Pioneering Research

The project builds on a recent EQC funded survey conducted among the New Zealand public. Where it was identified that more than 90% support EEW in New Zealand.

When it comes to a country like New Zealand with a population just under 5 million people, the extremely high cost of implementing and operating a nationwide EEW system raises a question whether it is economically viable for New Zealand to deploy such a system?

At present, New Zealand’s official geological monitoring agency, GNS Science, has centralized earthquake detection models supported by high-end seismographs. However, it takes nearly 60-seconds to compute a robust earthquake location. Information about earthquakes are disseminated only the post-event through the GeoNet website and mobile app; therefore, there is no official EEW system available in New Zealand to warn the public.

This project looks into the unexplored state-of-art research on “citizen-led self-aligning and self-healing DIY IoT embedded systems” to foster low-cost EEW applications. A short summary of research questions and objective can be read here.