Filling the Gaps from the Christchurch Earthquakes 2010–2013: Greening the Rubble and the Mt Pleasant Community Response Plan as Two Local Initiatives

Abstract

Between September 4, 2010 and mid-2013 a severe earthquake sequence struck Christchurch, the second largest city in New Zealand, causing multiple fatalities and the destruction of much of the central business district. Large areas of suburban residential housing were condemned with the prospect that entire neighbourhoods would be abandoned for several decades if not permanently. The recovery and rebuilding process was immediately placed high on central and local government agendas since Christchurch and the surrounding Canterbury region were and continue to be seen as crucial to the security and stability of the national economy. Programmes for recovery developed initially relied principally on one-off funding packages and strategies from central government, local government recovery plans and the settlement of commercial insurance claims. There remains, however, the spectre of Christchurch as a city of demolition sites and vacant lots for the best part of a decade if not longer. Furthermore, although local and national Civil Defence and Emergency Management systems were activated during the most severe seismic events the response operations did not always reach those in need as promptly as was expected. Residents in a number of communities and neighbourhoods are now conscious that when disaster strikes they are still likely to have to fend for themselves. This chapter documents and evaluates two specific “gap-filling” responses to the Christchurch earthquakes over a three-year period. The first response considered is a community-based project called “Greening the Rubble” which took root in October 2010 as the prospect of a central city of vacant lots and car parks worried a number of volunteers into action to temporarily cheer up empty public and private sites with pocket parks, native plant displays and cultural interventions. The second initiative scrutinised, the “Mt Pleasant Community Response Plan 2012–2013,” is one of the first community-based emergency response plans to emerge that has sought to complement official civil defence planning arrangements. Both responses are discussed in detail in the context of constantly changing and evolving hazardscapes and socio-economic and political conditions.

Citation

Montgomery, R. (2014), "Filling the Gaps from the Christchurch Earthquakes 2010–2013: Greening the Rubble and the Mt Pleasant Community Response Plan as Two Local Initiatives", Risks and Conflicts: Local Responses to Natural Disasters (Community, Environment and Disaster Risk Management, Vol. 14), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 43-78. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2040-7262(2013)0000014009