PLANNING FOR RESILIENT COMMUNITIES: AND EVERY OTHER DAY Learning from the Canterbury 2010-2012 earthquake sequence A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Geography University of Canterbury Karen Banwell 2017 To the people of Christchurch And to those who so generously gave their time and their stories Arohanui ki a koutou kā toa ii Acknowledgements It has been a joy, very personal and very moving to be able to do this thesis and I am deeply aware of the privilege it has been. I have had the unbounded support of my family, friends and work colleagues. My first thank you is to Miria Goodwin for starting me out on this journey… I will always blame you. I am also grateful to my informal advisors Chrissie Williams and David Price who provided timely advice and good humour with a good coffee. Thank you to my three supervisors, who each contributed in their own special way; Professor Simon Kingham for the big advice, the overview and the laughs, also Associate Professor David Conradson for the academic direction and the much needed help at the end. And last but not least, Dr Rita Dionisio, thank you Rita for your enthusiasm, patience and kindness. To all my university cohorts and especially the members of the writing group that morphed into the collective care group – thank you, also to the Geography academics for your encouragement and support over the years. Thanks to my office mate Lukas, for the maps and funny walks and to Paul, Jesse and Alison for their help with statistics and maps. Dr Vivienne Ivory, thank you for the sage advice: to find in each day my two golden hours - one for reading and the other for writing. I would read papers in the morning sitting on or often in my bed as the sun was rising and write as the sun was setting. George, Annie and Fergus, my very special and funny family, thank you for all your love and support given even though you all continue to be confused about what I do. I have so appreciated the support of my wonderful friends in GB and my four siblings, who tease me for being such an unemployable old student who feeds them weeds (varieties of lettuce actually). Yes, I love my garden. Finally, to my parents Barbara and Bruce, thank you for all your love and the now much appreciated feral childhood. But especially Bruce, who died just as I was starting out on this journey, someone who continued to learn and write, right to the very end of his life: Dad this is for you. iii Table of Contents Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................................... iii List of Figures ........................................................................................................................................... viii List of Tables .............................................................................................................................................. ix Glossary of Aotearoa /New Zealand terms ...................................................................................................x Thesis Abstract............................................................................................................................................ xi Chapter 1: Introduction ...........................................................................................................................1 1.1 Disaster as a natural experiment ...................................................................................................1 1.2 Framing the research .....................................................................................................................2 1.3 Research context ...........................................................................................................................3 1.4 Research question and aims ..........................................................................................................6 1.5 Structure of the thesis ....................................................................................................................7 Chapter 2: Review of the literature .........................................................................................................9 2.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................9 2.2 Where disaster research began ....................................................................................................10 2.3 Context and key terms used ........................................................................................................12 2.3.1 Disaster and hazard .............................................................................................................12 2.3.2 Community /neighbourhood / suburb .................................................................................14 2.3.3 Community resilience .........................................................................................................15 2.3.4 Recovery .............................................................................................................................17 2.4 A model of community resilience ...............................................................................................18 2.4.1 Social capital .......................................................................................................................19 2.4.2 Sense of place......................................................................................................................22 2.5 Characteristics of place – the built environment .........................................................................23 2.5.1 Features of the built environment .......................................................................................24 2.6 Place-based understanding of community resilience ..................................................................29 2.7 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................30 Chapter 3: Context - City history, earthquakes and planning framework ............................................32 3.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................32 3.2 Memoir of Christchurch: history, development and planning ....................................................32 3.3 Changes to planning ....................................................................................................................36 3.3.2 The Greater Christchurch Urban Development Strategy ....................................................38 3.4 The earthquake sequences ...........................................................................................................44 3.4.1 September 2010...................................................................................................................44 3.4.2 February 2011 .....................................................................................................................44 iv 3.5 Post-Earthquake planning framework and decisions ..................................................................48 3.5.1 The Land Use Recovery Plan ..............................................................................................50 3.6 Chapter summary ........................................................................................................................51 Chapter 4: Research methods ...............................................................................................................52 4.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................52 4.2 Researcher’s background ............................................................................................................52 4.2.1 Sensitivity to approach ........................................................................................................54 4.3 Research setting ..........................................................................................................................54 4.3.1 Case study suburbs ..............................................................................................................58 4.4 Method ........................................................................................................................................68 4.4.1 The interviews .....................................................................................................................70 4.4.2 Informal interviews .............................................................................................................71 4.4.3 Key informants ....................................................................................................................72 4.4.4 Participant semi-structured interviews and questionnaire ...................................................74 4.4.5 Confidentiality considerations ............................................................................................78 4.4.6 Carrying out the semi-structured interviews .......................................................................78 4.5 Analysis.......................................................................................................................................79 4.5.1 Analysis of transcriptions