Auckland Engineering Lifelines Project

The Auckland Engineering Lifelines Project (AELP) is a project which involves the Auckland Regional Council, local councils and other key infrastructure providers. The project looks at how vulnerable our infrastructure (lifelines such as water, wastewater, power, gas, telecommunications, transportation) is towards different natural hazards.

The aim of the project is to help the infrastructure providers prepare for a natural hazards event so that damage to our 'lifelines' (see above) is limited. Preparation involves identifying what can be done BEFORE a natural disaster to reduce lifelines vulnerability.Building pipelines in safer ground, improving the way pipes are linked together, and fastening items such as tanks and other fittings securely so they don't fall over in the event of an earthquake are all examples of reducing vulnerability.

The project also outlines how lifelines rely on one another (e.g. it would be hard to pump away wastewater without power) and identifies what planning is needed to get services working again after an emergency.

To find out more, a number of reports are available which summarise the work done to date. The most recent of these is the Auckland Engineering Lifelines Report - Final Report, November 1999 (ARC Technical Publication No. 112, Nov. 1999). These are available from the ARC library (ph 09 366 2000).