An integrated approach: managing resources for post-disaster reconstruction

A lack of resources for post-disaster housing reconstruction significantly limits the prospects for successful recovery. Following the earthquake in Wenchuan, China, in May 2008, housing reconstruction was not immune to resource shortages and price inflation. Difficulties in sourcing materials and labour considerably impeded recovery. This paper provides evidence of the resourcing bottlenecks inherent in the post-Wenchuan earthquake reconstruction process. Its aim is to present an integrated planning framework for managing resources for post-disaster housing rebuilding. The results are drawn from in-field surveys that highlight the areas where stakeholders need to concentrate effort, including revising legislation and policy, enhancing capacity for rebuilding in the construction industry, strengthening the transportation network, restructuring market mechanisms, and incorporating environmental considerations into overall planning. Although the case study presented here is country-specific, it is hoped that the findings provide a basis for future research to identify resourcing constraints and solutions in other disaster contexts.     

Citizen participation in disaster recovery projects and programmes in rural communities: a comparison of the Haiti earthquake and Hurricane Katrina

This study investigates predictors of local participation in recovery projects and programmes following Hurricane Katrina in the United States in 2005 and the earthquake in Haiti in 2010. Using two sets of survey data, it examines whether disaster impacts and social capital (social trust and civic engagement) are associated with disaster recovery participation and compares predictors of such engagement in the two locations. Multivariate logistic regression results reveal that physical injuries, limited community mobility, and government trust increase recovery participation in Haiti (n=278), whereas emotional distress and homeownership decrease it. On the Gulf Coast of the US (n=259), physical injuries and higher civic engagement augment recovery participation, while homeownership and age reduce it. The confounding factors of national contexts and post‐disaster time frames might explain the differences in the results. The discussion addresses the relation between country‐specific vulnerability and recovery participation and suggests implications for policy and practice to improve local citizens’ capabilities to participate in sustainable recovery processes.     

Multi-stakeholder collaboration in community post-disaster reconstruction: case study from the Longmen Shan Fault area in China

While multi-stakeholder collaboration is critical for effective community post-disaster reconstruction (CPDR), it is often very difficult in practice. The Longmen Shan Fault active seismic zone in China has experienced several recent earthquakes with the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake and 2013 Lushan earthquake, both of which caused extensive and widespread damage to many communities, presenting unprecedented challenges for post-disaster reconstruction. This paper develops a multi-cycle field research method that involves three interconnected cycles: internet research, field visits, and extensive surveys: to examine multi-stakeholder collaboration for the CPDR following the Wenchuan earthquake. It was found that there were 12 types of active stakeholders engaged across four main areas: infrastructure rebuilding, psychological recovery, socio-economic rehabilitation, and ecological restoration. Specifically, local community participation and effective collaboration between the community and the external stakeholders were found to be the most crucial elements for successful reconstruction. Multi-stage field research after the Lushan earthquake verified that CPDR was effective and that multi-stakeholder collaboration had improved from the lessons learnt from the Wenchuan earthquake reconstruction experience. Some advantages and limitations of this research are also given.     

Rural residents and choice of building earthquake-resistant house: results of a choice experiment study

Rural settlements, especially in developing countries, are disproportionally vulnerable to natural hazards due to both biophysical and social vulnerability. Building hazard-resistant houses requires a thorough understanding of hazards and institutional and financial resources. However, it is equally important for planners and policymakers to know how rural residents make the tradeoff between various housing attributes when provided with the resources such as low-interest housing construction loans. In this study, we use a choice experiment (CE) to examine rural households' preference for earthquake resistance when building houses. A total of 300 households from randomly selected villages in central districts of Guilan Province in Iran were recruited for a CE study in which they had to choose between a number of houses that differed in terms of the required construction loan, resistance to earthquakes, size, and exterior and interior designs. Our results show that the average resident preferred larger houses with better exterior and interior designs to more earthquake-resistant houses, and is willing to spend more on these attributes than earthquake safety. These results indicate that rural households are willing to receive loans to improve their houses but that this does not translate into more earthquake-resistant houses.     

中国农村地震灾害特点及减灾对策

致灾因子强度和承灾体的脆弱性共同决定了灾情的大小.中国农村乡镇发生地震的概率远远高于大中城市,西藏、新疆、云南、宁夏、青海、甘肃等西部农村乡镇是我国地震灾害最为严重的地区.地震灾害对农村乡镇造成的损失,主要是农村居民住房的破坏,约占总损失的80%以上;其它的20%损失中,又以农村水利工程的破坏损失为主.目前我国农村乡镇居民的住房仍以抗震性能较差的土木、砖木结构为主,开展农村住房地震保险、农村低息住房贷款并加强农村建房的监督管理,是降低农村地震风险、减轻农村地震灾害损失的主要对策.     

Public participation in NGO-oriented communities for disaster prevention and mitigation (N-CDPM) in the Longmen Shan fault area during the Wenchuan and Lushan earthquake periods

ABSTRACT

The Longmen Shan fault area in southwest China is one of the world’s most active earthquake zones. The epicenters of the two most recent earthquakes, the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake (8.0?Ms) and the 2013 Lushan earthquake (7.0?Ms), both of which caused serious losses, were only 85?km apart. Community-based disaster risk reduction is the foundation of the disaster management system pyramid and is critical to the success of ‘sustainable hazard mitigation’. Based on multiple collaborative stakeholder perspectives, this paper examines public participation in an NGO-oriented Community for Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (N-CDPM) in the period between the two earthquakes as a multi-stage problem; N-CDPM establishment, normal operations, disaster testing, and continuous improvement. Multi-stage field research was conducted in the affected areas in the Longmen Shan fault area to examine the collaboration in each stage, after which the differences were compared across the four stages based on eight key indices; scales, core stakeholders, core network stability, mean number of lines, mean collaborative level, governments, and individual and public organization participation. The government participation, individual participation, and public organization participation are then discussed. This paper provides a novel research approach to CDPM in multiple earthquake regions and gives rich insights into the collaboration between the government and the public for N-CDPM.     

Estimating the mitigation effect of Tokai earthquake measures on housing damage: a counterfactual approach

This paper evaluates the mitigation effect of Tokai earthquake measures on housing damage using a counterfactual approach. It focuses on those measures that stimulate ex‐ante investment in disaster prevention in the supposedly affected area, including earthquake‐proof retrofitting and improved housing construction; the effect of the measures on housing losses is estimated monetarily. The study compares factual disaster damage computed using a real distribution of houses with counterfactual damage to a hypothetical housing distribution that would occur if the measures were not implemented. The key findings are: (i) the disaster mitigation effects of Tokai earthquake measures on housing amount to approximately JPY 18 billion (USD 0.18 billion) for Yamanashi Prefecture and JPY 0.26 trillion (USD 2.6 billion) for Shizuoka Prefecture, which would be at the centre of the event; (ii) a before–after comparison biases estimates of the mitigation effect; and (iii) statistically, the measures do not mitigate the housing damage predicted for an earthquake in Tokai.     

Changes in housing in Guatemala following the 1976 earthquake: With special reference to earthen structures and how they are perceived by disaster victims*

This paper reports on what has happened to earthen structures in 26 Guatemalan communities studied over a 4-year period since the 1976 earthquake. The data were obtained from three waves of personal interviews with 1472 randomly sampled household heads. The results show that adobe, which was the primary housing material before the earthquake was heavily damaged in that event. As a consequence the number of adobe structures and of other earthen structures has been drastically reduced. The people of Guatemala individually and because of agency housing programs have abandoned adobe as a building material and turned to concrete block and wood. Surviving earthen structures have not been improved substantially and remain with largely the same structural features as before the earthquake. The greatest improvement is in the use of comer posts or columns in the walls but most of these are made of untreated crude logs or lumber, subject to rot and termite damage. Little information on aseismic housing seems to have spread either within the earthquake area or in the unaffected areas surrounding it. A program to spread information on how to use adobe in aseismic designs needs to be conducted along with one to assist citizens to aquire the resources necessary to improve the earthquake vulnerability of houses.     

Strategic planning for post-disaster temporary housing

Temporary housing programmes suffer from excessively high cost, late delivery, poor location, improper unit designs and other inherent issues. These issues can be attributed in part to a prevalence of ad hoc tactical planning, rather than pre-disaster strategic planning, for reconstruction undertaken by governments and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the chaotic post-disaster environment. An analysis of the process and outcomes from six case studies of temporary housing programmes after disasters in Turkey and Colombia in 1999, Japan in 1995, Greece in 1986, Mexico in 1985, and Italy in 1976 yields information about the extent to which strategic planning is employed in temporary housing programmes, as well as common issues in temporary housing. Based on an understanding of these common issues, this paper proposes a framework for strategic planning for temporary housing that identifies organisational designs and available resources for temporary housing before the disaster, but allows modifications to fit the specific post-disaster situation.     

Post-traumatic stress disorder and comorbid depression among survivors of the 1999 earthquake in Turkey

This study examined the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and comorbid depression some three years after the August 1999 earthquake in Turkey among a sample of 769 survivors relocated to a permanent housing site built for homeless survivors in the epicentre region. Time since trauma was 3.1 years for 81 per cent of the participants and 3.9 years for the remainder. Survivors were assessed using the Screening Instrument for Traumatic Stress in Earthquake Survivors, an easily administered self-rating scale with demonstrated validity. The estimated rates of PTSD and comorbid depression were 40 per cent and 18 per cent, respectively. Linear regression analyses showed that PTSD strongly related to fear during the earthquake, while depression related to loss of family members. These results suggest that catastrophic earthquakes have long-term psychological consequences and highlight the need for a cost-effective mental health care model for earthquake survivors.     

Half full or half empty? Shelter after the Jogjakarta earthquake

The international shelter response to the Jogjakarta earthquake in Indonesia in May 2006 is widely regarded as a success story, especially when compared with the response to the Indian Ocean tsunami 16 months earlier. This evaluation is largely in terms of the international aid system itself, which emphasises statistical measures of ‘success’ and internal coordination and efficiency. From the perspective of those closer to the ground, however, it was less successful, especially in terms of coordination and communication with and participation of local agencies and affected communities. This paper, by an aid worker resident in Jogjakarta and an anthropologist, examines the response from a perspective grounded both within and outside the aid system, local as well as global. It recognises the relative success of the response, but argues for an approach more grounded in local knowledge and responsive to local concerns, while also providing practical suggestions for improvement.     

Reducing disaster risks 1980–2010: Some reflections and speculations

Through personal reflections on themes covering past experiences, the author considers selected experiences of disaster risk management (DRM) that span 30 years of DRM, and makes some speculations concerning the future, and ponders whether within the selected themes the future looks positive or negative. The observations begin with some memories of the Ocho Rios Conference: a multi disciplinary expedition to examine housing and hazards in Pakistan; issues concerning education and training; and finally the success of a massive reconstruction project of rural dwellings in Pakistan following the 2005 earthquake. Some key questions are considered: the value of community-based risk management; the reduction of short- or long-term risks; the protection of critical facilities; whose reality is being addressed? official neglect of education for DRM; the conditions needed to create highly effective safe reconstruction in rural Pakistan.     

The role of social support and place attachment during hazard evacuation: the case of Sandy Lake First Nation,Canada

This paper examines how and if the post-disaster distribution of housing assistance in two cities of Bam, in Iran, and Bhuj, in India, fulfilled the broad aim of enabling the stricken population to achieve housing recovery. Drawing on interviews with stricken households and officials as well as document review, the paper provides an account of the housing assistance distribution policies in these cities as they were formed, evolved, interpreted, and implemented as well as the ways they were experienced by disaster-stricken people. The paper investigates who did not receive assistance, who did not recover (yet) despite receiving assistance, and – in contrast to these groups – who recovered/accumulated new assets during the recovery process. While in both cities public policies of assistance distribution expanded the capacity of the majority of the stricken people to recover, they failed to provide a timely and appropriate support for the recovery of lower income groups, tenants, and squatters, in line with their needs and priorities.     

Post-disaster housing reconstruction and social inequality: a challenge to policy and practice

In post-disaster reconstruction the social aspects of housing provision are important for the success of both emergency shelters and permanent housing, particularly in settlements that have been permanently relocated or entirety rebuilt. The social dimensions of housing reconstruction after disaster are discussed in the context of the long-term effects of reconstruction after the Yungay, Peru Earthquake-Avalanche of 1970. Consideration of these issues presents questions regarding the tension between continuity and change in affected populations, the importance of pre-disaster socio-economic patterns for reconstruction and the criteria used for assessing the success of post-disaster reconstruction and development projects. The author contends that post-disaster housing reconstruction must avoid rebuilding structures which reflect, sustain and reproduce patterns of inequality and exploitation.     

汶川大地震余震等待时间序列——基于混沌理论的研究

根据混沌理论,对汶川大地震余震等待时间通过相空间重构,应用互信息法、Cao方法确定出重构参数,并分别计算了该序列的关联维、最大Lyapunov指数以及Kolmogorov熵等特征量。结果表明汶川大地震余震等待时间序列中存在明显的混沌特性,是非线性混沌动力系统演化的结果;并对余震等待时间序列的混沌性态及其产生的根源进行了简单的探索。研究结果可进一步研究汶川大地震余震等待时间序列的复杂性、演化规律及预测参考。     

福建省农村房屋抗震性能调查与现状分析

以福建省农村住宅建筑结构为研究对象,在现场采集该省村镇房屋基本资料的基础上,围绕课题如何提高农村住宅抗震性能,分析了框架结构、砖砌体结构、底框结构、石砌结构、砖木结构和土木结构房屋等在建筑结构设计和施工方式方面所存在的问题,提出了加强农村建筑抗震的相应措施,为福建省农村建筑抗震性能评估提供了参考标准,同时向农村普及建筑结构设计基本常识、建筑结构抗震知识也提供了资料。     

Displacements and reconstruction: the case of west beirut - Lebanon

This paper focusses on the housing conditions of the displaced people who were forced to move to West Beirut due to the conflict in Lebanon which started in 1975. With the lack of any emergency housing provision, people have adopted two ways to shelter their families; either by occupying vacant buildings or by squatting on unused land (land squatting).
The study is based on fieldwork undertaken in order to gain a deeper insight into the displaced people's housing conditions. The results of the survey analysis are believed to be common to other displaced people, as has been verified by comparison with the available information in newspaper reports, unpublished documents, and other accounts.
The paper concludes with a reconstruction strategy, composed of two policies. First, a short-term policy which deals with the urgent needs of the people in the place of refuge. Thus mitigation and risk reduction are the aims of this policy. Second, a long-term policy which concentrates on future housing reconstruction; in which economic development, social integration and cultural identity are the basic features.     

Assessing the impact of household participation on satisfaction and safe design in humanitarian shelter projects

Participation has long been considered important for post‐disaster recovery. Establishing what constitutes participation in post‐disaster shelter projects, however, has remained elusive, and the links between different types of participation and shelter programme outcomes are not well understood. Furthermore, recent case studies suggest that misguided participation strategies may be to blame for failures. This study analysed 19 shelter projects implemented in the Philippines following Typhoon Haiyan in November 2013 to identify the forms of participation employed. Using fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analysis, it assessed how household participation in the planning, design, and construction phases of shelter reconstruction led to outcomes of household satisfaction and safe shelter design. Participation was operationalised via eight central project tasks, revealing that the involvement of households in the early planning stages of projects and in construction activities were important for satisfaction and design outcomes, whereas engagement during the design phase of projects had little impact on the selected outcomes.     

中国未来10～15年地震灾害的风险评估

中国是世界上地震灾害损失最严重的国家之一，全国５０％以上的城市和７０％左右的大中城市位于７度及以上烈度区内．地震的发生给中国社会带来了很大的危害和损失，主要的损失分布在以北京为中心的首都圈地区和云南－四川－陕西－内蒙古相连的南北带上，另外新疆的西北部也是地震损失较大的地区．所谓地震灾害风险是指建立在各地防震减灾能力基础上的未来地震损失估汁，风险的特征是具有一定的不确定性．从中国的实际情况来看，东部沿海地区、首都圈地区及内陆的个别地区防震减灾能力较强，而未来地震危险性则以中国西部地区和华北地区为主．通过对中国未来１０—１５年地震风险的研究，可以认为，中国的东部地区虽然有一定的地震危险性，但由于其经济发达，减灾能力很强，因此未来地震造成巨大损失的风险较小；中国的中部（南北带）和西部地区地震危险性很大，同时经济欠发达，减灾能力较差，因此未来地震造成巨大损失的风险很大．     

The self‐built ecovillage in L'Aquila,Italy: community resilience as a grassroots response to environmental shock

The paper applies the community resilience approach to the post‐disaster case of Pescomaggiore, an Italian village affected by the L'Aquila earthquake in 2009. A group of residents refused to accept the housing recovery solutions proposed by the government, opting for autonomous recovery. They developed a housing project in the form of a self‐built ecovillage, characterised by earthquake‐proof buildings made of straw and wood. The project is a paradigmatic example of a community‐based response to an external shock. It illustrates the concept of ‘community resilience’, which is widely explored in the scientific debate but still vaguely defined. Based on qualitative methodologies, the paper seeks to understand how the community resilience process can be enacted in alternative social practices such as ecovillages. The goal is to see under which conditions natural disasters can be considered windows of opportunity for sustainability.