Learn Together Prepare Together Act Together

Case Study: Cyclone Winston, Fiji

2Tonkin + Taylor: Case Study - Cyclone Winston, Fiji

Rapid collection of damage reconnaissance

using Project Orbit

The first significant earthquake of the Canterbury

Earthquake Sequence (2010-2011) occurred on

4 September 2010, requiring a dedicated team

of scientists and engineers acting on behalf of

the Earthquake Commission to begin the task of

mapping land damage.

For Tonkin + Taylor (T+T), this big picture damage

assessment has been a routine initial part of

any major natural disaster event response since

20041, so that damage recovery efforts can be

appropriately triaged and the worst damage

attended to first.

On 23 February 2011, a day after the most

destructive earthquake, Mike Lee, one of T+T’s

IT specialists and an ex NZ Fire Service (NZFS),

knew that some of his former work mates had

been deployed to Christchurch with the USAR

team. He phoned them and asked if they would

like T+T to open a web-based viewing platform

that would allow NZFS to share their imagery.

A T+T internet-based viewing platform named

Project Orbit, originally developed for major

infrastructure projects, was modified to collate

this valuable reconnaissance information. It was

a light-bulb moment: For the first time in New

Zealand, a team working in a disaster operations

centre had access to a web-based portal to

source critical information and up-to-date

imagery including critical damage maps helping

to expedite the first-response process.

Field reconnaissance information on Project

Orbit was soon after augmented by aerial

photography and LiDAR (aerial laser survey data).

The quantity of data being collected presented

enormous challenges for engineers as to how to

best use this information.

Communication of damage reconnaissance

using the Canterbury Geotechnical Database

T+T developed the Canterbury Geotechnical

Database (CGD) initially for EQC and then for

the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority

(CERA) so that all response, recovery and

research agencies and private sector (insurers,

engineers, architects, planners) could have a

web-based portal to access information as soon

as it became available.

This initiative created a central collaboration

portal and identified key assets and risks for

central and local government, as well as all

of the main insurance companies and

re-insurers. Making spatial Information

available as soon as possible is fundamental

if natural disaster response and recovery is

to be efficient and effective.

The CGD has since been transferred to the

Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment

(MBIE), and is now the NZGD, an open source/

open access cloud based information database

available to everyone. It contains aerial

photography, LiDAR, borehole logs and a host of

other vital information.

Learnings from Christchurch

1 Likely to result in more than 1000 claims

3Tonkin + Taylor: Case Study - Cyclone Winston, Fiji

Cyclone Winston Response

T+T is an engineering and environmental

consulting firm based in New Zealand with more

than 40 years of experience in the Pacific Islands.

It was clear that recent learnings and

development in natural hazard damage

reconnaissance in Christchurch presented

significant opportunities for application in

the Pacific.

In discussions with the NZ Ministry of Foreign

Affairs and Trade (MFAT), T+T proposed that the

initial response and recovery from a natural

disaster could be better coordinated in the

Pacific if there was a single information portal

that all relief and recovery agencies could

access. Less than a year after talking to MFAT,

the idea was put to the test.

As Cyclone Winston approached Fiji on 19

February 2016, T+T established a Project Orbit

platform (Cyclone Winston Viewer) for the event

and contacted MFAT and NZ Defense Force

(NZDF) to see if a T+T natural disaster specialist

could get onboard the P-3 Orion to map damage

from the air.

Unfortunately there were no seats available,

so T+T independently dispatched engineer

Peter Quilter on the first commercial flight into

Nadi. Once on the ground, Quilter established

contact with the United Nations Office for the

Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA),

got on the road and started photographing and

field-mapping the damage.

T+T began to populate the platform with land-

based damage imagery. UNOCHA provided several

data disks containing declassified oblique aerial

photos taken by the NZDF P-3 Orion. His review

of these photographs revealed unparalleled land

and building damage detail, albeit in a form that

was not accessible or easily used.

Over several nights Quilter and Mike Lee worked

together to upload this valuable imagery onto

a Project Orbit platform set up specifically for

Cyclone Winston. Photographs were displayed

on a GIS map viewer allowing all agencies within

4 days of the cyclone to understand the extent

of available information and the level of damage

throughout Fiji.

Photos of Cyclone Winston damage uploaded from field reconnaissance

4Tonkin + Taylor: Case Study - Cyclone Winston, Fiji

Meanwhile T+T’s John Leeves coordinated the

T+T Natural Hazard Resilience Team back in

Auckland who were to analyzing damage

from the photographs creating damage

maps and uploading this information back

onto the platform.

Additional information was added to the

portal such as:

• Status of road closures

• Location of evacuation centres

• Location of red cross offices

• Locations where NGOs were working.

Oblique photos uploaded from the NZDF P-3 Orion over flights of the Cyclone Winston damage.

This insert enlargement shows the high resolution of the NZDF photography. The agencies using this information included UNOCHA, MFAT, DFAT, Fiji Government, SPC, Red Cross and NDRF (including Save the Children, UNICEF, Salvation Army, Oxfam, Adventist Development Relief Agency, Habitat for Humanity, Rotary New Zealand, Christian World Service, Tearfund and World Vision).

5Tonkin + Taylor: Case Study - Cyclone Winston, Fiji

Leeves also liaised with key NGO and

international aid organisations and NZ aid

partners through the New Zealand Council for

International Development (NZCID).

It was the first time that a web-based

information portal had been accessible

to all relief agencies, Government, and

Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) in the

immediate aftermath of a major natural disaster

anywhere in the Pacific. The portal can be

accessed below. Note that various layers can

be turned on and off.

https://projectorbit.maps.arcgis.com/apps/

webappviewer/index.html?id=fd9070fb3a7f429b

b6c10ad49f4a34c1

The Australian Government’s Department of

Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) stated that

Project Orbit is "by far one of the most useful,

fused and aesthetic products seen so far".

Recognizing the value of this service DFAT

subsequently uploaded their entire catalog

of aerial declassified photographs onto

Project Orbit.

UNOHCA stated: “It is not easy to make images

captured by the NZ Airforce accessible and

useful to typical disaster managers, but the T+T

system allows this great resource to be part of

the operational decision-making".

The rapid process of collecting and sharing

natural disaster damage information via this

platform has been dubbed “Rapid Damage

Mapping.” The application of the lessons from

Canterbury to a major natural disaster in the

Pacific has demonstrated what can be achieved

by preparing together and acting together.

In this instance T+T undertook all of the

assistance work - on the ground in Fiji, setting

up and operating the web-based ARC-GIS

information platform in New Zealand, and

natural disaster damage mapping – pro bono.

The Cyclone Winston response and recovery

has been widely recognised as one of the most

well-coordinated and successful relief efforts

undertaken anywhere in the world.

Cyclone Winston Response Viewer

6Tonkin + Taylor: Case Study - Cyclone Winston, Fiji

Damage maps were compiled and uploaded.

The Council for International Development,

through the NGO Disaster Relief Forum (NDRF),

has undertaken a review of the response in its

document A Softer Landing, Tropical Cyclone

Winston After-Action.

Learnings that were taken directly from

Canterbury and applied in action come in for

particular note: “New information sharing

tools developed for NDRF use – notably the

online mapping of humanitarian needs and

activities conducted by Tonkin + Taylor –

were acknowledged as assisting in needs

assessments and coordination.”

The early deployment of the NZDF P-3 Orion

surveillance planes provided some of the earliest

visual data on the extent of the physical damage

caused by Winston.

“A particularly novel and positive development

was the collaboration between Tonkin + Taylor

and NZDF, integrating surveillance photographs

onto T+T maps, providing a coherent and

country-wide visual damage assessment that

helped inform NDRF member relief planning.”

Lessons from Canterbury made a significant

contribution to ensuring that Fiji could recover

remarkably quickly from the most destructive

cyclone to ever hit a Pacific island nation.

www.tonkintaylor.co.nz