of the combined findings and to assess their prediction capability, a validation case study is given which shows that the applied methodology is able to capture day-to-day variations in pollution levels with acceptable (statistically significant) accuracy.

Tertiary students, not just working populations, might be experiencing feelings of burnout following the Christchurch earthquakes of 2010 and 2011. In the aftermath of a major disaster, the gap between the resources available to handle pressures (e.g., support) and the demands inherent in the pursuit of an academic degree (e.g., heavy workload) may lead to feelings of burnout among students. This study hypothesised that burnout dimensions (emotional exhaustion and disengagement) would be related to students’ perceptions of immediate institutional support, extended institutional support, peer support, family support, and work overload. Additionally, it was proposed that institutional and social support would moderate the relationship between work overload and burnout. Two hundred and seventy one third and fourth year students were sampled using an online questionnaire. These particular students were expected to be at greater risk of emotional exhaustion and academic disengagement because they were at the earliest stage of their tertiary education when the major earthquakes first hit. Family support and extended institutional support were found to be associated with decreased levels of emotional exhaustion and disengagement. Meanwhile, work overload was found to be related to increased levels of emotional exhaustion and disengagement. Furthermore, both peer support and immediate institutional support were found to have a moderating effect on the relationship between work overload and disengagement. This study has exposed unique findings which contribute to burnout research especially in a post-disaster context, and raises the importance of providing the right types of support for individuals who are particularly dealing with the consequences of a natural disaster.

This thesis is about many things, not least of all the September 4th 2010 and February 22nd 2011 earthquakes that shook Christchurch, New Zealand. A city was shaken, events which worked to lay open the normally invisible yet vital objects, processes and technologies which are the focus of inquiry: the sewers, pipes, pumps, the digital technologies, the land and politics which constitute the Christchurch wastewater networks. The thesis is an eclectic mix drawing together methods and concepts from Bruno Latour, John Law, Giles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, Nigel Thrift, Donna Haraway and Patrick Joyce. It is an exploration of how the technologies and objects of sanitation perform the city, and how such things which are normally hidden and obscured, are made visible. The question of visibility is also turned toward the research itself: how does one observe, and describe? How are sociological visibilities constructed? Through the research, the encountering of objects in the field, the processes of method, the pedagogy of concepts, and the construction of risk, the thesis comes to be understood as a particular kind of social scientific artefact which assembles four different accounts: the first regards the construction of visibility; the second explores Christchurch city from the control room where the urban sanitary infrastructures are monitored; the third chapter looks at the formatted and embodied practices which emerge with the correlation of the city and sanitation; the fourth looks at the changing politics of a city grappling with severely damaged essential services, land and structures. The final chapter considers how the differences between romantic and baroque sensibilities mean that these four accounts elicit knowing not through smoothness or uniformity, but in partiality and non-coherence. This thesis is about pipes, pump stations, and treatment plants; about the effluent of a city; about the messiness of social science when confronted by the equally messy world of wastewater.

Situated amidst farmland 18 kilometres from the centre of Christchurch is Paparua men’s prison, one of New Zealand’s oldest and largest penal institutions. Prisoners have been housed at the Paparua site since 1915 and when the prison buildings were completed in 1925, around 120 prisoners were incarcerated there. Still at the same location where the two original wings continue to accommodate inmates, Paparua has the capacity for nearly 1,000 low to high-security male prisoners. Despite being almost a century old, very little has been recorded about Paparua, which is symptomatic of the paucity of published material on New Zealand prisons. This thesis seeks to address this shortfall in the literature by, for the first time, documenting the events which have taken place at Paparua and giving insight into life for prisoners there over the last 100 years. These events and the changes to prison life have been driven by the social conditions of the day and their intersection with a complex range of factors at the inmate, community and administrative levels. Paparua’s evolution, therefore, has been the product of the changing socio-political climate and by contextualising the prison’s history I will show how these dynamics have contributed to the development of Paparua. The research undertaken to achieve such a task involved an historical analysis of 130 years of departmental reports, government reports, parliamentary debates and newspaper articles. This was accompanied by 13 comprehensive interviews with former and current staff and inmates of Paparua. The reconstruction of Paparua’s past is valuable not only in that it captures the details of an interesting feature of New Zealand history but because it offers insight into the complex range of forces that a are likely to influence its development in the future.

The past twenty years of research that has associated air pollution with health outcomes has brought remarkable advance in statistical techniques that effectively tease out the intricacies of the relationship. However, while statistical techniques progressed, an assumption based on seminal work in the field persisted: that concentrations of particulate matter (PM) air pollution are spatially homogeneous within urban areas, and consequently, that personal exposures could be based on central monitoring site data alone. Although this assumption went unaddressed for years, it has now come to researchers' attention that it may be flawed and that the assumption may induce exposure misclassification error under certain conditions. This thesis explores intraurban spatial variability in PM through a systematic review of the literature, experimental field testing, modelling, and new methodological approaches. The key outcomes of the thesis are as follows: (i) the publication of the first systematic review of the intraurban particulate literature, challenging the widely-held assumption that PM concentrations are spatially uniform; (ii) an experimental test was conducted in Christchurch, New Zealand, revealing that the homogenous assumption was false for a city with high wintertime particulate matter concentrations; (iii) an integrated meteorological-emission model was evaluated for the first time at the intraurban level for PM and a new study design was suggested; and (iv) the spatial modification effect of social and ecological confounders was analysed with respect to respiratory hospital admissions and PM. Collectively, these outcomes provide a new body of knowledge informing researchers focused on assessing the relationship between air pollution and health in applications ranging from small-area exposure assessment to the wider field of environmental epidemiology.

This thesis presents an in depth study of the expansion of settlement in Christchurch between 1850-62, the pre-Municipal Council years. It is confined spatially to the 'central city' area within the four Avenues. Four research problems are studied: (1) The laying out of Christchurch by the New Zealand Company surveyors for the Canterbury Association, in particular, the reasons for the use of a grid street pattern. It was found that many factors were involved in its use. These included the personal preferences of the surveyors and the Association committee members, the topographic nature of the site chosen and contemporary planning convention. (2) The initial selection of town sections by the colonists and the reasons behind their choices. The 'orders of choice' of the sections have been tabulated and mapped to show section preference and how the settlers perceived the economic value of particular areas of the town grid for their commercial prospects. Town section auctions, leases, sales and subdivisions as well as church land are investigated. (3) The sale of the Town Reserves surrounding the town section area is also studied; the reason for their early sale, the nature and characteristics of the sales including prices and purchasers and their occupations. It was found that the prices paid were significantly related to the spatial positions of the lots within the Reserve blocks and to the time of their sale, in response to contemporary land values. There was no significant relationship between prices and the occupations of the buyers. (4) Public works undertaken by the Association and the Provincial Government are studied and their relationship with immigration and population figures. The scale of public works carried out at particular times was found to relate both to available finance and to immigration, the source of labour. Various aspects of public works, for example, street and footpath formation and bridging and drainage work were found to be indicative of differential growth between periods of depression and prosperity.

Thesis (M. Appl. Sc.) -- Lincoln University, 2008. / Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.) -- Lincoln University, 2009. / Also available via the World Wide Web.