Seismic resilience modules

Seismic resilience is the ability of structures, communities, and households to resist, absorb, recover from, and adapt to the impacts of earthquakes.

As an LBP, having knowledge of seismic resilience will help you to understand why work must be completed in a particular way. That knowledge will also help to explain the benefits of resilient or low-damage design if the client contacts you before the designs have been drawn up.

The Natural Hazards Commission Toka Tū Ake (formerly EQC), the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment (MBIE) and BRANZ have collaborated and developed two professional development eLearning modules for builders on how to improve the seismic resilience of New Zealand homes. The aim is to equip LBPs with the knowledge and skills to retrofit existing homes and design new homes to increase their resilience to earthquakes.

The aim of the modules is to:

  • understand New Zealand’s seismic risk and why it is important for New Zealand homes
  • identify the most common ways New Zealand homes are damaged by earthquakes and the features that are more resilient to earthquake shaking
  • learn how to make new builds more resilient to earthquakes
  • learn how to retrofit existing homes to improve their seismic resilience, including above the home, under the home, within the home and around the home.

These modules will give builders an overview of seismic resilience requirements and guidance for new builds, and practical retrofitting steps that can be taken to create a more seismically resilient home from the foundations to the roof.

These modules will be launched on the Building Performance website. You will need to register to complete them and to receive a certificate. One skills maintenance elective activity point can be claimed for each of these modules if you download the certificate onto the portal when claiming the points. There are other eLearning modules available that you may also wish to look at on the Building Performance website.

Building Performance Learning Centre(external link)

Seismic resilience program(external link) — Building Performance Learning Centre

The primary intended audience for these modules is builders, but they will also provide benefit to designers, architects and building consent officers.