Latest additions to the knowledge base

After a series of disasters – from the Canterbury earthquakes to Cyclone Gabrielle – real doubt hangs over the insurance options available to some New Zealand homeowners.

While research has focused on volunteers in disaster response and recovery, less attention has been paid on how organizations involved in disaster risk management can support volunteers in leading and coordinating community-based disaster risk reduction.

Recent assessments suggest the ocean current known as Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is slowing down, with collapse a real possibility this century.

The study assess the economic and environmental impacts on agriculture of flooding under projected climate change, including land-use change as an adaption response to floods. The case study area is the Awanui catchment in the far north of New Zealand.

This report and accompanying technical annex analyse the impact of climate framework laws in three countries, Germany, Ireland and New Zealand, based on evidence from 73 expert interviews and desk research.

It is clear New Zealand stands at a pivotal juncture. The country faces an increasingly severe wildfire climate. And the once relatively “safe” regions are now under threat.

The elderly and disabled people are often forgotten during extreme weather events, a research project study has found.

Cyclone Gabrielle simultaneously exposed New Zealand’s dependence on “horizontal” infrastructure (electricity and roading networks, for example), and how tenuous and potentially prone to damage it is.