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Caroline Orchiston imageDirector

Mob +64 21 077 8888
Email caroline.orchiston@otago.ac.nz

Research background

Caroline’s interdisciplinary research background focusses on aspects of disaster risk reduction, resilience and recovery, community and business resilience, risk communication and scenario planning for impacts to critical infrastructure and emergency management during earthquake disasters. Her theoretical contributions relate to understanding the nexus between resilience and sustainability, and she considers resilient communities to be inherently more sustainable in the long term. She has a passion for developing applied research outcomes that can make a difference to our society, particularly in building social capital through networks and connections, and working with communities to build resilience. Caroline’s research platform has been underpinned by collaborations with many outstanding postgraduate research students over the last decade. She thoroughly enjoys supervising students, and loves to observe their successes in life after their studies at the Centre for Sustainability.

Caroline is an Associate Director for QuakeCoRE (the New Zealand Centre of Research Excellence for Earthquake Resilience), and is co-lead for Disciplinary Theme 4 Social and Cultural Factors shaping Resilience with Distinguished Professor David Johnston (Massey University). She was the Co-lead of the Disaster Resilient Rural Communities programme (2019–2024) with Professor Tom Wilson (University of Canterbury) and subsequently Professor Christine Kenney (Massey University) as part of Resilience to Nature’s Challenges (2014–2024).

In 2023, Caroline had success with Endeavour programme funding (Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment), and is the co-lead of Ngā Ngaru Wakapuke – Building resilience to earthquake sequences in the Transition Zone (2024-2028), with Associate Professor Jamie Howarth (Victoria University Wellington). This programme will deliver an interdisciplinary perspective towards understanding the potential for future earthquake sequences in the plate boundary transition zone across central New Zealand, and the risk implications for communities, iwi, local and central government.

As Science Lead for the award-winning AF8 programme from 2016–2023, Caroline worked with a wide team of Alpine Fault scientists and emergency management practitioners and policy-makers to improve New Zealand’s capability to respond and recover from a future magnitude 8 earthquake on the Alpine Fault. The AF8 programme has made a significant contribution to supporting awareness and preparedness in high-risk communities, and developing risk understanding and planning amongst emergency management and their partner agencies. Building strong networks across communities, emergency response agencies and research institutions is key to developing societal resilience to natural hazards. Caroline considers her involvement in AF8 as a career highlight, and continues to support the programme alongside the new AF8 Science Lead Dr Tom Robinson (University of Canterbury) and AF8 Programme Manager Alice Lake-Hammond.

Current and recent projects

Supervision

Current masters' students

  • Emma Stagg (Master of Planning 2024) – rural community resilience to natural hazards

Current PhD students

  • Marufa Akther (March 2021-). Lower Seismic Hazard zones – implications of current legislation towards reducing building risk.
  • Caelan Church (2023). A New Direction: Opportunities for National Guidance on Natural Hazard Management During RMA Reform.
  • Lucia Danzi (2020-). Tourism and emergency management. Resilience to Nature’s Challenges scholarship.
  • Niloofar Dini (2024-). Transport Networks and Their Role in Community Resilience During and After Disruptive Events.
  • Aiggan Tamene Kitila (2024-). Earthquake Preparedness and Injury Prevention in New Zealand Workplaces.
  • Sonja Mueller (2019- ). Community and local knowledge of water-driven hazards. University of Otago scholarship.
  • Rajan Chandra Ghosh, (2018-). Climate-Induced Migration and Sustainability: A Spatial Analysis of Urban New Zealand. University of Otago Scholarship.
  • Mathew Darling, (August 2018-). Assessing Transient Populations Exposure to Disaster Risk. (University of Canterbury)

Recent postgraduate students

  • Caroline Cech (Master of Planning, 2023) – rural community resilience to natural hazards.
  • Maisie Fisher (Master of Planning, 2023) – rural community resilience to natural hazards
  • Jamie MacKenzie (2022). Community engagement and resilience in Glenorchy: Dynamic Adaptive Pathways Planning in complex, changing environments.
  • Shakti Shrestha (2022) – Wellington Cordon baseline project. QuakeCoRE (NZ Centre for Research Excellence) Scholarship
  • David Wither (2021) – Social norms of resilience in Kaikoura post-earthquake disaster. Resilience to Nature’s Challenges scholarship

Significant publications

Higham, J.E.S., Hopkins, D. and Orchiston, C. (2022). Academic aeromobility in the Global periphery (Chapter 8) in K. Bjørkdahl, A. S. Franco Duharte (eds.), Academic Flying and the Means of Communication,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4911-0_8

Espiner, S., Higham, J.E.S., & Orchiston, C. (2019). Superseding sustainability: Conceptualising sustainability and resilience in response to the new challenges of tourism development (Chapter 3). In S.F. McCool, & K. Bosak (Eds.) A research agenda for sustainable tourism. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK.

Shrestha, S., Orchiston, C., Elwood, K., Johnston, D., Becker, J and Tomassi, I. (2022). Understanding the wider social and economic context of post-earthquake cordons: a comparative study between Christchurch, Aotearoa (New Zealand) and L’Aquila, Italy. Earthquake Spectra DOI: 10.1177/87552930221091593

Ghosh, R. C., & Orchiston, C. (2022). A systematic review of climate migration research: gaps in existing literature. SN Social Sciences, DOI 10.1007/s43545-022-00341-8

Ghosh, R. C., Orchiston, C. and Mallick, B. (2022). Climate migration studies in the Pacific (CMSP) – a bibliometric analysis. Current Research in Environmental Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crsust.2022.100132

Ghosh, R. C., & Orchiston, C. (2021). Climate-induced Migration in the Pacific: The Role of New Zealand. Impact Connector: Climate Change Mitigation, Adaptation, and Impact Assessment: Views from the Pacific. https://www.nzaia.org.nz/ghoshandorchiston.html

Brown, N. A., Feldmann-Jensen, S. Rovins, J. Orchiston, C. and Johnston, D. (2021). Exploring disaster resilience within the hotel sector: A case study of Wellington and Hawke's Bay New Zealand, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2021.102080

Wither, D., Orchiston, C., Cradock-Henry, N. & Nel, E. (2021). Advancing practical applications of resilience in Aotearoa-New Zealand. Ecology and Society. 26(3):1.
https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-12409-260301

Shrestha, S. Orchiston, C., Elwood, K., Johnston, J. & Becker, J. (2021). To cordon or not to cordon: the inherent complexities of post-earthquake cordoning learned from Christchurch and Wellington experiences. Bulletin of the New Zealand Society of Earthquake Engineering.

Underwood, G., Orchiston, C. and Shrestha, S. (2020). Post-earthquake cordons and their implications. Earthquake Spectra. https://doi.org/10.1177/8755293020936293

Publications

Orchiston, C., Cochran, U., & Vause, A. (2024). A review of tsunami hazard for southern Aotearoa New Zealand with implications for future research. New Zealand Journal of Geology & Geophysics. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1080/00288306.2024.2419369 Journal - Research Article

Danzi, L., Orchiston, C., Higham, J., & Baggio, R. (2024). Tourism disaster management: A social network analysis of nature-based destinations in Aotearoa New Zealand. Journal of Travel Research. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1177/00472875241268623 Journal - Research Article

Lake-Hammond, A., & Orchiston, C. (2024). Awareness to preparedness: A design-led approach to building resilience and readiness for the next Alpine Fault earthquake. In S. M. van Manen, C. Jaenichen, T. S. Lin, K. Kremer & R. Ramírez (Eds.), Design for emergency management. (pp. 141-156). New York, NY: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003306771-10 Chapter in Book - Research

Shrestha, S. R., & Orchiston, C. H. R. (2023). Context, culture, and cordons: The feasibility of post-earthquake cordons learned through a case study in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. Earthquake Spectra. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1177/87552930231191740 Journal - Research Article

Shrestha, S. R., & Orchiston, C. H. R. (2023). [Review of the book The post-earthquake city: Disaster and recovery in Christchurch. New Zealand Geographer, 79(2), 168-169. doi: 10.1111/nzg.12361 Journal - Research Other

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