Thank you
It feels like Summer is finally here after a year of some pretty interesting weather! When this magazine lands we will be in that final mad dash to tick off all the things on the list in time for Christmas…well just remember to take this with you on your holidays for a fantastic range of articles. You will notice it is a fairly chunky magazine this edition and that is thanks to you all for submitting so many brilliant articles, industry updates and branch, international society and committee reports as well as some great conference reports. I certainly have never seen so many submissions to the magazine since I have been involved in editing it and I just want to take the opportunity to say a big thank you. Robert and I really enjoy reading through all your submissions!
On top of this we have had a huge response to the photograph competition this year – receiving five times the number of photos that we normally get, and it really has made the job of choosing the cover picture very hard so a big thank you for that too! Many of the photos that were submitted featured some of the damage caused by Cyclone Gabrielle, with the recovery well underway and the rebuild starting it is certainly putting some pressure on the industry as a whole. This pressure is reflected in the letter we received for this edition from Sally Hargraves raising a point that many of us are aware of which is how the reduction in the geo-science and geo-engineering graduates are going to impact the sector. Events like the earthquake responses over the last ten years plus the more recent Cyclone Gabrielle require a huge number of geotechnical resources and I know it is a topic that the NZGS committee has been discussing, you will see a few of the articles in this edition of the magazine addressing the future of the industry in terms of education.
It is fantastic to start to see more in the branch reports and conference reports spaces, after so many years of minimal activity here we have a large number of updates. Your new committee have also all submitted reports on what they have been and will be working on and we hope that this helps you to understand some of the extent of the work that goes on in the background.
I hope you enjoy reading this edition of the magazine. If you have any suggestions of articles, updates or other content that you would like to see included in future editions of NZ Geomechanics News please send us an email at editor@nzgs.org. In the meantime, I hope you have a relaxing Christmas and a good break over the Summer.
Camilla Gibbons
CORRECTION: We note Phil Cook was inadvertently not named but appeared in the photograph on page 8 of the December 2022 edition of NZ Geomechanics News
Camilla Gibbons is a Principal and engineering geologist with Aurecon. She worked in the UK before moving to New Zealand in 2008 “for a year”. The Canterbury earthquakes inspired what has now become her real interest in geohazards and rockfall in particular and she has since enjoyed working on projects combining this with her other interest of improving efficiencies and improving safety by the effective use of digital technology.
NZ Geomechanics News co-editor
Robert Kamuhangire is a principal geotechnical engineer with KGA Geotechnical Group, based in the Christchurch office. He previously worked in the UK predominantly on large infrastructure projects, prior to arriving in New Zealand in 2012 to be part of the Christchurch Rebuild. In addition to forgetting his “perpetual warm/rain jacket” during his first summer in New Zealand (thanks to the consistent good summer weather), he has been blessed to work on a number of claim assessments, new residential and commercial buildings, subdivisions, retaining walls, deep and shallow foundations, and ground improvement schemes among other things.
NZ Geomechanics News co-editor