Citation

Filippova O, Noy I. Disasters 2019; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Chair in the Economics of Disasters, Victoria University of Wellington.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/disa.12360

PMID

31231847

Abstract

The catastrophic Canterbury earthquakes of 2010-11 eventually led to the introduction of new national seismic strengthening policy in New Zealand. Its aim is to enforce seismic strengthening for earthquake-prone commercial buildings throughout New Zealand. We focus on regional urban centres and the economic obstacles they face for strengthening their aging building stock. We investigate one town, Whanganui, but, the picture we paint of the town, the cases we analyse, and the incentives we detail, apply equally to many other towns in New Zealand. We argue that incentives that fit high-growth, high-value major urban centres do not fit very well in the periphery. Many places, globally, face the need to upgrade their privately-owned building stock for protection against disasters. In many of these locations, governments have been struggling with similar difficulties in initiating the strengthening of existing buildings. We analyse the current incentive schemes that aim to assist in achieving the policy goals and suggest alternative incentive schemes that can be implemented to improve strengthening outcomes. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Canterbury earthquakes; earthquake strengthening; heritage buildings; incentives; small regional towns