Earthquake mitigation through reconstruction : Integrating housing and jobs for sustainable community recovery

This paper deals with earthquake mitigation through housing reconstruction, and argues that economic viability of neighborhoods and communities is as vital for successful mitigation against future earthquakes as is physical strengthening of houses. Departing from the concept of vulnerability to earthquakes, which in addition to the exposure of the physical environment includes also the social, political and economic factors, the authors advance a notion of hazard mitigation that reflects these considerations: to mitigate successfully against future earthquakes means not only to improve the physical environment - upgrade the buildings and other structures, but also tu understand, and if necessary to modify, the social and economic conditions in the life of the vulnerable population. The authors probe this definition of earthquake mitigation on the example of housing reconstruction after earthquakes, and show that economic viability of neighborhoods and communities is the pivotal determinant of housing recovery and earthquake mitigation, against which success, or inadequacy, of housing solutions should be measured. Grounded in the Latin American context and the pluralism of economic and social experience thriving in its cities, this paper develops the case for mitigation against future earthquakes through establishing economic sustainability of reconstructed neighborhoods. As housing reconstruction decisions relate to residents' income generation, they tend to condition the environment for long-term mitigation against earthquakes. It is concluded that, while the prevalent social, political and economic conditions contribute to differential disaster vulnerability of population in Latin America, the decision-makers that shape housing reconstruction after earthquakes have the opportunity, and the responsibility, to mitigate against future disasters by incorporating economic and social sustainability of neighborhoods as a strategy that complements physical safety of buildings (AU)

Social accounting for disaster preparedness and recovery planning

This report describes the first two phases of a project to develop a Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) modeling system as a tool for assessing the economic damage arising from natural disasters and for helping to devise recovery strategies. The resulting system may be used to design proactive strategies for regions known to be vulnerable to specific natural disaster (such as exrthquakes and hurricanes), as well as to assess as to damage and aid recovery in localities which have suffered an unanticipated disaster. This report describes the methods used to construct and the SAM, based on the work in a small Caribbean island. This study shows that a suitable SAM model which takes account of the destructive effects of a disaster can be constructed rather rapidly, and that this model can reproduce the events of an economic disaster and recovery for employment and income over an extended period. Special attention has been paid to the lifeline sectors. More detailed versions of the model to account for the differential impacts across social groups by occupation, education, geography and demography among the affected regions population are also described.(AU)