Christchurch Liquefaction Hazard Mapping

A liquefaction study of Christchurch City was undertaken for the Canterbury Regional Council (Environment Canterbury) to create a set of liquefaction hazard and ground damage maps based on actual soil strengths from pre-existing data. The study required research and data collection from records held at Environment Canterbury and various Christchurch City Council offices, as well as contractor/consultancy information to obtain borehole and CPT records. The key information such as soil type, strength and water table levels was entered into a liquefaction database specifically designed for the project. Calculation of the liquefaction hazard for Christchurch utilised the information contained and a program embedded within the database (using the method of Youd & Idriss(1), 2001). The project created liquefaction hazard and ground damage maps at compilation scales of 1:25,000.