Transition in subjective factors to trigger recovery action of rural residents affected by the 2015 Gorkha Nepal earthquake

Abstract

For efficient disaster recovery, it is essential for affected people to take voluntary recovery action. We aimed to identify subjective factors that triggered early recovery action in a rural community affected by the 2015 Gorkha Nepal earthquake. We defined two phases of the recovery process before households completely repaired or rebuilt their houses: (1) the emergency period immediately after the earthquake, and (2) the subsequent restoration period. The lengths of the two phases were measured as a proxy for the recovery rate. We consequently developed a concise causal structure including subjective factors that influence recovery action via an interview survey. The causal relationships were then quantitatively confirmed via structural equation modeling. Since subjective factors are unobservable, they were modeled as latent variables. Our results illustrate a transition in subjective factors that affected voluntary efforts. During the emergency period, some subjective factors associated with concerns essential to survival were influential. During the restoration period, some of these factors remained, but other factors related to the quality of long-term life appeared. Our findings imply that affected households that took early recovery actions prioritized their basic needs first and subsequently shifted to wider range of issues including labor shortage in households.