Navigating Resilience: Building a Safe Earthquake Park and Efficient Disaster Recovery Lane

Following significant seismic events, public open spaces serve as primary gathering points for individuals to congregate and provide assistance in the immediate and prolonged aftermath of the disaster. This study initially explores the varying degrees of risk that Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington encounters due to seismic hazards. Subsequently, the thesis delves into an examination of the current disaster management system in New Zealand, specifically focusing on exploring the possible incorporation of landscape architecture to improve seismic disaster resilience in Wellington City. This involves a thorough investigation into the predominant urban planning strategies within Wellington City. Furthermore, it identifies critical disaster risk reduction (DRR) areas within the city, including community centres, civil defence centres, and maraes.

Then, It investigates the potential of utilising public open spaces in the context of disaster recovery and resilience, taking a comprehensive perspective on a disaster recovery lane introduction to Wellington City. In this section of the research, ArcGIS Pro mapping software is employed to evaluate and compare the susceptibility of the city’s public open spaces’ vulnerability to seismic-related hazards. Additionally, it identifies a secure path (disaster recovery lane) using the Voronoi urban planning methodology. The thesis looks at examples from around the world, such as earthquake parks in Turkey and Japan, as well as conceptual proposals like the retrofitting of Golden Gate Park by CMG Landscape architects. The objective is to understand the essential design attributes for a safe earthquake park and examine how these findings can inform the design of disaster recovery lanes.

Then, the study classifies earthquake parks in Wellington into four types, taking into account the city’s unique geography and specific needs. It also introduces three street typologies for disaster recovery lane, offering a comprehensive framework to enhance seismic resilience in Wellington City.

The first stage of the design concept of both the re-design safe earthquake park and disaster recovery lane uses the idea of the land mass splitting apart during an earthquake and how we use technically and logically land split by Voronoi methodology. From there, seismic forms and shapes have been investigated to redesign open spaces with the use of green and blue infrastructures to function as multifunctional spaces. Here, the use of planting strategies and waterway design approaches has been demonstrated to improve the concepts of safe earthquake parks and recovery lanes. Green and blue infrastructure (GBI) is widely acknowledged for its ability to mitigate the effects of natural disasters. Currently, there exists a lack of comprehensive knowledge or available resources about the utilisation of green and blue infrastructures in cities with high seismic risk, specifically in the context of post-seismic disaster preparedness and recovery.