Post-Disaster Reconstruction of the Built Environment Rebuilding for Resilience


Introduction

Richard Haigh and Dilanthi Amaratunga

With growing population and infrastructures, the world’s exposure to hazards

– of both natural and man-made origin – is predictably increasing. This

unfortunate reality will inevitably require frequent reconstruction of communities,

both physically and socially. At the same time, it will be vital that any

attempt to reconstruct after a disaster actively considers how to protect people

and their environment to ensure those communities are less vulnerable in the future.





For the remainder of this book and in common with the Centre for Research

on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED), which maintains the International

Disasters Database (EM-DAT), a disaster is a ‘situation or event, which overwhelms

local capacity, necessitating a request to national or international level

for external assistance; an unforeseen and often sudden event that causes great

damage, destruction and human suffering’. For a disaster to be entered into

the database at least one of the following criteria must be fulfilled: 10 or more

people reported killed; 100 people reported affected; there is declaration of a

state of emergency; or, a call for international assistance.


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