Natural hazards can emerge slowly as accumulated stress, or arrive suddenly as an acute shock. Disasters, on the other hand, occur only when hazards intersect with people, infrastructure and decisions. Lesson 3: How we frame extreme events mattersFor decades, significant natural hazard events in New Zealand have been described as rare, exceptional or “once in a generation”. Lesson 4: NZ must bridge its ‘knowledge-action gap’New Zealand produces world-leading natural hazard research. Recent research showed that 97% of government spending was on responding to, and recovering from, disasters.

Source: New Zealand Herald February 14, 2026 04:34 UTC