The maritime transportation network is one of the critical infrastructure systems whose disruption significantly impacts the economy, security, and overall well-being of society.  Lessons learned from geo-hazards like earthquakes, tsunami, liquefaction, storms and severe climate events and other natural disasters due to climate change have dramatically demonstrated the vulnerability of seaport structures and the severe damage that can be caused. These fragile and critical nurseries for port infrastructure and the environment demand a high level of protection from the effects of multi-hazards.

Aon NZ Ltd commissioned Tonkin & Taylor Ltd to carry out a tsunami characterisation assessment for ports in New Zealand owned by The Port Collective to assist in the determination of whether their existing insurance cover is sufficient for a significant local tsunami.  The study assessed the critical nearshore tsunami amplitude, momentum and velocity for ports within The Port Collective for New Zealand for two near field earthquake scenarios using boundary condition information of maximum tsunami amplitude at the coast and the empirical methods proposed by ASCE 7 (2016).  Information has been provided along transects perpendicular to the tsunami wave crest to use damage and loss estimation for the Port infrastructure.