Linking reconstruction to sustainable socio-economic development

The aim of this chapter is to identify the possible ways of linking reconstruction efforts to sustainable socio-economic development, i.e. the means of achieving or contributing to sustainable socio-economic development through post-disaster reconstruction efforts. ‘Reconstruction’ is one of the phases of the disaster management cycle, which is principally a post-disaster phase. It is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as ‘the action or process of reconstructing something’, ‘the rebuilding of something natural, artificial, or abstract’ (Thompson, 1995). The term ‘reconstruction’ is well defined by the United Nations Development Programme and United Nations Disaster Relief Organisation (UNDP and UNDRC, 1992) as ‘the action taken to re-establish a community after a period of rehabilitation subsequent to a disaster and these actions include the construction of permanent housing, a full restoration of all services, and complete resumption of pre-disaster state’. Thus, reconstruction does not stand only for reconstruction of physical stock. Reconstruction after a natural or a man-made disaster should address all physical, social, economic, political and environmental sectors. However, this chapter uses the term ‘reconstruction’ to denote ‘built-environment specific reconstruction’, which is ‘physical reconstruction of housing and infrastructure’ in consequence of natural disasters. It analyses how this built-environment specific reconstruction could address the developmental needs in such a way to contribute to sustainable socio-economic development as its primary focus. Accordingly, the overall aim of this chapter is shown in Figure 15.1.