Urban Recovery Process in Pisco After the 2007 Peru Earthquake

Abstract

Post-disaster urban recovery is a significant matter in disaster management that represents government efforts after a disaster and victim satisfaction with these efforts in affected areas. Understanding the recovery process is a procedure necessary for evaluating government strategy. From this view, the authors dealt with the recovery process at Pisco, the area most devastated in the 2007 Peru Earthquake. Research was conducted through the following procedure: (1) a field survey including interviews was carried out in July 2012 to clarify post-earthquake conditions in urban Pisco, especially from the viewpoint of the physical environment, (2) recovery conditions were compared with damage conditions investigated by CISMID just after the event using satellite imaging and building recovery data obtained in the survey, and (3) post-earthquake recovery was quantitatively analyzed in terms of building recovery. Results indicated that 93.2% of seriously or severely damaged buildings had been reoccupied. In addition to quantitative analysis, recovery-related problems are discussed based on interviews. Results will be useful in the next stage of our research using remote sensing data for the chronological understanding of the post-earthquake urban recovery process in Pisco.