Bay of Plenty

Branch Coordinators

Kim De Graaf

Kim is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Waikato and a Senior Geotechnical Engineer with ENGEO and is based in Tauranga. Kim’s experience includes earthworks, detailed seismic assessments, building foundation design, 3Waters projects and resilience. Kim’s research interests cross a broad range of geotechnical areas including the behaviour of pumiceous soils, ground improvement and soil-foundation-structure-interaction.

Rhiannon Robinson

Rhiannon is a Chartered Professional Engineer in Geotechnical Engineering with Engineering New Zealand Te Ao Rangahau. Rhiannon has worked as a Geotechnical Engineer with Beca since graduating from the University of Auckland in 2018 with a Bachelor of Civil Engineering with honours. Initially she worked for the Beca Auckland branch, before transferring back to her hometown of Tauranga at the start of 2021. 

Matt Packard

Matt works as a Geotechnical Engineer at ENGEO’s Tauranga office.  He has over 20 years industry experience, working primarily within the most sunny Auckland and Bay of Plenty regions.  He has an interest in resilience based seismic design, complex retaining wall design and soft ground engineering, and is currently looking after a number of challenging projects across our geologically diverse country.  An NZGS Branch coordinator for the Bay of Plenty in a past life, he’s come back on board to help pester NZGS members into presenting more local events.

USEFUL READING

For those new to the Bay of Plenty or who want to find out a bit more background or history (in the geotechnical context), the list below provides some useful reading or reference material.  All the articles or references listed below are available in the NZGS online library (unless specifically noted).  This is not an exhaustive list of references.  Please contact the local NZGS reps if you have a specific reference you think would be useful to add.

Tauranga / Western BOP

• Tauranga City Council (TCC) Infrastructure Development Code (IDC) sets out Council requirements for geotechnical reporting and provides details of the geotechnical accreditation system.  This is available as an online resource here.
• The TCC-IDC, DS10-Appendix A ref. list has been upgraded to include several other geotechnical and engineering geological references to provide a basic set of geo-professional guides and technical papers for professional practice in the TCC area and the wider BOP region.
• Documents from Sections 1-3 and 5 can be downloaded from the referenced websites, i.e. TCC for section 1, Standards NZ for Section 2 and MBIE for section 5:
  • 1. COUNCIL DOCUMENTATION
  • 2. NZ LEGISLATION
  • 3. NZ STANDARDS AND MANUALS
  • 5. NZ TECHNICAL GUIDANCE DOCUMENTS:
    • NZGS/MBIE Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering Guidance, Modules 1-6 (2016-17)
    • Canterbury Residential Technical Guidance documents, MBIE (2012, updated 2018)
• Additional technical references for the following topics, listed in Sections 4 & 6 below, can be found here:
  • 4. OTHER TAURANGA CITY COUNCIL Technical REFERENCES:
    • Slope Stability
    • Geology
    • Maps from TCC & Retrolens
    • Seismic Loading & Site Classification
    • Liquefaction & Ground Improvement
    • Soakage Assessment
    • Other
  • 6. OTHER GEOTECHNICAL Technical REFERENCES FOR TAURANGA CITY & WESTERN BOP:
    • Soil Properties & Performance
    • Projects & Experience
    • Earth Science (from University of Waikato, NZ)
• A Full Summary of all the above references, for Sections 1 to 6, can be found here

Rotorua / Taupo

Rotorua District Council has a suite of hazard maps available in its District Plan Maps.  These cover landslide potential, soft ground potential, potential fault line impact, geothermal hazard, flood, etc.

• Rotorua Lakes Council GeyserView (GIS)
• Rotorua District Council Hazard Studies – Landslide Hazards, GNS, 2010 (available on BOPRC website)
• Rotorua District Council Hazard Studies – Part 1 Volcano and Geothermal Hazards, GNS, 2010 (available on BOPRC website)

Taupo District Council has a variety of layers on the GIS system to cover both flood and fault hazards.

Whakatane / Kawerau / Edgecumbe / Matata

• Howarth – New Formations of late Pleistocene tephras from the Okataina Volcanic Centre, 1975

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