Abstract

Hazards associated with natural events in the hydrological domain broadly include river floods, landslides and droughts. Over the last decade there has been a focus on New Zealand research in the areas of flood, related to storm rainfalls, earthquakes and volcanic activity. Emerging research continues in flood forecasting, flood frequency, storm rainfalls, hydrological ‘riskscape’ (i.e., predicting the costs of flood inundation), and there remains little new research
on drought. This chapter focuses largely on flood hazards and hazards associated with rainstorm events, including rain-triggered landslides and debris flows.
The intersection between flooding and both seismic and volcanic hazards is considered with reference to the impacts of the 2010-2011 Christchurch earthquake sequence and the 2007 Ruapehu lahars, respectively.