'Collectively we are stronger - engineers generating collaborative solutions to strengthen community resilience post-disaster' Duncan Gibb - Executive General Manager, SCIRT
The second lecture of the Institution of Civil Engineers' 10th Brunel International Lecture series was held on Wednesday 18 June, hosted by CSIC at Cambridge University's Engineering Department, following the international launch at London's Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) the night before.
The lecture titled 'Collectively we are stronger - engineers generating collaborative solutions to strengthen community resilience post-disaster', was given by Duncan Gibb, Executive General Manager of the Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team (SCIRT). SCIRT is a collaborative public/private partnership created to deliver the NZ$2.5 billion rebuild of the Christchurch publicly-owned horizontal infrastructure damaged by the series of earthquakes in 2010/11. Duncan's lecture follows SCIRT winning the Brunel Award for 2013 and offered insight into the formation of SCIRT and the challenges involved in rebuilding the infrastructure of an active city post-disaster. Duncan highlighted the need to involve the community in decision making and the importance of empowering people both inside and outside the organisation.
The Engineering Department's Centre for Sustainable Development PhD candidate Kristen MacAskill, who has worked on the Christchurch rebuild and is in Cambridge to research decision making in post-disaster infrastructure reconstruction, led the Q&A session with Duncan.
Duncan's lecture combined personal stories with insights into juggling community needs with rebuilding infrastructure and was well received by the Cambridge audience.
The video of the first lecture in the series, held at ICE on 17 June, is available to watch on the ICE website.
Photo credit: Larissa Moore, CSIC