Jan 29 2010 - EQC to fund GeoNet for coming decade
The Earthquake Commission is to fund GeoNet, the national hazard monitoring network, to the extent of approximately $9 million a year over the next five years. The funding will ensure that data for research and for disaster response is available to continue to expand and improve New Zealand’s capacity to recover from major natural disasters. Funding levels for the second half of the 10-year contract with GNS Science, which operates the network, are to be negotiated at the end of the first five-year period.
The agreement comes into effect on 1 July this year and renews the commitment EQC made in 2001 to the development of a world-class hazard monitoring network in New Zealand.
With EQC’s support and additional investment by Land Information New Zealand and the Department of Conservation, GeoNet provides emergency agencies and the public with information about the size and intensity of earthquakes, potential tsunamis generated by earthquakes and volcanic unrest.
Dr Hugh Cowan, EQC’s Research Manager and GeoNet Project Director for its first five years, says one of EQC’s roles is to foster research in relevant areas of natural hazards science, and that the network has already delivered significant growth in the amount and quality of scientific research now possible in New Zealand.
“The new agreement anticipates the translation of this growing body of knowledge into improved preparation which makes for a quicker and less costly recovery from major earthquakes or volcanic eruptions,” he says.
“The more we learn, the better we can mitigate the effects of these events, which are inevitable in a country that straddles the boundary of two tectonic plates.
“On July 15 last year, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake – the largest in New Zealand for 80 years – ruptured the Earth’s crust beneath Fiordland,” Dr Cowan says.
“Even before the shaking had subsided, GeoNet measurements of the ground motion were relayed to computers in Lower Hutt and near Taupō and within minutes trained personnel had received alert information and an organised response was underway.
