Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The government is spending almost a million dollars on researching earthquake and volcanic disaster resilience in collaboration with scientists in Japan.
The Catalyst Fund recipients - two teams from GNS and one from Canterbury University - would each receive $300,000 to work on projects to help make New Zealand more prepared for disaster, Science Minister Shane Reti said.
The fund was one of many that underwent a shake-up last year - by then-Science Minister Judith Collins - to focus on science that delivered "greater economic impact".
Reti said the projects would look into building earthquake resilience, volcanic ashfall, and the tsunami threat from the Hikurangi subduction zone.
"New Zealand and Japan share similar risks when it comes to earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic activity. By working together in these projects, we can better understand risks and potential mitigate options for future events."
Canterbury University wood science engineer Thomas Lim said he and his colleagues could learn from researchers in Japan who had made a lot of progress on making buildings more resilient to seismic shaking.
He said the multi-discipline team was working on a panel-like bracing product - made from a combination of wood, concrete, and steel - that could be retrofitted onto earthquake prone buildings.
Lim said the modular product was designed to be fitted internally or externally and would work on concrete-framed buildings - which could be the part of the solution for the capital city's almost 600 buildings that need strengthening.
"There are actually quite a bit of those type of structures in Wellington that have those concrete frames but were designed before the seismic resilient building design was well understood, so this system can be used to improve those existing structures."
Meanwhile, teams from GNS would be investigating similarities between the Japan Trench and New Zealand's Hikurangi Subduction Zone as well as the impact of ashfall from large, explosive volcanic eruptions.
GNS geophysicist Dan Bassett said initial research on the Japan Trench would focus on the area that produced the Tohoku earthquake in 2011.
"This was the most recent and best recorded giant earthquake on earth and it had several anomalous characteristics that really surprised scientists."
The findings challenged previously held ideas about what controls the size of earthquakes and tsunami at subduction zones, he said.
Bassett said techniques akin to medical imaging would map the structure of the Japan subduction zone and then researchers would compare the structure to our own subduction zone - and largest tsunami threat - the Hikurangi off the east coast of New Zealand.
"We're trying to reduce the uncertainties of natural hazards so that we know how we're going to be impacted by them," he said, which would help inform tsunami inundation, evacuation zones, and New Zealand's emergency response.
GNS risk scientists would also investigate how Japan dealt with volcanic ashfall.
Project co-lead Christina Magill said the country experienced frequent ashfall which could have "substantial impacts" on critical lifelines, health, farming and business - the focus of the research would be on how to mitigate the fall-out from volcanic activity.
Japanese research teams would receive equivalent funding from the Japan Science and Technology Agency.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
