title: Dealing with uncertainty in flood risk management and land use planning decisions: Insights from Aotearoa New Zealand

authors: Afsari Bajestani, Sepideh

abstract: Flooding with increasing intensity and frequency is presenting significant challenges for risk management and land use planning in urban areas. This is further exacerbated by uncertainties regarding how flood patterns are changing because of climate change. However, how such uncertainties are considered to inform flood risk management and land use planning decisions can vary largely from place to place and remain unclear in the literature. This paper contributes to this by examining how uncertainty is dealt with in flood risk management and land use planning in Aotearoa New Zealand. Drawing on empirical data at the local level, findings indicate that Aotearoa New Zealand’s decision-makers face challenges in considering and communicating uncertainty due to the prevalence of outdated approaches and regulatory constraints, fragmented risk governance, and lack of appropriate understanding of different perceptions and assumptions regarding flood risk between different stakeholders. Based on findings, the paper discusses the critical role of a national-level adaptive flood risk governance in helping to ensure consistency and coherency across different jurisdictions and levels of government, regarding the incorporation of uncertainty into flood risk management and land use planning. This includes the provision of national directives for incorporating uncertainty in decision-making whilst leaving room for innovation and targeted variability at the local level.

text: Dealing with uncertainty in flood risk management and land use planning decisions: Insights from Aotearoa New Zealand Flooding with increasing intensity and frequency is presenting significant challenges for risk management and land use planning in urban areas. This is further exacerbated by uncertainties regarding how flood patterns are changing because of climate change. However, how such uncertainties are considered to inform flood risk management and land use planning decisions can vary largely from place to place and remain unclear in the literature. This paper contributes to this by examining how uncertainty is dealt with in flood risk management and land use planning in Aotearoa New Zealand. Drawing on empirical data at the local level, findings indicate that Aotearoa New Zealand’s decision-makers face challenges in considering and communicating uncertainty due to the prevalence of outdated approaches and regulatory constraints, fragmented risk governance, and lack of appropriate understanding of different perceptions and assumptions regarding flood risk between different stakeholders. Based on findings, the paper discusses the critical role of a national-level adaptive flood risk governance in helping to ensure consistency and coherency across different jurisdictions and levels of government, regarding the incorporation of uncertainty into flood risk management and land use planning. This includes the provision of national directives for incorporating uncertainty in decision-making whilst leaving room for innovation and targeted variability at the local level.

year: 2024

title: Yield of annealing on the properties of the Ti-5Al-2.5Fe alloy produced by Powder Forging

authors: Jia, Mingtu

abstract: The high cost of titanium alloys can be reduced using alternative manufacturing techniques and using cheap alloying elements. In this study, the Ti-5Al-2.5Fe alloy, a cheaper α + β alloy than the workhorse Ti-6Al-4V, was produced by powder metallurgy combined with hot thermomechanical deformation by means of forging. The forged alloy was subsequently subjected to a heat treatment at 750 °C for several annealing times in order to modify the microstructure and tailor the mechanical properties. This study demonstrates that, regardless of the forging temperature used, annealing of the forged Ti-5Al-2.5Fe alloy improves both the strength and the ductility. Generally, the longer the annealing time, the higher the gain in strength and ductility with respect to the forged alloy. Moreover, annealing is significantly more beneficial to improve the ductility rather than the strength of the powder-forged Ti-5Al-2.5Fe alloy.

text: Yield of annealing on the properties of the Ti-5Al-2.5Fe alloy produced by Powder Forging The high cost of titanium alloys can be reduced using alternative manufacturing techniques and using cheap alloying elements. In this study, the Ti-5Al-2.5Fe alloy, a cheaper α + β alloy than the workhorse Ti-6Al-4V, was produced by powder metallurgy combined with hot thermomechanical deformation by means of forging. The forged alloy was subsequently subjected to a heat treatment at 750 °C for several annealing times in order to modify the microstructure and tailor the mechanical properties. This study demonstrates that, regardless of the forging temperature used, annealing of the forged Ti-5Al-2.5Fe alloy improves both the strength and the ductility. Generally, the longer the annealing time, the higher the gain in strength and ductility with respect to the forged alloy. Moreover, annealing is significantly more beneficial to improve the ductility rather than the strength of the powder-forged Ti-5Al-2.5Fe alloy.

year: 2023

title: Virtual hākari:  Sharing Māori culinary traditions in online communities

authors: Muru-Lanning, Charlotte

subjects: Kai Māori

abstract: For Māori, kai is a vital expression of identity, community, place and whakapapa. Traditionally, knowledge about kai is transmitted through customary community groupings and culturally embedded practices. However, with the rise of digital platforms, new spaces have emerged for Māori to gather and to share kai in virtual forms. 
This thesis observes how two Facebook groups – Kai Maori and KAI Basket NZ – operate as contemporary spaces for the transmission of Māori culinary knowledge and cultural identity. Kai Māori is considered alongside global studies of culinary traditions and understood through the notion of kai as whakapapa. The thesis addresses two core research questions: 1) How do Facebook groups contribute to an evolving concept of kai Māori? and 2) What kinds of relationships define these online kai communities? 
Guided by Māori data sovereignty (MDSov) principles, I observed interactions on both Facebook pages in two phases – one involving selective data collection over a twelve-month period from January to December 2024 the other involving systematic data collection over a four-week period from 10 December 2024 to 10 January 2025. The observation periods yielded 115 and 1293 posts respectively. A covert digital approach of ‘lurking’ was adopted as seeking prior consent may have affected the quality of the data and disrupted group dynamics. Lurking, as a method, sits uneasily alongside MDSov principles, particularly the principle of manaakitanga, requiring free, prior and informed consent. To address this I safeguarded the confidentiality of community members by seeking consent before reproducing content, removing group members’ names and excluding sensitive information. To analyse posts I used Ethnographic Content Analysis which allowed me to conduct a reflexive, iterative analysis of the posts in a way that was sensitive to the context in which the content was created.
These digital observations show that these groups serve as platforms for the transmission and innovation of kai Māori, encompassing edible components as well as the values enmeshed within these culinary traditions. Despite the mediated nature of these exchanges – where food is virtually consumed rather than physically shared, separate from traditional notions of community – these groups nurture meaningful connections among members, including those physically distant from their whenua. Through recipes, photos, stories, and commentary, the members of Kai Maori and KAI Basket NZ cultivate community identity and belonging via common cultural understandings, sharing of knowledge, a general spirit of sociality – and, importantly, a mutual love of kai.
I conceptualise these online spaces as virtual hākari, where the act of sharing virtual kai becomes an affirmation of identity and a form of cultural resistance. While online sharing may risk distancing kai practices and knowledge from traditional sites of transmission, the data suggests that these platforms may serve as conduits that encourage deeper cultural engagement offline. This thesis highlights the centrality of food in Māori cultural survival, sovereignty and resistance. In these digital spaces, kai Māori is not only celebrated but continually reimagined – reinforcing that to prepare, share and celebrate kai as Māori is to actively participate in the continuity of cultural identity.

text: Virtual hākari:  Sharing Māori culinary traditions in online communities For Māori, kai is a vital expression of identity, community, place and whakapapa. Traditionally, knowledge about kai is transmitted through customary community groupings and culturally embedded practices. However, with the rise of digital platforms, new spaces have emerged for Māori to gather and to share kai in virtual forms. 
This thesis observes how two Facebook groups – Kai Maori and KAI Basket NZ – operate as contemporary spaces for the transmission of Māori culinary knowledge and cultural identity. Kai Māori is considered alongside global studies of culinary traditions and understood through the notion of kai as whakapapa. The thesis addresses two core research questions: 1) How do Facebook groups contribute to an evolving concept of kai Māori? and 2) What kinds of relationships define these online kai communities? 
Guided by Māori data sovereignty (MDSov) principles, I observed interactions on both Facebook pages in two phases – one involving selective data collection over a twelve-month period from January to December 2024 the other involving systematic data collection over a four-week period from 10 December 2024 to 10 January 2025. The observation periods yielded 115 and 1293 posts respectively. A covert digital approach of ‘lurking’ was adopted as seeking prior consent may have affected the quality of the data and disrupted group dynamics. Lurking, as a method, sits uneasily alongside MDSov principles, particularly the principle of manaakitanga, requiring free, prior and informed consent. To address this I safeguarded the confidentiality of community members by seeking consent before reproducing content, removing group members’ names and excluding sensitive information. To analyse posts I used Ethnographic Content Analysis which allowed me to conduct a reflexive, iterative analysis of the posts in a way that was sensitive to the context in which the content was created.
These digital observations show that these groups serve as platforms for the transmission and innovation of kai Māori, encompassing edible components as well as the values enmeshed within these culinary traditions. Despite the mediated nature of these exchanges – where food is virtually consumed rather than physically shared, separate from traditional notions of community – these groups nurture meaningful connections among members, including those physically distant from their whenua. Through recipes, photos, stories, and commentary, the members of Kai Maori and KAI Basket NZ cultivate community identity and belonging via common cultural understandings, sharing of knowledge, a general spirit of sociality – and, importantly, a mutual love of kai.
I conceptualise these online spaces as virtual hākari, where the act of sharing virtual kai becomes an affirmation of identity and a form of cultural resistance. While online sharing may risk distancing kai practices and knowledge from traditional sites of transmission, the data suggests that these platforms may serve as conduits that encourage deeper cultural engagement offline. This thesis highlights the centrality of food in Māori cultural survival, sovereignty and resistance. In these digital spaces, kai Māori is not only celebrated but continually reimagined – reinforcing that to prepare, share and celebrate kai as Māori is to actively participate in the continuity of cultural identity.

year: 2025