WELLINGTON, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand's Earthquake Commission (EQC) on Monday awarded research teams that help better understand natural hazard risks and find ways to reduce the impact of those hazards.
Fourteen research teams received a total of more than 1.2 million New Zealand dollars (740,000 U.S. dollars) in this year's Biennial Grants round, which have been running since 1989 as part of the contestable funding awarded every two years.
EQC wants to ensure natural hazard resilience becomes embedded in all aspects of decision-making for homes, towns, and cities in New Zealand. Investing in research and translating that will reduce the country's vulnerability to natural hazard events, according to an EQC statement.
Successful grants are aligned with the EQC research investment priorities, including research that empowers people, quantifies hazards and their impacts, looks at smarter land use, governance and economics and resilient buildings, it said, adding this year there were nearly 80 expressions of interest.
Each of the 14 research projects will help understand New Zealand's natural hazard risk and reduce the impact on people and property when events do happen, EQC Head of Research Natalie Balfour said.
"The successful projects cover most of our natural hazards from volcanoes to landslides, and many of the projects incorporate effects of climate change on these hazards, such as one on slope hazard hotspots in New Zealand's changing climate," Balfour said.
Results from previous EQC investments have led to new building design guidance for engineers, identifying at-risk land, and detailed information for planners and emergency managers about the likely impacts of natural hazards across the country, she said. ■
