Monitoring wellbeing during recovery from the 2010–2011 Canterbury earthquakes: the CERA wellbeing survey

International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, Volume 14, December 2015, pp. 96-103, doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2015.01.012:

This paper outlines the process and outcomes of a multi-agency, multi-sector research collaboration, led by the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA). It begins with an outline of both the Canterbury earthquake sequence, and the research context informing this collaborative project, before reporting on the methodology and significant results to date. It concludes with a discussion of both the survey results, and the collaborative process through which it was developed.

The CERA Wellbeing Survey (CWS) gathers self-reported wellbeing data to supplement the monitoring of the social recovery undertaken through CERA's Canterbury Wellbeing Index. Thereby informing a range of relevant agency decision-making, the CWS is also intended to provide the community and other sectors with a broad indication of how the population is tracking in the recovery. Its primary objective was to ensure that decision-making was appropriately informed, with the concurrent aim of compiling a robust dataset that is of value to future researchers, and to the wider, global hazard and disaster research endeavour.