Although located about 200 km away from the epicentre of the 2016 Kaikōura Earthquake, the waterfront areas of Wellington City suffered varying degrees of damage as a result of soil liquefaction and associated ground deformations. This paper presents a summary of the major observations made following reconnaissance inspections of the geotechnical effects caused by the earthquake, with emphasis on the ground performance in the affected areas near the waterfront. Except for CentrePort, summarised elsewhere in this Special Issue, the inspections concentrated mostly on the waterfront areas and the impact to buildings built on reclaimed lands. Cracks and minor ground subsidence were observed in many parts of the waterfront, but the damage was less than that in CentrePort where significant liquefaction-induced damage was evident. The age of reclamation appears to have significant effect on the distribution of liquefaction-induced damage, while reclaimed areas where improvement techniques have been implemented performed well.
Although Auckland is one of the country's least seismically active regions, the earthquake hazard in the region cannot be disregarded given the potential social and economic impacts. As part of this, a good understanding of the co-seismic hazards across the region is of key importance. This paper presents on the methodology adopted for the GIS-based microzonation for liquefaction hazard across the Auckland region and the updated liquefaction-induced ground damage maps based on the recently developed MBIE guidance. Geology-based screening is initially applied across the region to identify areas where liquefaction is unlikely, with a separate categorisation for alluvial deposits with volcanic content in this region. The remaining areas are classified as "liquefaction damage is possible", a broad classification that can only be refined where additional data is available. Borehole-based investigation data and elevation details are used to further screen out areas where non-liquefiable deposits are present. Where CPT soundings and groundwater data are available, detailed liquefaction assessments are carried out that enable refinement of classification beyond the high-level geology-based screening. LSN values for 100-and 500-year return period ground motions are used to classify areas where similar geotechnical conditions are present with liquefaction vulnerabilities ranging from very low to high. With these multiple approaches, regional liquefaction-induced ground damage maps are developed for Auckland region for different levels of investigation detail.
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