Paper Number 46 1 Overview of NZNEES@Auckland Q.T. Ma, P. Omenzetter, J. M. Ingham, J. W. Butterworth & M. J. Pender Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of Auckland, New Zealand. 2007 NZSEE Conference ABSTRACT: Arising from the need for state-of-the-art facilities to conduct leading edge scientific research, and balancing the logistics of maintaining and operating such facilities, there is a global trend towards establishing networks of communal experimental and computational infrastructure. The New Zealand Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NZNEES) represents such a network for earthquake engineering research in New Zealand. It is a network that takes advantage of the latest digital information technologies to overcome the obstacle of distance. It acts as a vehicle to interface with other similar networks overseas and permits New Zealand researchers to participate equally in the new global forum, collaborate with likeminded leading experts worldwide and access state-of-the-art resources and the global research funding pool. The NZNEES network is modelled on the U.S. NEES network and has the vision to further the human understanding of earthquakes through integrated experimentation, computation and simulation. NZNEES@Auckland, as the first active node on the NZNEES network, aims to provide a unique contribution to the global networks as a leader in forced vibration testing and monitoring of in-situ structural and geotechnical systems. This paper describes the current capabilities of the NZNEES@Auckland node through brief examples of recent research, tools, IT infrastructure and current collaborations. 1 INTRODUCTION Earthquakes and earthquake related disasters are amongst the most destructive phenomena in nature. They result in significant direct and indirect economic losses, damage to physical and social infrastructure and loss of lives. Between 1970 and 2005, earthquakes accounted for 8 of the 10 worst natural catastrophes in terms of number of victims (Swiss Reinsurance Company, 2006). Earthquakes are not isolated problems; they affect the livelihood of hundreds of millions of people who live on the Earth’s active fault lines. For such a global problem, a collaborative global solution is required. In the past 100 years, there have been significant advances in the understanding of the nature and the effects of earthquakes. Significant advances in structural analysis have delivered scientific tools to analyse and predict the behaviour of buildings during seismic events. The development and enforcement of building codes has enabled the dissemination and application of knowledge and enhanced the life safety of occupants of modern buildings. Despite these advances, challenges and uncertainties still exist in the seismic response of many commonly seen structures. For instance, it is typically assumed in the seismic design of bridges with a length of less than 400 m that the effects of asynchronous ground motion are insignificant, yet recent shake table tests have revealed the contrary (Crewe & Norman, 2006). In addition, engineers face challenges in the design of architecturally extravagant structures on the one hand and highly optimised, economical structures on the other, adding to the demand to better understand earthquakes. Historically, the advances in earthquake resistant design can be labelled as a series of trial and error exercises. Tragically, many of the major developments in the science and building codes are results of lessons learned after a major earthquake. Consequently, the development of an earthquake engineering knowledge base has been slow and to a large extent dictated by nature. Nowadays, not underestimating the value of lessons from a real earthquake event, opportunities exist to accelerate the