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Ambassador Alvin

Alvin is looking forward to learning about the technology used to help rebuild Christchurch. Image: LEARNZ.

Tuesday. Alvin reads about the rebuild plans for Central Christchurch. Image: LEARNZ.

Wednesday. Alvin finds a survey reference mark which surveyors use to measure off. These marks are positioned throughout the country so people can always make accurate surveys. Image: LEARNZ.

Wednesday. Alvin inspects a trig station at the top of Sugarloaf on the Port Hills. These stations are also used as reference points for surveying. Image: LEARNZ.

Thursday. Alvin explores some pipes which are ready to be dug into the ground at Wigram Skies, a new subdivsion in Christchurch. Image: LEARNZ.

Friday. Alvin visits SCIRT (The Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team) to find out how they are working to fix services in Christchurch. Image: LEARNZ.

Kia ora koutou,

I'm Alvin one of the LEARNZ ambassadors.

I am really excited about taking part in another year of LEARNZ adventures. If you join me you can come and visit out of the way places that you wouldn't otherwise be able to experience.

You can join me in Christchruch to see how geospatial data is helping with the rebuild of Christchurch. You will see how technology is used to map and locate important buildings and services. You will be able to look back in the past and compare the old Christchurch with the futuristic plan for a new and stronger city.

I would love some company on this trip so if your class has a curious ambassador that would like to join me, sign them up now via your MyLEARNZ control panel.

See you there,

Alvin, the LEARNZ Ambassador.

Tuesday 28 August

Hey there,

Spring has well and truly sprung and it was a gorgeous day to be out and about. I have been looking forward to getting back to Christchurch to see how my poor old home town is coping. Parts of the city are unrecognisable as so many large buildings have disappeared from the centre of town.

It’s pretty exciting to think about what the city will be like in a few years’ time and it seems that Christchurch is finally ready to start rebuilding. I can’t wait to meet our experts tomorrow to find out how they are organising such a massive building project.

Catch you then,

Alvin.

Wednesday 29 August

Kia ora koutou,

It was another spectacular day in Christchurch today. We met our experts Nic and Steve from LINZ out at Charing Cross where the first big Canterbury earthquake was centred in 2010.

Nic showed us how surveyors can measure land movement. At Highfield Road the movement is very obvious as the road has dropped and moved sideways, but land movement isn’t always so visible. Steve told us about LIDAR – which works like RADAR except it uses light waves rather than radio waves to measure the height of land. Unfortunately some parts of Christchurch have dropped and are now at risk of flooding so cannot be built on again. At least now people know how much their land has moved so they can make better decisions about whether to rebuild there or not.

Well, it has been a busy day. I’ll catch up with you again tomorrow.

See you then,

Alvin.

Thursday 30 August

Hi everyone,

What a day it has been. I shook hands with the famous Mayor of Christchurch, Mr. Bob Parker today. I am sure most kiwis would recognise Bob after all the appearances he made on T.V. following the Canterbury earthquakes. You could say that Bob has been the face of the earthquakes.

Bob explained that he had once thought that maps were quite boring, but now he admits that with technology, maps and geospatial data have become very important. Almost everything to do with recovery from the earthquakes relies on knowing where things are and how to get things to certain locations.

We also explored a new subdivision out at Wigram. Two thousand sections are being developed here to help relocate people who can no longer stay on their land.

Tomorrow we will look at what is planned for the centre of Christchurch.

See you tomorrow,

Alvin.

Friday 31 August

Tena koutou katoa,

I had been looking forward to today because I knew we would be looking at the plans for the centre of Christchurch City. It was really exciting to see the plans, not just because they showed cool designs and great ideas, but because they were displayed in such a fantastic way. A 3D display made me feel as though I was flying over the city and then entering buildings. It was especially cool to see inside the covered stadium.

We also saw some very clever GIS systems. I was able to identify an area of Christchurch and zoom in to see exactly what damage there was to things like water and sewage pipes and roading. After the last few days I can now see that it would be so much harder to rebuild Christchurch if people didn't have access to this geospatial data and technology.

I hope you have enjoyed the field trip and can join us on another one soon.

Ka kite ano,

Alvin.