Temporal Drivers of Disaster Risk and Resilience in Rural New Zealand

Aotearoa-New Zealand’s rural communities are an essential part of the nation’s economy, society and culture. Whilst there is a growing body of rural focused disaster resilience research in New Zealand, (such as the Resilience to Nature’s Challenges’ Rural Programme) there is not yet a cohesive summary that investigates the drivers and outcomes of resilience over multiple dimensions in the rural sector. Nor is there a cohesive summary of the impacts of this on current and future disaster risk. This study addresses aspects of these gaps by identifying and assessing the factors which influence resilience in New Zealand rural communities and the impact of this on current and future disaster risk. This will focus on quantifying the evolution of communities through dynamic longitudinal social, economic and physical change, primarily using national geospatial datasets and with more in depth case study analysis. Ultimately the research proposed here aims to effectively evaluate the implications of rural change over time and explore how this information could be more useful and usable for community members, policy makers and disaster decision makers