Case Study: Navigating Landslide Risks in Urban Infrastructure
Project Overview
Following prolonged, intense rainfall in April–May 2025, Christchurch City and Banks Peninsula experienced flooding and multiple landslides, resulting in a state of emergency. Significant cracking was found along a section of Lighthouse Road and surrounding land. The road was closed, and affected residents were evacuated as a precaution. The slip posed immediate risks of collapse, debris flow, and further instability, threatening safety, access, local businesses, daily commutes and resident access to homes. Traditional manual surveys were insufficient for the dynamic post-rainfall environment, where seismic or further rainfall events could exacerbate the slip.
The Challenge
Key issues:
- Safety Risks: Potential for sudden failure endangering motorists, residents, and properties downslope.
- Community and Economic Disruption: Road closure led to detours, impacting local businesses, daily commutes, and resident access to homes.
- Planning Pressures: Council needed rapid, reliable data to comply with emergency protocols and plan capital works.
The Kurloo Solution
Kurloo’s GNSS/IoT technology was deployed to monitor ground movements on Lighthouse Road, providing millimetre-accurate, continuous data tailored to the site’s rainfall- and seismic-induced risks, both vertical settlement and lateral displacement.
- Rapid Deployment: Solar-powered GNSS sensors installed across key zones (e.g., slip crest and abutments) in three days, with no disruption to emergency response efforts or ongoing borehole drilling.
- Precision Data: Cloud-based platform tracks movements at millimetre resolution, delivering automated alerts (via SMS/dashboard) for deviations >2mm, integrated with CCC’s geotechnical tools.
- Resilient Operation: Low-maintenance units withstand harsh New Zealand weather, enabling remote oversight and reducing on-site visits significantly.
This scalable system supported CCC’s geotech and surveying teams to transition from crisis response to long-term resilience.
The Results
Kurloo’s end-to-end system in action on Lighthouse Road:
Solar-powered GNSS sensors installed across key zones with no disruption to emergency response.
Regular movement updates without staff having to physically go out to the slip site.
No significant movements were detected, confirming low debris flow risk due to the site’s high clay content, even under future heavy weather.
Kurloo alerts flagged minor shifts during borehole drilling, allowing immediate adjustments that kept the road operational and supported positive geotechnical findings.
“Having this risk management tool in place, along with the data and other expert geotechnical advice, gave us the confidence to let residents living downslope of the slip to return to their homes and for the road to re-open with restricted access.”
General Manager, City Infrastructure, City Council
Wider Impact
Kurloo enabled:
- Residents to return home and the road to re-open with restricted access, based on confidence from continuous monitoring data
- Reduced on-site visits and lower emergency response/labour costs
- ROI through informed, targeted capital works planning
- Data from this site shared with another South Island Council that also experienced a state of emergency due to significant rainfall, allowing them to see the benefits of the monitoring system
Outcome
After a period of monitoring, which included another significant wet weather event, data showed no additional movement at the land instability site — confirming low debris flow risk due to the site’s high clay content, even under future heavy weather. Kurloo supported CCC’s geotech and surveying teams to transition from crisis response to long-term resilience.
Download the Full Technical Case Study
Access the full deployment timeline, emergency response context, monitoring performance comparison, and community impact outcomes.