NZGS News
Posted Friday, 27 January, 2012
Recording of Peter Robertson’s Lecture on 5th January 2012
Professor Peter Robertson delivered a lecture in Auckland on 5th January entitled “Evaluation of soil liquefaction and post earthquake deformations using the CPT”. With the help of the University of Auckland we were able to have the lecture recorded (as well as streamed live at the time). Please see below for links to a stream [...]
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Posted Thursday, 15 December, 2011
9th ANZ Young Geotechnical Professionals Conference
The 9th ANZ Young Geotechnical Professionals Conference (9YGPC) will be in Melbourne from 11-14th July 2012. The 9YGPC is for geotechnical professionals from Australia and New Zealand 35 years old and younger with a maximum of ten years experience. The EQC and NZGS have consistently supported our YGP members with financial sponsorship to attend these [...]
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Posted Wednesday, 14 December, 2011
ANZ 2012 Conference – Registration Now Open!
EARLY BIRD PRICES AVAILABLE! Register now for the Australia New Zealand Conference on Geomechanics from 15 – 18 July 2012 at the Crown Conference Centre in Melbourne, Australia. The committee is currently assembling an excellent technical program. Each day will include keynote and concurrent sessions incorporating elements of the conference theme ‘Ground Engineering in a [...]
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Posted Monday, 12 December, 2011
Canterbury Technical Clearinghouse Final Meeting
Meeting: 18:00-1930, Tuesday 13 December Venue: Lecture theatre E8, College of Engineering, University of Canterbury Presenters: Engineering Advisory Group and others Hosts: NZSEE, NZGS Canterbury, Canterbury Structural Group Social: 17:30-18:00 – Engineering Common Room Yesterday, the Department of Building and Housing announced that it has published its “Revised guidance on repairing and rebuilding houses affected [...]
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Posted Monday, 12 December, 2011
Lessons and Recommendations from the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake
The following link is a summary of the East Japan Great Earthquake Disaster on March 11, 2011. “Geo-hazards During Earthquakes and Mitigation Measures-Lessons and Recommendations from the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake-” can be download here www.jiban.or.jp/e/disaster-survey-information-of-2011-tohoku-earthquake-2/ Osamu Kusakabe (Prof./Ph.D) President of Japanese Geotechnical Society Yoichi Watabe (Dr.) Secretary of Japanese Geotechnical Society
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Posted Tuesday, 29 November, 2011
Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission
Enfocus Report: Management of Earthquake Risk by Canterbury Regional Council and Christchurch City Council This week the Royal Commission has web published a report by Enfocus Ltd entitled ‘Management of Earthquake Risk by Canterbury Regional Council and Christchurch City Council’, dated November 2011. The Royal Commission sought this report to assist it with its analysis [...]
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Posted Monday, 28 November, 2011
Request from Technical Committee on Underground Construction in Soft Ground (TC204) for nominations to give the Inaugural ‘Keiichi Fujita Lecture’ at the next TC204 symposium in Seoul, South Korea in 2014.
Following the death of Professor Fujita at the end of July 2010, our previous TC204 chairman, Professor Richard Kastner, proposed the idea of introducing a prestigious lecture to be entitled the ‘Keiichi Fujita Lecture’. The intention with the lecture is to recognise the enormous contribution made by Professor Fujita in setting up TC 28 (as [...]
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Posted Thursday, 17 November, 2011
Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission
This week the Royal Commission has web published William Holmes’ peer review of the Department of Building and Housing’s technical investigation reports on the PGC, Forsyth Barr and Hotel Grand Chancellor. Mr Holmes is from the San Francisco-based engineering consultancy Rutherford & Chekene. He reviewed the Department’s investigation for the Commission. The report will be [...]
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Posted Wednesday, 16 November, 2011
REMINDER – Waikato Branch Presentation – Cirtex 22 November 2011
Please refer to Waikato Branch page for details about a presentation by Michael Sorenson of Cirtex Industries on Tuesday 22nd November at 6pm. Refreshments will be from 5:30pm. Venue now confirmed: Wintec Hamilton City Campus, A Block, Room A.205. Note: Parking Building access is off Ward Street. See attached Campus Map Thanks Kori Lentfer Branch [...]
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Posted Wednesday, 16 November, 2011
Finite Element Analysis – Auckland Branch Live Streaming
Dear NZGS members, Reminder about the Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch presentations on Finite Element Analysis by Denis Waterman. Please see branch pages for more details. If you cannot make any of these presentations, the Auckland event is going to be live streamed – please use the following link: http://live.auckland.ac.nz/nzgs.htm Kind regards, Amanda Blakey
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Posted Friday, 4 November, 2011
Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission – Reports on Building Assessment After Earthquakes (stickering/placarding)
The Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission has received and will shortly publish in the Document Library section of our website www.canterbury.royalcommission.govt.nz the following reports about building assessment after earthquakes (stickering/placarding): 1. ‘Report into Building Safety Evaluation Processes in the Central Business District Following the 4 September 2010 Earthquake’ prepared by the Christchurch City Council. This report [...]
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Posted Wednesday, 2 November, 2011
Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission – The Training of Engineers and Organisation of the Engineering Profession
The Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission will conduct a public hearing in the week beginning 13 February 2012 in which it will consider evidence and submissions on the training of engineers and organisation of the engineering profession. The hearing venue will be the St Teresa Church Hall, on the corner of Riccarton Road and Puriri Street, [...]
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Posted Tuesday, 1 November, 2011
Richard Wolters Prize 2012 – Call for Nominations
The Richard Wolters Prize for 2012 will be presented by IAEG at the occasion of ISL-NASL 2012 (June 2-8, 2012, Banff, Canada). The Richard Wolters Prize has been awarded biannually since 1986 to commemorate the life and work of Dr Richard Wolters, his significant achievements in the advancement of engineering geology and his important role [...]
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Posted Wednesday, 12 October, 2011
Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission
As required in the terms of reference, the Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission has provided an interim report to the Governor General and the Government has now released this report. This interim report includes interim recommendations that will assist decision-making for rebuilding and repair work as part of the Christchurch earthquake recovery effort. It does not [...]
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Posted Tuesday, 11 October, 2011
2011 Student Awards
The 2011 Student Award presentations will be held on Thursday 20th October 2011. Please come and support our four finalists for the 2011 NZGS Student Award. The finalists will be making their presentations to NZGS members on a wide variety of topics. See here for full details: NZGS – Student Award Presentations Venue: 12pm, Room [...]
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Posted Friday, 7 October, 2011
University of Canterbury Earthquake Recovery PhD Scholarship – Call for applications
“Seismic response of liquefiable soils in Christchurch and mitigation using ground improvement technologies” Applications are called for a special earthquake-recovery PhD Scholarship funded by the University of Canterbury to commence in 2012. The scholarship provides funding for the research topic “Seismic response of liquefiable soils in Christchurch and mitigation using ground improvement technologies”, which will [...]
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Posted Thursday, 6 October, 2011
Reminders: 2011 Photo Competition and NZ Geomechanics News Retaining Wall Contributions
Dear members, Just a couple of reminders: • The 2011 Photo Competition – If you’ve taken an outstanding photo, in line with the Photo Competition theme of “You don’t see that every day!” then consider submitting this for kudos, and the $250 prize, before the 28th October deadline (see attached for more details). • The [...]
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Posted Friday, 23 September, 2011
Christchurch Earthquake of 22 Feb: Try Analyzing Before and After Imagery
In the aftermath of a disaster event, high-resolution remote sensing imagery potentially enables rapid mapping of the affected area. However, to analyse all this data requires lots of work by a human analyst — or a little work by lots of analysts! GEO-CAN (Global Earth Observation-Catastrophe Assessment Network) is an initiative that has been evolving [...]
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Posted Wednesday, 14 September, 2011
Geomechanics News Dec 2011 – Call for content
The NZ Geomechanics News is a newsletter for Society members, first published 40 years ago. The 82nd issue will go out in December 2011. This issue will include a focus on retaining walls and related ground retention technologies. We would like to showcase the various types of walls and retention structures available and recently constructed. [...]
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Posted Friday, 2 September, 2011
Royal Commission – Canterbury Earthquakes – Foundations on Deep Alluvial Soils
Recent correspondence from the Royal Commission into the Canterbury Earthquakes The Royal Commission is continuing to publish on the website www.canterbury.royalcommission.govt.nz technical reports relevant to the Terms of Reference. This week a report prepared by Associate Professor Misko Cubrinovski from the University of Canterbury and Ian McCahon of Geotech Consulting Ltd in Christchurch will be [...]
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Posted Thursday, 11 August, 2011
Royal Commission of Inquiry into Building Failure Caused by the Earthquakes
In response to the Canterbury earthquakes a Royal Commission of Inquiry into Building Failure Caused by the Earthquakes has been established. The purpose of the Commission, as set out in their Terms of Reference, is to examine issues around the built environment in the Christchurch central business district including, but not limited to, the Canterbury [...]
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Posted Thursday, 4 August, 2011
IPENZ Earthquake Engineering Series 2011
IPENZ is hosting an Earthquake Engineering seminar series in August. There are two presenters covering the following topics Introduction to geotechnical earthquake engineering Structural response to ground excitations Objectives of seismic design Capacity design principles Structural analysis issues relevant to seismic design Introduction to emerging concepts in earthquake engineering Each course is aligned with elements of [...]
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Posted Monday, 1 August, 2011
Digital Map of New Zealand’s Rock Density
Digital geological maps of New Zealand (QMAP) have been combined with 9256 samples with rock density measurements from the national rock catalogue PETLAB and supplementary geological sources to generate a digital density model of New Zealand’s bedrock at a 1 arc-min spatial resolution. The QMAP dataset contains 123 unique main rock types spreading over more [...]
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Posted Sunday, 3 July, 2011
2011 Geomechanics Lecture Geo-Logic and the art of Geotechnical Practice
The NZ Geomechanics Lecture is the premier award of the New Zealand Geotechnical Society. The award was established to honour individuals who have made a notable lifetime contribution to New Zealand geotechnics. The New Zealand Geotechnical Society is proud to announce the 2011 Geomechanics Lecture will be presented by David Bell. David is a Senior [...]
Posted Wednesday, 29 June, 2011
NZGS Geomechanics Award 2011
Nominations are now sought for consideration for the NZGS Geomechanics Award 2011. The award shall be made to the Society member or members producing the adjudged “best” published paper during the three year period 31 July 2008 to 31 July 2011, in any publication at the discretion of the Management Committee. The Geomechanics Award is [...]
Posted Wednesday, 29 June, 2011
Student Prize 2011
Invitation to participate – Closing date 31 august 2011. The New Zealand Geotechnical Society wishes to recognise and encourage student participation in the fields of rock mechanics, soil mechanics, geotechnical engineering and engineering geology. Two Regions: North Island and South Island Two Awards: One for each region valued at NZ $1,000 plus certificate Requirements: – [...]
Posted Tuesday, 28 June, 2011
NZ Geotechnical Society 2011 PHOTO COMPETITION
The 2011 theme is: …you don’t see that every day! WIN $250 | The winning photo will be printed in the December 2011 issue of the NZ Geomechanics News and put onto the Society web page. SEND YOUR ENTRY TO: – NZ Geomechanics News Editor, Paul Salter, URS Centre, PO Box 821, Auckland 1140 – [...]
Posted Wednesday, 15 June, 2011
“Live Streaming” – Martha Mine-Geotechnical Issues and Challenges
By Dr Trevor Matuschka Date and venue: Tuesday 21st June 2011, Room 3.402 Engineering School, University of Auckland. Refreshments from 6pm-presentation 6.30pm Download flyer. “LIVE STREAMING” OF PRESENTATION ON INTERNET If you cannot attendin person, this presentation is going to be‘live streamed’on the internet. Please email Pierre Malan for more details: pmalan@tonkin.co.nz For other enquiries: [...]
Posted Wednesday, 15 June, 2011
Masters course in Design of Earthquake Resistant Foundations
Attached is a flyer for a course being offered this coming semester at the University of Auckland. It is aimed mainly at those working in consulting offices, so there is only one teaching slot per week. Download flyer. Please direct any enquiries to: Mick Pender, email: m.pender@auckland.ac.nz , ph: 09 3737 599 ext 87919 Enrolment [...]
Posted Tuesday, 29 March, 2011
Why Buildings Respond Differently to Earthquake
IPENZ has released a simple fact sheet, “Why Buildings Respond Differently to Earthquakes” Download Fact Sheet
Posted Wednesday, 23 March, 2011
CALL FOR CONTENT – NZ Geomechanics News 81st Issue
Dear NZGS Members, The NZ Geomechanics News is a newsletter for Society members, first published 40 years ago. The 81st issue will go out in June 2011. This issue will include a focus on the Lyttelton Earthquake and particularly the rockfall damage around the Port Hills area. Members are invited to submit technical notes, observations [...]
Posted Monday, 21 March, 2011
Earthquake Fact Sheets
The NZGS, in response to a request from IPENZ, and together with the NZ Society for Earthquake Engineering, contributed to the development of fact sheets which give an overview of the recent Canterbury Earthquakes and the performance of engineered systems, liquefaction and the building safety evaluation process. This PDF file contains these fact sheets and [...]
Posted Tuesday, 8 February, 2011
2011 Shamsher Prakash Research Award
Shamsher Prakash Foundation solicits nominations for the 2011 SHAMSHER PRAKASH RESEARCH AWARD for young engineers, scientists and researchers (40 years or younger, Date of Birth 03-31-71 or later) from all over the world. Nominations are invited so as to reach the Honorary Secretary on or before March 31, 2011. The candidates should be specialists in [...]
Posted Friday, 3 December, 2010
NZ-GEER Reconnaissance Report
The NZ-GEER Reconnaissance Report on the 2010 Darfield (Canterbury) Earthquake can be downloaded from the following link: www.nzsee.org.nz
Posted Monday, 15 November, 2010
2010 Student Awards
The NZGS is proud to announce the finalists for this years’ Student Awards. We have a Northern Region and a Southern Region award, the winner of each winning $1000. Northern Region This year there are 4 finalists making presentations in Auckland on Wednesday 17th November at Auckland University: Anas Ibrahim, Christopher Ritchie, Xiaoyang Qin and [...]
Posted Friday, 24 September, 2010
NZGS News – September
Dear NZGS members, Christchurch Quake Thank you again to those members who have already contributed their time and energy to assisting the Christchurch Community. Now that the emergency phase of the operation has moved to focus on recovery, those who would like to and are able to assist further on a commercial basis are asked [...]
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Posted Friday, 23 July, 2010
NZGS Seismic Design Guidelines
The NZGS is pleased to announce the publication of the “Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering Practice ” guideline. This 1st Module is a guideline for the identification, assessment and mitigation of liquefaction hazards. The technical material supporting this document contains clear statements for making assessments, whilst plainly differentiating between methods for different soils. The material is presented [...]
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Posted Friday, 2 July, 2010
New Zealand Geotechnical Society Inc. – Student Prize 2010
Invitation to participate – Closing date 30 August 2010 The New Zealand Geotechnical Society wishes to recognise and encourage student participation in the fields of rock mechanics, soil mechanics, geotechnical engineering and engineering geology. Two regions: North Island and South Island Two awards: One for each region valued at NZ $1,000 plus certificate Requirements: [...]
Posted Friday, 18 June, 2010
Reminder – IAEG2010 Early Bird Registration
REMINDER! Earlybird Registrations for the 11th Congress of the International Association for Engineering Geology and the Environment, IAEG2010 close 30 June! Engineering geology now extends into a host of linked fields: disaster risk management and climate change, preservation of lifelines, geophysics, interpretation of satellite imagery, communication, instrumentation, mining, tunnelling, groundwater, rehabilitation and brown-field development, wine, [...]
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Posted Tuesday, 8 June, 2010
CETANZ Report – Scala Penetrometer Irregularity
It has come to the attention of the Civil Engineering Testing Association of New Zealand (CETANZ) through its Technical Working Group that there is an irregularity in the size of the shoulder (cylindrical length) of the New Zealand manufactured scala cones. CETANZ has therefore taken it upon itself to investigate the significance of the difference [...]
Posted Wednesday, 12 May, 2010
Richard Wolters Prize – Announcement of Finalists
The Richard Wolters Prize specifically recognises meritorious scientific achievement by a younger member of the engineering geology profession and is awarded to honour Dr. Wolters’ many contributions to international understanding and co-operation. The Executive of the IAEG has confirmed that Kate Williams, the NZGS candidate for the Richard Wolters Prize, has been nominated to contest [...]
Posted Thursday, 22 April, 2010
ISSMGE – New VP South America
Distinguished Colleagues, Dear Friends, I regretfully accepted the resignation of Jorge Bonifazi as Vice President for South America a few days ago. This came as a great surprise to me but Jorge told me that he had to do it for personal reasons and I respect his decision. I will miss his valuable comments during [...]
Posted Thursday, 1 April, 2010
Short Course – Unsaturated soils/ground movement control in deep excavations and tunnelling
Dear NZGS Members, Professor Antonio Gens, from the Technical University of Catalonia in Barcelona, Spain, will be visiting New Zealand in May and presenting a one day course in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. The topic of the course is: UNSATURATED SOILS / GROUND MOVEMENT CONTROL IN DEEP EXCAVATIONS and TUNNELLING Please see attached for more [...]
Posted Wednesday, 17 March, 2010
Recent announcements
Dear NZGS members, Management Committee 2010 The new Committee was confirmed at the AGM on Tuesday 1st March 2010. The two new Committee members are Charlie Price from Christchurch, and Sjoerd Van Ballegooy from Auckland. Two members leaving this year are Richard Young, our Treasurer, whom we thank for being such a great Treasurer, and [...]
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Posted Tuesday, 16 March, 2010
Abstract Submission – Extended
International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference SGEM 2010 – Bulgaria The SGEM Organizing Team have informed us that they have decided to EXTEND the deadline for ABSTRACT SUBMISSION to 29th of March 2010, due to numerous requests from scientists from several Academies of Sciences and other Universities. They believe that this will meet all requirements and all [...]
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Posted Monday, 1 March, 2010
11th IAEG Congress – Super Earlybird Reminder
It is now just 30 days until the close of super earlybird registrations for the 11th IAEG Congress at SkyCity Convention Centre, Auckland, New Zealand from 5 – 10 September 2010! There has been a HUGE response to the call for abstracts and papers, with over 900 abstracts and almost 600 papers received. With this [...]
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Posted Thursday, 18 February, 2010
Notice for the AGM of NZGS
Dear NZGS Members, Please find attached the Notice for the Annual General Meeting of NZGS to held on 2nd March 2010 at the University of Auckland in Room 401.401 (Lecture Theatre on ground floor beside main entrance to Engineering School). Download Notice for the Annual General Meeting of NZGS. The AGM will be followed by [...]
Posted Thursday, 18 February, 2010
BS 5930 – Ten year revision
To all those interested in investigation and testing as part of site investigation (senso lato) As you will be aware there are a number of Standards coming out of Europe which will affect the way we investigate sites. Some of these changes are incorporated into Amendments 1 and 2 to BS 5930 but there are [...]
Posted Tuesday, 9 February, 2010
NZGS Logo Competition
Dear NZGS members, We are holding a design competition for a new logo! If you are feeling creative – please give it a go. Also, feel free to pass on to friends and family – you don’t have to be a member to enter. $500 Cash Prize See attached for more information – competition closes [...]
Posted Tuesday, 9 February, 2010
ISSMGE President 90 Day Progress Report – 10 January 2010
Distinguished Colleagues, Dear Friends, This is my third progress report after 90 days as your President. In this report, I would like to tell you about the progress we have made with The ISSMGE Foundation. As you may recall, creating The ISSMGE Foundation was one of my campaign promises. I attach a document that we [...]
Posted Monday, 25 January, 2010
Rocha Medal 2012
An invitation is now being extended to the whole Rock Mechanics community, for nomination for the Rocha Medal 2012. Each nomination shall conform to the ISRM By-law No. 7, to be found at the ISRM website www.isrm.net namely as concerns Article 3, and shall be received by the ISRM Secretary-General not later than 31 December [...]
Posted Monday, 28 December, 2009
AGM Notice and Call for Nominations for the 2010 NZGS Management Committee
The NZGS will hold its Annual General Meeting on Tuesday March 2nd, at the Engineering School, University of Auckland. Full notice of the AGM will follow closer to the date, however, the Committee members for 2010 need to be finalised prior to the AGM. Attached is documentation outlining the background to next year’s committee requirements [...]
Posted Sunday, 27 December, 2009
Design and Analysis of Deep Excavations by Professor Wong Kai Sin (Slides)
Slides used at the NZGS Short Course presentations by Professor Wong Kai Sin in November/December 2009. Download slides – Session 1, Overview Download slides – Session 2, Design (Part 1) Download slides – Session 3, Design (Part 2 – Mohr-Coulomb Soil Model & Design) Download slides – Session 4, How to reduce wall deflection
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Posted Friday, 20 November, 2009
International Summer School on Rockslides and Related Phenomena in the Kokomeren River Valley (Kyrgyzstan)
The annual International Summer School supported by ICL (www.iclhq.org) has been organized since 2006. Previous field training courses were attended by participants from Czech Republic, Italy, USA, Germany, France, Belgium, New Zealand, Austria, Switzerland, Russia and Kyrgyzstan. The 2010 training course will be carried out from July 30 till August 14. The participation fee is [...]
Posted Monday, 16 November, 2009
Memorandum of Understanding between Technical Societies
An agreement has been signed by the following Technical Societies which entitles members to a 10% discount off non-member fees to attend seminars held by each group; The New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering Inc. The Structural Engineering Society New Zealand Inc. The New Zealand Timber Design Society Inc. The New Zealand Geotechnical Society Inc. [...]
Posted Wednesday, 30 September, 2009
Short course – Design and Analysis of Deep Excavations
with Professor Wong Kai Sin, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. This short course focuses on issues related to deep excavations in fine grained soils. It provides an overview of deep excavation in soil and an understanding of the uncertainties and variables affecting the performance of the earth retention system. Its main emphasis is on the design [...]
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Posted Tuesday, 29 September, 2009
NZGS Branch Meetings – Evening Lecture: The Nicoll Highway Collapse in Singapore – A Technical Perspective
On 20 April 2004 at around 3:30 pm, a construction disaster struck Singapore. A section of the 20m wide cut-and-cover tunnel that was underconstruction collapsed. The excavation was about 30 m deep at the time of collapse. The tragedy left 4 workers killed and 3 injured. It rendered the highway impassable for many months and [...]
Posted Thursday, 24 September, 2009
NZGS 2009 Photo Competition
The Year 2009 Theme is: What we do best Show us the things that geotechnical engineers, engineering geologists, and technicians in the profession get up to!! Win $250 A perfect chance to win some drinks money for the office. The winning photo will be printed in the December 2009 issue of the NZ Geomechanics News [...]
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Membership
Engineers, scientists, technicians, contractors, students and others who are interested in the practice and application of soil mechanics, rock mechanics and engineering geology can join NZGS.
To join, download the form, fill it up and follow the instructions by sending a hard copy to:
The Management Secretary, NZ Geotechnical Society Inc., IPENZ, PO Box 12-241, Wellington
