Local man to study tsunami effects | Canterbury News | Local News in Canterbury

A Christchurch tsunami expert headed to Sri Lanka this week in a bid to learn more about what New Zealand could expect in a similar event.

He will also lend expertise to those affected by the Boxing Day disaster.

James Goff, whose 10-day trip is being sponsored by the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering, said the idea behind the trip was to learn lessons for New Zealand so this country could plan for a similar event.

Goff is a private consultant who primarily works on natural hazards and has particular expertise in tsunami.

Although seven New Zealanders are also being sponsored by the NZ Society for Earthquake Engineering to go to Thailand, Goff is the only New Zealander sponsored to go to Sri Lanka.

He will join and work with a group of American experts.

"New Zealand can learn many things from this," he said.

"From an engineering point of view we can look at what kind of damage the waves did to different kind of structures, how roads and bridges were affected, how communications, sewerage and water systems responded and how they were affected, and why some survived while others didn't.

"What were the idiosyncracies of the tsunami as it came to land and the effects on the physical environment? In Indonesia some beaches are completely gone. Not only were houses and buildings destroyed, but the beach itself is gone. "That's staggering stuff and one of the things we can learn is that if a tsunami can do that kind of damage then what does that say about some of our beaches and dune systems around the country? Will they still be there afterwards?"

This is not the first time Goff, who lives in Governors Bay, has been to an area devastated by a tsunami.

In 1998 he went to Papua New Guinea after it was hit by a tidal wave so he knows what to expect, including the emotional impact such devastation can have.

"From a professional point of view... (the experience) will be extraordinarily interesting. But from the point of view of a human being I think it will be very harrowing. You just have to balance the two.