Date
7 November 2023
Submitted to
The Waterways Postgraduate Student Conference
Author
Clevon Ash
Supervisors
Prof Matthew Wilson, Prof Iain White, and Dr Carolynne Hultquist
Abstract
Flooding is a major hazard in Aotearoa. In 2022 and 2023 alone, the combined cost of damage was more than 3.5 billion dollars. To address this problem, flood hazards and the potential impacts in New Zealand need to be better understood. The RiskScape modelling platform is one such solution. Jointly developed by NIWA and GNS, RiskScape is an open-source data processing application that can be used for multi-hazard risk analysis. Now in its second iteration RiskScape can analyse probabilistic hazard scenarios with customised damage functions and localised data as inputs. The outputs can include both risk assessments and loss estimates which can be tailored to show specific elements and aggregated results across a region. Using these outputs decision-makers at the national and council levels can implement appropriate mitigation strategies to minimize the impact from future flood events. This project aims to test how the uncertainty produced by these RiskScape outputs is represented and how that uncertainty influences the cases by case decisions made by New Zealand planners. Initial results from RiskScape simulations using data from the Kaiapoi region north of central Christchurch will be displayed.
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