This handbook is designed to guide public sector managers and development practitioners through the process of large-scale housing reconstruction after major disasters, based on the experiences of recent reconstruction programs in Aceh (Indonesia), Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Gujarat (India) and Bam (Iran).

This handbook is designed to guide public sector managers and development practitioners through the process of large-scale housing reconstruction after major disasters, based on the experiences of recent reconstruction programs in Aceh (Indonesia), Sri La

Disaster risk management is essential in the fight against poverty. Disasters can, in an instant, wipe out decades of hard-fought poverty reduction and development gains and push countless households into poverty. Disasters disproportionally affect the poor: Vulnerable and marginalized groups, including women, children, the elderly, and people with disabilities, are at particular risk. East Asia and the Pacific is the most disaster-stricken region in the world, suffering from small recurrent as well as rare high-impact events. East Asia is rapidly urbanizing, and cities are becoming disaster hotspots. Unplanned or poorly planned urbanization, which puts more people and assets in harm’s way, is the single largest driver of disaster risk. There is deep uncertainty about future disaster and climate risks, challenging our ability to adapt to new developments and changing the physical and natural environment. Decision makers can make a significant difference by effectively managing disaster risk and building resilience. With education and communication, preparedness, and investments, urbanization can be channeled as a tremendous positive force for development. By decreasing disaster exposure and vulnerability through systematic assessments and communication of risks, better land-use planning, and many other practical measures, the impacts of natural hazards can be reduced significantly. At the same time, it is necessary to recognize that the risks of disasters cannot be entirely eliminated, and countries need to plan for failure by considering different scenarios, especially within complex systems and networks. Preventive investments in risk reduction and emergency preparedness can be extremely cost-effective and can greatly reduce the impact of natural hazards. Governments can prioritize actions based on informed decisions about the level of risk to reduce the risks from disasters. Public investments, such as early-warning systems, retrofitting of critical infrastructure at risk, and mainstreaming systematic risk assessments into relevant public investment planning processes, can help to reduce poverty and promote sustainable economic growth. The World Bank supports countries around the world in mainstreaming a comprehensive and integrated approach to disaster risk management into development. The World Bank provides analytical and advisory services, helps to build climate and disaster resilience into core investments across sectors, and offers unique financial solutions to better manage the contingent fiscal risks from disasters.

Through a synthesis of a broader inter-disciplinary literature in the field of disaster studies, organisation theory and management, and an in-depth case study this book provides an analytical framework for organising post-disaster reconstruction programmes which aim to reduce future disaster risks and achieve other objectives. It explores the role of organisational design and management on approaching and achieving the objectives of the reconstruction programme in Iran after the 2003 Bam earthquake. The housing reconstruction programme in Bam was a complex case, offering various learning opportunities to understand organising reconstruction processes especially in urban areas. The case study research explores how the urban housing reconstruction programme system was formed purposefully towards the delivery of the stated objectives and created an innovative housing process throughout the urban area. It identifies consistencies and inconsistencies among the influential organisational attributes of the programme delivery system formation. The system evolved through corrective adjustments (either formally or informally) during its implementation to reflect unfolding consequences of inconsistencies in initial formation and emerging contextual issues in the field.

Community Responses to Disasters in the Pacific Rim presents different aspects of place-making in displacement in the Pacific Rim region. It focuses focus on how people respond and readjust to changes and captures the long-term community development outcomes and the critical moments that facilitate this development. Interdisciplinary and using diverse research approaches, the book includes contributions by authors from a variety of disciplines across disaster research, sociology, urban planning, architecture, anthropology, earth science, and education. Mixed methods are adopted to carry out the research projects that ground this volume, including qualitative research for social scientific research, ethnographic methods and more importantly, Participatory Action Research (PAR) is also included by authors who have a background in design professions and a few indigenous scholars who are themselves survivors of disasters. The chapters are structured in the following five thematic sections: 1. Learning as place-making in displacement 2. Gender and place-making in response to displacement 3. Community resilience in keeping indigenous sense of place 4. Community (Re)building in displacement 5. Transnational Place-making: Talk to the Actor. Understanding how affected communities are recovering from their own perspectives, this book will be of interest to academics in the fields of area studies, political science, disaster planning and human geography.

This book presents the select proceedings of the Virtual Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (VCDRR 2021). It emphasizes on the role of civil engineering for a disaster resilient society. Various topics covered in this book are risk assessment, prevention, mitigation, preparedness and response, early warning system, hazard mapping, engineering innovations for hazard mitigation, and safe design of structures. This book is a comprehensive volume on disaster risk reduction (DRR) and its management for a sustainable built environment. This book will be useful for the students, researchers, policy makers and professionals working in the area of civil engineering, especially disaster management.

This book uses two international frameworks—the Millennium Development Goals and the Hyogo Framework for Action, a program focused on disaster risk management—to study the key trends in the region in terms of disaster incidence, sources of vulnerability and social and economic challenges. As both frameworks draw to a close, international debate is taking place during the period 2012–2015 on their current progress. This book seeks to help readers understand the process better. The chapters are written by eight independent internationally based authors. Collectively, they have extensive regional experience in the areas of disaster risk management and climate change as well as working in academia, research, consultancy, the UN and international agencies, government and the NGO sector. The analysis presented benefits from their varied backgrounds in medicine, architecture, economics, engineering, planning, social studies, development studies and political science. Throughout the book, relevant examples, drawn from the region, are included to ‘earth’ the project in the harsh realities of risk and disaster impact.