Post-earthquake housing reconstruction management and implementation in rural areas : review and lessons from Dujiangyan, Wenchuan earthquake

Abstract

Housing reconstruction plays a crucial role in renovating disaster-hit areas. Rural areas are considerably different from urban areas in terms of geographic environment, building size, residential culture, and social organization. Therefore, post-disaster recovery and reconstruction models for urban areas cannot be applied directly to disaster-hit rural areas. This study, based on the experience of rural housing reconstruction after the Wenchuan earthquake, identified key strategic issues in housing reconstruction that must be addressed to achieve the goal of “building back better” in the future. By taking the experience of Dujiangyan as our reference, the study found that the following strategies are important for successful housing reconstruction in rural areas: (1) actively involve disaster victims through a participatory institutional design; (2) coordinate the interests of governments, markets, and disaster victims and the functions of living, production, and ecology through a classified housing reconstruction system; and (3) activate the quota for rural collective construction land and create a new source of funding for housing reconstruction through the market circulation of urban-rural land. Additionally, in the context of urban-rural integration, changes in land use can lead to rural spatial reconstruction and sustainable regional development, providing a reference for formulating optimal post-disaster reconstruction strategies.