Survey to shape emergency

An Otago Uni student’s doing a deep dive into our transport networks, and needs your help.

Centre for Sustainability PhD candidate Niloorfar Dini’s researching how resilient the Whakatipu’s road networks are to natural hazard events, and wants community perspectives of the transport network, and what it means to residents during and after disruptive events, for example, an Alpine Fault magnitude 8 (AF8) scenario or severe weather events.

She says road closures caused by natural hazard events have long been part of the South Island story, and while future preparedness plans are being developed, more community-informed insights are needed when it comes to transport networks.

Dini developed her research under the supervision of Associate Professor Caroline Orchiston and Prof Etienne Nel, recognising the vital role transport plays as a lifeline after such events.

It’s been endorsed by the local Civil Defence Emergency Management (CDEM) group and NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA).

As part of her study, she’s conducting a community survey, followed by interviews in Queenstown, hoping by having a wide range of community input, her research can inform and support future planning around roads — CDEM and NZTA have already asked for an anonymised summary report, to support future planning, to be sent to them.

Dini says the survey has ethics approval and is open to all Whakatipu residents aged over 18 — it takes about 10 minutes to complete, and no personal information’s collected.

And as a thank you for participating, participants have the chance to go into a prize draw for a four-person emergency kit, valued at $190.