The Integration of Housing Recovery into Reconstruction Planning

Abstract

The chapter elaborates the propositions about the integration of housing recovery into broader reconstruction programming and describes past reconstruction programs to illustrate the relationships among these propositions. Past case studies of post-earthquake reconstruction processes indicate that during reconstruction planning, trade-offs are made among four general reconstruction goals: rapid recovery of infrastructure; familiar character of the city; enhanced livability and urban amenities; and reduced vulnerability to seismic events. This decision represents a policy choice based on community values about priorities for reconstruction. A matrix of housing recovery outcomes in relation to overall city reconstruction goals is set forth, which permits the development of propositions about the integration of housing recovery into broader reconstruction programming. Social factors also play an important role because human decisions about where to build, what to build, and how to build set the stage for disasters. As seismic and engineering knowledge increases there is the potential to apply it to new and existing development in order to reduce losses in future earthquakes. The technology for providing seismic safety to individual houses is not difficult to implement, and although there have been some hard lessons with respect to large apartment buildings, the melding of existing information on the behavior of soils and buildings during earthquakes should be able to reduce the number of future failures. Human need, govemmental responsibility, and world opinion typically focus immediate and often massive efforts on seeing to the short-term well-being of the disaster-stricken population. However, much less attention has been focused on the human consequences of longer term reconstruction policies. Many of these impacts lie with the way in which the rehousing of the displaced families is approached in the post-earthquake period. Post-earthquake housing reconstruction goals and routine housing development and re-development goals also can be integrated in reconstruction planning.