Post-earthquake Reconstruction Process Research Articles

Post-earthquake reconstruction of residential buildings in historical centers: damage indices of structural aggregates

The post-earthquake reconstruction process of historical centers discloses several issues due to the complexity of the built heritage, typically consisting of Building Aggregates (BA). These are characterized by structures deriving from progressive volume increases that, due to partially effective connections, can interact under seismic actions. Therefore, the repair and reconstruction work after seismic event, the conservation of the architectural values and the improvement of seismic and energy performances must rely on a deeper knowledge of the BA seismic behavior and on an unitary design approach. This paper presents an analysis of the damage caused by the 2009 earthquake to the buildings of the historical centers in the Abruzzo Region, with particular interest to the BA considered as a single structural block. A new perspective of the damage on structural and non-structural components, detected by means of the AeDES form, a first level survey form for post-earthquake damage and usability assessment, is proposed. The data related to the building damage are converted into an equivalent global building damage associated to the BA using conversion metrics found in the literature. Finally, some considerations are provided to evaluate the global building damage, necessary to the development of a comprehensive damage state.

Relationships between empirical damage and direct/indirect costs for the assessment of seismic loss scenarios

The definition of relationships between damage and losses is a crucial aspect for the prediction of seismic effects and the development of reliable models to define risk maps, loss scenarios and mitigation strategies. The paper focuses on the analysis of post-earthquake empirical data to define relationships between buildings’ damage expressed as usability rating or as global damage state and the associated costs for repair (i.e. direct costs) or for population assistance (i.e. a part of total indirect costs). The analysis refers to the data collected on residential buildings damaged by 2009 L'Aquila earthquake. For different usability rating or damage states, the paper presents the costs expressed in terms of percentage with respect to the reference unit cost of a new building (%Cr and %Ca for repair and population assistance costs, respectively). In particular, the costs analysis refers to undamaged, lightly or severely damaged buildings classified according to usability rating (i.e. A, B-C or E according to Italian classification) or to five different global Damage States (DSs). DSs comply with European Macroseismic Scale (EMS-98) and derive from literature available matrices properly defined to convert empirical damage to structural and non-structural components into building global damage. The %Cr probability density functions and relevant statistics derive from the analysis of actual data of post-earthquake reconstruction process, while, to determine those related to %Ca, a deep analysis of population assistance types, person/month assistance cost for each assistance form, and a methodology to associate such costs to each building are herein presented and discussed. Finally, the paper presents a relationship calibrated on empirical data to directly correlate repair costs on a building with assistance costs to their occupants. The relationships between empirical damage and direct and indirect costs herein presented are of paramount importance because they allow reliable loss scenarios to be defined by simply using literature fragility curves (defined according to empirical or mechanical approaches) aimed at evaluating the probability of exceeding different usability rating or damage states of existing buildings.

Multi-hazards, displaced people's vulnerability and resettlement: Post-earthquake experiences from Rasuwa district in Nepal and their connections to policy loopholes and reconstruction practices

In Nepal, where extreme seismic and severe weather events are frequent, understanding the consequences of different types of hazards (geological, meteorological and human-made) and their impact on people's vulnerability in the aftermath of the 2015 Mw7.8 Gorkha, Nepal earthquake, is crucial for enhanced formulation of policies and reconstruction practices. This paper aims to comprehend localized multi-hazard risks, the interaction between hazards and seasonality which may occur simultaneously, cascadingly and cumulatively, and local peoples' knowledge, experiences and perceptions to explore the effectiveness of resettlement and other reconstruction efforts. To fulfill this objective, a study was conducted in 2018 in Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Kathmandu district comprising 60 semi-structured interviews, three focus group discussions, and two photo-elicitation workshops. Participants included scientists, government officials, humanitarians, and displaced individuals at their original locations or in displacement camps. Findings show that interactions between hazards are not well recognized at policy level, as the geo-hazard assessment highlighted loopholes in its methodology as well as a lack of precision. Hence, interactions between hazards have not been sufficiently considered in the post-earthquake reconstruction process and need to be addressed by the National Reconstruction Authority. Analysis demonstrates that no clear relocation plan for displaced people exists, and that livelihood opportunities in new re-settlement areas receive no attention. Giving communities the opportunity to discuss localized multi-hazard risks with experts, so vulnerabilities, resilience capacity and risk tolerance of individuals and society can be heard and understood, is felt necessary. Moreover, people with limited resources will be more vulnerable, as they are not able to make informed decisions about suitable places for reconstruction, or to evaluate land use options or seasonal living arrangements. Two policy recommendations are proposed: 1) disaster risk-informed development planning in Nepal should include multi-hazard risk assessments as part of disaster risk management policies, and 2) resettlement policies require reform.

The Ethnography of Collaboration: Navigating Power Relationships in Joint Research

We came together to write a paper on the devaluation of field researcher labor as an entry point into the broader domain of research ethics to unpack what collaboration may mean in settings of incommensurable inequality. These motivations were grounded in the materialities of our involvement within an international research project focused on post-earthquake reconstruction processes in Nepal since 2015. However, since we started writing this piece, some of us felt that the paper did not adequately reflect their experiences, others felt it put them in the hot seat too quickly, and some thought that it mimicked the faulty modes of collaboration we wanted to unsettle in the first place. Realizing the power dynamics within our own writing collective, we stepped away from a centralized narrative to make room for our diverse, sometimes complementary, sometimes contradictory experiences. The paper is a bricolage of reflections that focus on issues such as the division of labor, coauthorship, and community engagement. We use these reflections as a way to think critically about the current juncture of transnational, collaborative research and propose a series of open-ended reflections that prompt the problematization of the inequities, tensions, and emotional labor inherent in collaborative work.

Vulnerability Assessment of Buildings against Earthquake Case Study: Qadghoon Neighborhood, Borujerd, Iran

INTRODUCTION: The buildings, as the main and most abundant elements in cities, have great importance in two aspects of assessing and mitigating the vulnerability at disaster incidence. On the other hand, the emphasis of post disaster reconstruction engineers on the single-scale building has compounded the importance of building in terms of planning to reduce the damages of disaster incidence. METHODS: This quantitative-descriptive study was conducted documentary studies and extraction of priority indicators determining the degree of vulnerability. This research aimed to assess the vulnerability of Qadghoon buildings, one of the historical neighborhoods of Borujerd, Lorestan Province, Iran, which was damaged and reconstructed after the 2007 earthquake, for more than a decade. FINDINGS: The data obtained from the field study of this neighborhood were analyzed after entering into GIS software and weighted by Analytic Hierarchy Process-Delphi. The provided maps were evaluated and the vulnerability score obtained from indicators was weighted by the above method. Finally, the score of vulnerabilities in neighborhoods in the range of 0-5 Likert scale was calculated at 3.5208, which indicated a moderate increase in vulnerability. CONCLUSION: After the examination of actions taken in the post-earthquake reconstruction process, reduction of vulnerability evaluation was low. This result indicated the failure of operators to reduce the vulnerability on a scale of buildings, despite the large opportunities and resources. In addition to lessons from the present study, some suggestions were provided to improve the process of reconstruction after possible disasters in the future. Keywords: Borujerd; Earthquake; Qadghoon Neighborhood; Single-scale of Building; Vulnerability Assessment.

Seismic retrofit solutions using base isolation for existing RC buildings: economic feasibilty and pay-back time

The existing reinforced concrete buildings typical of the Mediterranean area commonly have poor seismic performance and high vulnerability to the seismic events. As demonstrated by recent post-earthquake reconstruction processes, they commonly exhibited significant damage to structural components and to infills and partitions resulting in very high repair costs. This suggests that effective seismic strengthening interventions should aim at both improving the safety and reducing the expected annual losses. Nowadays, the seismic retrofitting of existing RC buildings by using base isolation is becoming popular because of the high effectiveness as seismic protection strategy. However, the high costs of installation are limiting the widespread in the common design practice. In this context, a unique design parameter capable of combining the increasing seismic safety, the cost of installation and the reduction of the expected losses can be useful to draw simple cost-benefits considerations. This research work proposes a PBEE-based methodology to quantify the Pay-Back Time (PBT) of seismic retrofit solutions for existing RC buildings. The non-linear response of base isolated building is assessed and a comparison with different strengthening solutions is proposed to show the applicability of the PBT as a unique design parameter to select the most effective retrofit solution. A database of 59 RC buildings retrofitted by using base isolation during the L’Aquila reconstruction process, where actual retrofit costs are available, is used for the validation. Finally, these data are used to calibrate a simple formulation of the PBT to be used in the design practice.

Disaster resilience assessment based on the spatial and temporal aggregation effects of earthquake-induced hazards

Since the "5.12" Wenchuan earthquake in 2008, frequent geologic hazards along the Longmenshan fault zone have had significant impacts on the socioeconomic conditions in the earthquake-stricken areas. Therefore, from the perspective of earthquake-induced hazards, this paper focuses on analyzing the change rules of disaster resilience under the spatial and temporal aggregation effects of earthquake-induced hazards, and this analysis provides an important basis for understanding the developmental characteristics of earthquake-induced hazards and disaster prevention, and mitigation after earthquakes. This paper takes Wenchuan County as an example. By collecting the 2008-2018 landslide geological hazards data, the global autocorrelation coefficient and local autocorrelation coefficient are adopted to analyze the temporal trends and spatial patterns of earthquake-induced hazards. At the same time, from the socioeconomic perspective, two disaster resilience indexes, the compatibility coefficient of industrial and employment structure and per capita GDP growth rate, were constructed to analyze the disaster resilience under the spatial and temporal aggregation effect of landslide geological hazards. The results show that, on the temporal trend, the temporal aggregation effect of earthquake-induced hazards has periodically decayed with time; in the spatial distribution, the spatial clustering effect as a whole increases first and then decreases, and the scope of the aggregation effect tends to narrow spatially. Disaster resilience (Hxy and RGDP) showed a trend of increasing first and then decreasing, and could not recover to the level before the earthquake in 2017, indicating that Wenchuan County was greatly affected by earthquake-induced hazards in the post-earthquake reconstruction process.

Gentrification in (re)construction: Talca’s neighbourhoods post 2010 earthquake

PurposeThis study aims to explore the complex relationship between post-earthquake reconstruction processes and gentrification in neighbourhoods of intermediate cities, calling on the critical role of recovery strategies in altering neighbourhoods physical and social urban structure identities.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses a case study; the reconstruction process of the neighbourhoods post-2010 earthquake in Talca, Chile, and analyses in a six-year timeline its socio-spatial changes. The latter based on mixed methods, primary data from strategic interviews with key stakeholders, cadastres of land value and real estate housing projects and neighbourhood polls, and secondary data from official documents such as plans and policies.FindingsThe findings suggest that patterns of incipient gentrification are an outcome of the reconstruction strategies. Acknowledging the intricate interplay amongst urban neoliberal conditions, historical heritage and identities and post-disaster recovery, inadequate housing subsidies and normative plans are causing the displacement of hundreds of historical residents and resistance, arrival of newcomers with higher debt capacity in new housing typologies and increasing land value. Process related to neoliberal politics of state led to new-build gentrification.Originality/valueGentrification and reconstruction are both processes that modify urban structures, society and perceptions, and yet their socio spatial effects have never been studied in a cumulative and integrated manner, even more, in intermediate cities. The value is to rethink the critical role of recovery strategies in halting and containing gentrification in fast transforming secondary cities.

The Formation and the Maintenance of the Interorganization Relations during Post-Earthquake Reconstruction Process in Public and Nonprofit Fields

The Formation and the Maintenance of the Interorganization Relations during Post-Earthquake Reconstruction Process in Public and Nonprofit Fields

Post-earthquake reconstruction: A study on the factors influencing demolition decisions after 2009 L’Aquila earthquake

The evaluation of building reparability after damaging earthquakes is a complex issue, involving factors such as the damage state, residual capacity and post-earthquake safety, initial performance level with respect to design earthquake and repair and retrofit costs. In the post-earthquake reconstruction process after the 2009L’Aquila earthquake, the funding request had to be accompanied by a detailed assessment of repair costs, the pre-earthquake safety level with respect to new building standard (%NBS) and, if needed, by a detailed design of retrofit intervention and costs. The paper examines the database of severely damaged buildings after L’Aquila, collecting information of repair and retrofit costs as well as the final decision on reparability or demolition and reconstruction; 122 out of 472 severely damaged RC buildings were demolished. It illustrates the most important factors influencing demolition decisions for Reinforced Concrete (RC) buildings. A logistic regression is performed to estimate the probability of demolition pdem for building typologies. Considering pre-earthquake information, the construction age is the most influential parameter, with older buildings having a higher pdem. Another significant parameter is %NBS. Considering post-earthquake information, the repair cost is expectedly the most important parameter. It results that pdem can be expressed as a function of construction age, %NBS and repair costs. A case study illustrates the possible application of the results for a town district in Campania Region, southern Italy.

Heritage interpretation: a tool for conservation, protection and management of environmental and cultural heritage

During the post-earthquake reconstruction process of the territory of L’Aquila, amongst the various initiatives aimed at re-launching the area from a social, economic and cultural point of view, in March 2015 the University of L’Aquila, the Institute of Construction Technologies of the Italian National Research Council, Federparchi, the Roffredo Caetani Onlus Foundation and the Pangea Onlus Institute signed an agreement to promote and develop education and research activities in the field of Environmental and Cultural Heritage Interpretation. The principles of this new discipline have been adopted by ICOMOS in 2008 (Charter on the Interpretation and Presentation of Cultural Heritage Sites). The Interpretation represents a current methodological tool for conservation purposes, the preservation and management of cultural heritage and environment as well as for local communities, to manage investments aimed at developing sustainable tourism..

Discuss the Properties of Structural Steel and Applications of Waste Concrete from Post-Earthquake Investigations

This work proposes two aspects about construction materials abased on Wenchuan post-earthquake investigations. According to different feature failure modes in various damaged structures and the cause of the damage to the effects of the loading during the ground motion, the structural failures were found related to low cycle fatigue (LCF) properties of building steel. The hitherto research development is presented briefly. The characters of cycle response of the steels are tested and discussed. During the post-earthquake reconstruction process, the disposal of huge quantities of earthquake demolition waste brought great challenges. Utilizing the waste concrete taken from earthquake-stricken area as recycled coarse aggregate (RCA) in the new concrete is conducted. Furthermore, the application perspective of RCA is discussed.

A system of systems approach to disaster management

Disaster situation management involves managing information and resources to tackle time varying situations surrounding a geo-spatial region of interest. Post disaster, relief and recovery operations are handled in a distributed self-configuring manner and involve a diverse array of resources and participants. Although in-situ planning is the only option, disaster situation management should consider system requirements, processes and interdependencies to make the process effective. Having a higher level view of the system, its requirements and the evolving situations warrant the need for accurate models; models that are able to predict, forecast and deal with the logistical, technical, operational, and financial challenges. We propose a system of systems approach to situation modeling to represent the causal relationships between resources, functional assets and different stages in the infrastructure renewal process. Generic interactions at the situation and system level have been defined and theory is developed for the use of fuzzy graphical models. A genetic algorithms based technique has been developed to determine optimal structure and parameters of the graphical model. Real world data from a post earthquake reconstruction process is used to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Rights to Govern Lives in Postdisaster Reconstruction Processes

Natural disasters such as the 2004 tsunami, hurricane Katrina in 2005, and the 2006 South Asian earthquake; the postwar sites of Afghanistan and Iraq; and housing regeneration programs in the UK have allowed international institutions to increasingly gain legitimacy to participate in postdisaster governance through the language of human rights. The World Conference on Disaster Reduction (2005) promoted “people-centered governance” to reduce the violation of human rights of the poor and excluded, indicating the important relationship of rights and governance. In this article, I draw on the empirical research I conducted while living and working in villages as a relief and community development worker in the postearthquake reconstruction processes in Maharashtra India, during 1993–1997. I consider how rights legitimize, materially determine, and physically locate sites of governance in the postearthquake Maharashtra reconstruction process. I suggest that this formula of people-centered governance for unders...

The Post-Earthquake Reconstruction Process of Monumental Masonry Buildings: Suggestions from the Molise Event (Italy)

After the 2002 Molise earthquake in southern Italy, several issues related to seismic risk of a wide building stock (both cultural heritage and public facilities) were stressed. The Italian scientific community and the national and regional regulatory authorities — involved in this kind of research over the past 10 years — were quite responsive to this event. The need for new tools to deal with the complex regulatory, technical, and economic matters arose. This article addresses the reconstruction course of the Molise areas struck by the earthquake, with special interest in monumental buildings and in churches in particular. The decision and technical procedures, carried out to assess the seismic risk for historic structures, to ensure the correct funding distribution, and to prevent inadequate interventions (in relation to preservation criteria) are revised. Moreover, on the basis of a large amount of data related to churches, suggestions for the planning of the final stage of the reconstruction process (definitive seismic strengthening intervention design) are put forward: a quality check on the seismic upgrading designs proposed in the preliminary phase is provided. In particular, some closer examination and discussion is devoted to possible mechanical methods aiming to verify the vulnerability for out-of-plane mechanisms and effectiveness of the retrofitting interventions quantitatively.

Identities in reconstruction: from rights of recognition to reflection in post-disaster reconstruction processes

This article examines the role of rights in both governing and shaping women’s relationship with the reconstruction process and their position in the reconstructed society. Through four years of empirical research in the post-earthquake reconstruction process in Maharashtra, India, this article focuses upon how women’s rights in social reconstruction are contingent upon processes of recognition. From the United Nations to local women’s organising, the article considers how women’s rights to “determine the pattern of their lives and the future of society” (United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (C.E.D.A.W.). General Recommendation No. 23 (1997), Article 7, para. 9.) are dependent upon processes of recognition. Through a critique of cultural, material and spatial acts and frameworks of recognition within the U.N., World Bank, State Government, public interest litigation, personal and nonformal law, rights are seen to actively and hierarchically construct either a modern, liberal subject or a religious, communitarian subject, which both either deny or prescribe agency. The experience of women’s organising reveals the possibility of reconstructing a feminist rights strategy of reflection.

Relocating the Master’s Domain: Social and Legal Locations of Gender from Post-Disaster to Everyday Life

The post-disaster situation provides an insight into the role of rights in the relocation of social and legal spheres and the location of gender within. Grounded in four years of empirical research in the post-earthquake reconstruction process in Maharashtra, India, this article traces the World Bank and state government policy to relocate 52,000 houses and 67 villages. Lorde’s (1996) analogy of ‘the master’s house’ provides a metaphor for the location of women within the patriarchal architecture of the private and public sphere, which I relate to discourses of place and space and the local and global. Drawing upon feminist and post-colonial perspectives, this article challenges the essentialist binary locations of women within public and private domains of rights constructed within the World Bank and state housing policy, the public and private legal system and informal to alternative spheres of social and legal relations. Alternative women’s meetings, street protests and gatherings at the village to international fora intersect and disrupt the boundary walls to relocate women across social and legal spheres. This experience provides the possibility of ultimately becoming the master of the relocation of social and local domains and one’s location within.