Opus Central Laboratories
Opus Central Laboratories is an independent, world-class research and advisory facility located in Lower Hutt.
Our researchers include: psychologists, geographers, chemists, environmental scientists, research engineers, physicists and materials scientists. We specialise in providing research and innovative solutions for issues and problems facing our communities, settlements and physical infrastructure.
Our strong relationships with diverse stakeholders in national and local government, business, and private sector industries, provide a solid practical basis for all our work. Through a combination of commercial and public-good projects we interact and work with stakeholders and in partnership with other research organisations to provide the latest understanding of issues.
We have developed a diverse urban research portfolio, investigating 'how cities work and recovery from shocks' through four major research programmes funded by the Foundation for Research Science and Technology (FRST) (now known as the Ministry of Science and Innovation). A synopsis is given below for each of these research themes.
Our Public Good Research
Social and Economic Recovery from Natural Disasters through Community Resilience (FRST, 2005-2010)
The current research programme builds on our previous research on recovery through community resilience. The outputs of this project aimed to enhance the resilience of New Zealand urban communities so as to bring about a more rapid social and economic recovery following a devastating natural disaster. The research investigated the likely response of New Zealanders to the disruption caused by a natural disaster and the subsequent recovery process. Mobility, communication and information are fundamental in that they bind our communities and underpin their resilience. This research examines these fundamentals to gain an understanding of our need for these in the initial response, how they shape our behaviours, and their contribution to social and economic recovery. Increased resilience will speed up social recovery, and social recovery connects to economic recovery. This programme quantified some of these inter-relationships within a New Zealand context. Key projects have examined travel behaviours and motivations after a disaster has occurred, information needs and sources most trusted by the public, return to work behaviours, factors influencing business location and their subsequent retention after a disaster, and the recovery of businesses following the Gisborne earthquake in December 2007. Publications arising from this programme can be found on the publications page.
Learning Sustainability (FRST, 2003-2009)
The principal outcome of the Learning Sustainability programme is knowledge to facilitate more sustainable New Zealand settlements. To accomplish this, we set out to determine the relationship between the urban form and environmental, social, and economic performance of our settlements. Major components of this programme included examining the relationship of form to transport networks, the major components of settlement liveability, the role of commercial and retail areas within urban form, relationships between form and environmental performance, and settlement governance. These components were explored across a range of scales from the neighbourhood level, as in gated communities, through to the metropolitan scale in growth management strategies.
Transport, Energy, and Urban Form (FRST/MSI 2009-2012)
It is anticipated that changes in transport systems to achieve GHG emission reduction targets will initiate self-adjusting changes in urban form, so that relocation rather than outward expansion is the dominant influence. This research will enable New Zealand cities to seize the opportunities for improved wealth and liveability that arise through these changes in transport. There will be opportunities to direct resources to the types of infrastructure and urban forms that will better reflect New Zealand's futures, and to strengthen the alignment between market processes and planning (governance) processes in shaping the form of our settlements. This research programme is unique because it represents a step change in thinking; moving from how to cope with transport change to how to take advantage of it.
We are investigating: the functionality of future transport; the influence of new transport systems on household location preferences; the location preferences of retail and industry once transport substituting technologies have been allowed for; and, how to align governance and the market to deliver enhanced liveability and economic growth.
See our website for this programme www.successfulcities.co.nz
Reduced CO2 through Sustainable Household Travel (FRST, 2004-2009)
This programme is helping New Zealand agencies such as Auckland Regional Transport Agency, NZTA and Ministry of Transport to reduce CO2 emissions from household transport by providing understanding of behaviour and motivations underlying transport fuel use. This knowledge will help to support effective strategies to reduce household transport energy consumption. This research has identified the causes of the observed growth in fuel consumption by relating this to accessibility demands, to reliance on private motor vehicles, and to social and behavioural aspects particular to New Zealand culture. The latter include demographics, life stage, and the socio-economic status of New Zealand households. Key projects within the programme have identified household transport trends in New Zealand, both in shorter form via household and regional travel surveys analysis over the 1989-2006 period, and in longer form from 1900 onwards using secondary information. We have examined the key relationship between recreational travel and vehicle uptake and vehicle choice, attitudes about public-transport, concerns of safety with regard to uptake of larger vehicles, and the social and economic impacts that would occur if vehicle use was restricted without alternatives in place.
Natural Hazards Research Platform funding
In 2010, New Zealand's Foundation for Research Science and Technology (FRST) was merged with the Ministry of Research Science and Technology (MoRST) to become the Ministry of Science and Innovation (MSI).
Our research is undertaken as part of a multi-party research platform funded by the MSI that is dedicated to increasing New Zealand's resilience to natural hazards via high quality collaborative research. Within the platform, our work is part of the Societal Resilience theme.
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