New Research: Land use and economic recovery in Auckland post volcanic eruption simulations Since the last Auckland Volcanic Field (AVF) eruption on Rangitoto, the city we know and love has been built. We have conducted a lot of research to determine the physical impacts a future AVF eruption could have on the city over the short-term (during an eruption and up to one year after the eruption), but what about how our land use changes? How would an eruption affect our local and national economy? University of Auckland doctoral candidate Rob Cardwell led a team of researchers to answer these questions. They used a hypothetical eruption in Māngere Bridge, one of the DEVORA Scenarios, as a case study. Using the economic model Measuring the Economic Resilience of Infrastructure Tool (MERIT) in conjunction with land use model Integrated Scenarios Explorer (ISE), they simulated three scenarios: what would happen without an eruption, what would happen if recovery was slow, and what would happen if recovery was fast. They then compared the results over a 20 years post-eruption. The results show that the amount of infrastructure in the impacted area has substantial implications on how quickly the area will recover. They also suggest that differences in the fast and slow recovery scenarios may be negligible 30 to 40 years after the eruption. There’s definitely a lot to think about here! If you’d like to know more, check the paper out (link below). It’s open-access, so anyone can view it for free. Tags:open accesspublicationsresearch
