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The most common hazards for communities surrounding mountain‐forming stratovolcanoes are mass flows of a range of types. Determining their frequency,characteristics and distribution is a major focus of hazard mapping efforts. Recent improvements in computer power and numerical models have meant that simulation of mass flow scenarios is a new tool available for hazard analysis. Its application... [Thesis or Dissertation]

[Conference Paper]

Atmospheric processes operate over a range of scales from global to micro. The synoptic scale refers to those processes that operate over a spatial scale of hundreds to a few thousand kilometres, with a time scale ranging from a day to about a week. Weather systems of this scale are the most familiar public representation of the atmosphere, as they appear daily in both newspapers and on... [Book Item]

The synoptic weather systems described in Chapter 5 provide the backdrop for the local and regional variation of weather and climate that is a marked feature of the New Zealand environment. The nature of surface topography creates real problems for weather and climate prediction, because of the interaction of synoptic circulation systems with smaller scale dynamic and thermal effects.... [Book Item]

The synoptic weather systems described in Chapter 5 provide the backdrop for the local and regional variation of weather and climate that is a marked feature of the New Zealand environment. The nature of surface topography creates real problems for weather and climate prediction, because of the interaction of synoptic circulation systems with smaller scale dynamic and thermal effects.... [Book Item]

This chapter is the first of four on hydrological aspects of the physical environment. An introduction is provided to the concept of the hydrological system, including the transfer of water between the main storage components of the oceans, atmosphere, and land-based features such as lakes, snow, and ice. A systematic discussion is then provided, starting with the origins and nature of... [Book Item]

The physical environment is the set of physical and biological conditions that surround human beings at the Earth's surface. This book is broadly based on a systems approach to the physical environment. A system may be defined as 'a structured set of components of variables (i .e. phenomena that are free to assume variable magnitudes) that exhibit discernible relationships with one... [Book Item]

The stochastic model of solute transport describes the motion of fluid elements in a porous medium as stochastic variation of the fluid velocity, produced by pore wall impacts. This gives a stochastic differential equation for fluid displacements, and solute transport is obtained as the cumulative effect over all realisations of the stochastic path. It is shown that applying Dynkin’s equation... [Thesis or Dissertation]

An improved ground motion seismic hazard model for use in performance based earthquake engineering is presented. The model is an improved approximation of the so-called 'power law' model, which is linear in log-log space. The mathematics of the model and uncertainty incorporation is briefly discussed. Various means of fitting the approximation to 'exact' hazard curves... [Conference Paper]

A mesoscale numerical model was used to perform two-dimensional numerical simulations of a thermally driven circulation, known as the Canterbury Plains Breeze, to examine the effect of key physical mechanisms that determine the intensity of this circulation. The mesoscale model has a 2.5 order turbulence closure scheme with a terrain following coordinate system, and has been previously used... [Journal Article]

Charwell Basin is a 6 km-wide structural depression situated at the boundary between the axial ranges and faulted and folded Marlborough Fault Zone of north-eastern South Island, New Zealand. The basin contains the piedmont reach of the Charwell River, and a series of late Quaternary loess-mantled alluvial terraces and terrace remnants that have been uplifted and translocated from their... [Thesis or Dissertation]

A comparative review is provided of the weather and climate processes and phenomena that characterize the New Zealand Southern Alps and European Alps. The general climate conditions and atmospheric circulation features that affect the 2 mountain regions are assessed. Interaction of the mountains with synoptic weather systems is described, including their dynamic and thermal effects on airflow,... [Journal Article]

A comparative review is provided of the weather and climate processes and phenomena that characterize the New Zealand Southern Alps and European Alps. The general climate conditions and atmospheric circulation features that affect the 2 mountain regions are assessed. Interaction of the mountains with synoptic weather systems is described, including their dynamic and thermal effects on airflow,... [Journal Article]

A modelling and observational study was conducted in 1982-83 into the relationships between airflow and sea surface temperature along the Canterbury coast near Banks Peninsula. [Journal Article]

A modelling and observational study was conducted in 1982-83 into the relationships between airflow and sea surface temperature along the Canterbury coast near Banks Peninsula. [Journal Article]

This thesis defines and explores the hazardscape of the Wellington Region and investigates its influences on variations in the hazard response from local people and administration throughout the region. The research first identifies and argues for a holistic conceptual framework such as 'hazardscape' to study multiple hazards and associated issues at a place. Although the need for a...

Field based environmental monitoring projects often fail to gather supporting temporal information on the surroundings, yet these external factors may play a significant part in understanding variations in the collected datasets. For example when sampling air quality the values may change as a result of a bus passing the sampling point, yet this temporal local information is difficult to... [Conference Paper]

Field based environmental monitoring projects often fail to gather supporting temporal information on the surroundings, yet these external factors may play a significant part in understanding variations in the collected datasets. For example when sampling air quality the values may change as a result of a bus passing the sampling point, yet this temporal local information is difficult to... [Conference Paper]

Only Wheeler listed as author in Conference programmeA recent trend in infrastructure development for mitigating wetland loss, is to reestablish wildlife reserves in waterways that have been anthropocentrically modified. Due to the constructed nature of these reserves, the hydrodynamics need to be evaluated to determine their effectiveness. One method is to develop a computational mathematical model to simulate water flow throughout a reserve.... [Conference Item]

In the Asian and other monsoon regions of the world most of the severe weather observed is local or mesoscale in nature. Forecasting convective storms or mesoscale systems in the monsoon regions, especially in the tropics, has always been a challenging task to operational meteorologists. Maldives Islands, being situated in the tropical Indian Ocean, are affected by monsoon depressions and... [Thesis or Dissertation]

Long before European occupation, the main landforms of the Christchurch lowland were coastal sandhills, swamps, river fans and terraces. These landforms were all part of a broad flood plain formed by the Waimakariri as the flow of this river to the sea was blocked by the volcanic island that now forms Banks Peninsula. In this flat swampy lowland the English settlers chose to build their new...

Long before European occupation, the main landforms of the Christchurch lowland were coastal sandhills, swamps, river fans and terraces. These landforms were all part of a broad flood plain formed by the Waimakariri as the flow of this river to the sea was blocked by the volcanic island that now forms Banks Peninsula. In this flat swampy lowland the English settlers chose to build their new...

This paper investigates the experimental application of a newly-developed Multi-level Seismic Performance Assessment (MSPA) methodology. Firstly, MSPA enables each seismic performance requirement to be verified using a single earthquake record, and secondly by applying the earthquake records for the different performance criteria in an increasing severity order, all seismic performance... [Conference Paper]

This paper investigates the experimental application of a newly-developed Multi-level Seismic Performance Assessment (MSPA) methodology. Firstly, MSPA enables each seismic performance requirement to be verified using a single earthquake record, and secondly by applying the earthquake records for the different performance criteria in an increasing severity order, all seismic performance... [Conference Paper]

Using the zircon fission-track method, we have obtained five ages on members of two strongly-weathered silicic, Pliocene-Pleistocene tephra sequences, the Kauroa and Hamilton Ash formations, in western North Island, New Zealand. These are the first numerical ages to be obtained directly on these deposits. Of the Kauroa Ash sequence, member K1 (basal unit) was dated at 2.24 ± 0.29 Ma,...© Copyright 2001 David J. Lowe [Journal Article]