Natural Hazards & Emergency Management

Natural hazards shape where and how New Zealand builds. From the Tairāwhiti region hit hard by Cyclone Gabrielle to steep, seismically active catchments nationwide, our engineers and scientists help clients understand the risk, design for it, and get communities back on their feet after an event. We work alongside councils, insurers, iwi and asset owners across the full cycle, from hazard assessment and resilient design through to emergency response, reinstatement and long-term adaptation.

We quantify flood risk and design drainage and land-development that stands up to extreme rainfall.

Catchment and flood modelling

Overland flow-path and inundation mapping

Stormwater capacity and freeboard assessment

Water-sensitive urban design and detention

Flood-hazard input to resource consents

We assess unstable ground and design works that keep slopes, roads and buildings safe.

Landslide and slope-hazard mapping

Slope stability analysis and monitoring

Retaining and ground-stabilisation design

Debris-flow and erosion mitigation

We characterise seismic ground conditions and design robust foundations to New Zealand standards.

Site subsoil classification

Liquefaction and lateral-spread assessment

Ground improvement design

Earthquake-resilient foundation design

We help clients adapt low-lying and coastal land to erosion, inundation and rising seas.

Coastal erosion and inundation assessment

Sea-level-rise adaptation planning

Coastal protection and revetment design

Managed-retreat and resilience advice

When an event hits, we mobilise fast to assess damage and design the rebuild.

Rapid post-event damage assessment

Geotechnical reconnaissance and reporting

Reinstatement and rebuild design

Resilience and business-continuity planning

Our hazards work covers the full cycle, from mapping risk before anything happens to designing the rebuild afterwards. After Cyclone Gabrielle in February 2023 we moved from voluntary emergency response into urgent technical support with Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, remediating two stopbank breaches at Maraenui within a month and reinstating flood protection to the lower Heretaunga Plains. In Northland a team of eight assessed 380 landslides across the Far North roading network after a major rainfall event, investigating over 100 in detail.

Before the event, the work is mapping and land-use advice. We provided the technical input for the liquefaction potential map covering Gisborne and the Poverty Bay Flats, which the council uses to set site-specific assessment requirements; carried out lateral spread mapping and geological modelling across Christchurch and Kaiapoi after the 2011 earthquakes; and mapped a 235-hectare site in Auckland’s Southern Landslide Zone to establish where development is feasible at all. On the coast we designed erosion protection at Blacks Beach and the East Cape Road revetment at Te Araroa.

Emergency stopbank remediation after Cyclone Gabrielle, Heretaunga Plains

380 landslide assessments, Far North roading network

Liquefaction potential mapping, Gisborne and the Poverty Bay Flats

Lateral spread mapping and geological modelling, Christchurch and Kaiapoi

Geomorphic hazard mapping, Southern Landslide Zone, Whitford

Coastal erosion protection, Blacks Beach and East Cape Road

Stopbank stability and liquefaction assessment, Waipaoa River

The first fortnight after a major event is not a normal engineering job. Access is restricted, ground is saturated, materials are short and the people making decisions are exhausted. What matters then is having engineers who already know the geology and the network, who can make a defensible call quickly, and who will keep records good enough to survive the review that follows twelve months later. We have offices in the regions that get hit, which is the practical reason we can be on site within a week rather than a month.