Vulnerability of New Zealand ports to natural hazards

Abstract

Ports are an important part of a country’s infrastructure, both in terms of facilitating trade and aiding recovery immediately following an earthquake. In New Zealand ports facilitate the transfer of up to 99% of all exports and imports by volume and thus are important to the success of the country’s economy. However, these ports are vulnerable to natural hazards which can cause significant damage and impact their operation. This study investigates the current state of New Zealand ports and their vulnerability to natural hazards. Publicly available data on New Zealand ports was supplemented by data sourced from port companies and used to construct a database of the New Zealand ports, including both the wharves’ physical characteristics such as number, size, age, material properties, construction history and economic characteristics such as asset value, cargo volumes and cargo value. The vulnerability of New Zealand ports to seismic, tsunami and volcanic hazards was then examined.