Organisational response to the 2007 Ruapehu Crater Lake breakout lahar in New Zealand: Use of communication in creating an effective response

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dc.contributor.authorBecker J
dc.contributor.authorLeonard GJ
dc.contributor.authorPotter SH
dc.contributor.authorCoomer MA
dc.contributor.authorPaton D
dc.contributor.authorWright K
dc.contributor.authorJohnston DM
dc.contributor.editorFearnley, C
dc.contributor.editorBird, D
dc.contributor.editorJolly, GE
dc.contributor.editorHaynes, K
dc.date.accessioned2023-08-06T22:37:07Z
dc.date.available2016-01-05
dc.date.available2023-08-06T22:37:07Z
dc.date.issued2016-01-05
dc.description.abstractWhen Mt. Ruapehu erupted in 1995-1996 in New Zealand, a tephra barrier was created alongside Crater Lake on the top of Mt. Ruapehu. This barrier acted as a dam, with Crater Lake rising behind it over time. In 2007 the lake breached the dam and a lahar occurred down the Whangaehu Valley and across the volcano’s broad alluvial ring-plain. Given the lahar history from Ruapehu, the risk from the 2007 event was identified beforehand and steps taken to reduce the risks to life and infrastructure. An early warning system was set up to notify when the dam had broken and the lahar had occurred. Physical works to mitigate the risk were put in place. A planning group was also formed and emergency management plans were put in place to respond to the risk. To assess the effectiveness of planning for and responding to the lahar, semi-structured interviews were undertaken with personnel from key organisations both before and after the lahar event. This chapter discusses the findings from the interviews in the context of communications, and highlights how good communications contributed to an effective emergency management response. As the potential for a lahar was identifiable, approximately 10 years of lead-up time was available to install warning system hardware, implement physical mitigation measures, create emergency management plans, and practice exercises for the lahar. The planning and exercising developed effective internal communications, engendered relationships, and moved individuals towards a shared mental model of how a respond to the event. Consequently, the response played out largely as planned with only minor communication issues occurring on the day of the lahar. The minor communication issues were due to strong personal connections leading to at least one case of the plan being bypassed. Communication levels during the lahar event itself were also different from that experienced in exercises, and in some instances communications were seen to increase almost three-fold. This increase in level of communication, led to some difficulty in getting through to the main Incident Control Point. A final thought regarding public communications prior to the event was that more effort could have been given to developing and integrating public information about the lahar, to allow for ease of understanding about the event and integration of information across agencies.
dc.description.confidentialfalse
dc.description.publication-statusSubmitted
dc.edition.edition1
dc.identifier.citationObserving the volcano world: Volcano crisis communication, 2016, 1
dc.identifier.elements-id238345
dc.identifier.harvestedMassey_Dark
dc.identifier.isbn9783319440958
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10179/16834
dc.publisherSpringer International Publishing
dc.relation.isPartOfObserving the volcano world: Volcano crisis communication
dc.relation.isPartOfAdvances in Volcanology
dc.relation.urihttps://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F11157_2016_38
dc.rightsOpen Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.
dc.subjectVolcano
dc.subjectLahar
dc.subjectCommunication
dc.subjectEmergency Management planning
dc.subjectMt. Ruapehu
dc.subjectNew Zealand
dc.titleOrganisational response to the 2007 Ruapehu Crater Lake breakout lahar in New Zealand: Use of communication in creating an effective response
dc.typechapter
pubs.notesNot known
pubs.organisational-group/Massey University
pubs.organisational-group/Massey University/College of Humanities and Social Sciences
pubs.organisational-group/Massey University/College of Humanities and Social Sciences/Joint Centre for Disaster Research
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