GNS Science social scientist Dr Wendy Saunders joins QuakeCoRE Leadership Team

QuakeCoRE would like to welcome Dr Wendy Saunders as the newest member of our Senior Leadership Team. Wendy is based at GNS Science, where her research focuses on land-use planning for natural hazards. She is also the Science Leader of The Deep South National Science Challenge Engagement Programme.

A core part of Wendy-’s work is engaging with communities, councils and others to improve the way natural hazards are incorporated into planning for land use. She has developed a risk-based framework for innovative land-use planning that allows risks from natural hazards in New Zealand to be reduced, and encourages better decision making for natural hazard risk reduction.

In 2013, Wendy was a World Social Science Fellow in Risk Interpretation and Action, and in 2017 she was part of the team that won a New Zealand Planning Institute award for the Bay of Plenty Regional Council-’s implementation of an online hazard planning toolkit she developed for councils.

She is also a member of the Mātauranga Māori and Governance programmes in the  Resilience to Nature-’s Challenges  National Science Challenge.

David Johnston, Leader of QuakeCoRE-’s Resilience Pathways Flagship Programme, says “Wendy’s expertise is in natural hazards land-use planning. She has worked with both local and central government to provide evidence-based practice, introducing a risk-based approach to land-use planning policy development. Her experience provides invaluable support for QuakeCoRE’s goal of reducing seismic risks for communities throughout New Zealand.-

Wendy says “I am looking forward to contributing to QuakeCoRE as it progresses its mission.-