Post-disaster Urban Redevelopment Planning: The Importance Of Promoting Government Partnerships With Nongovernmental Organizations
John Travis MARSHALL
There is always a city or region recovering from a major disaster. There are always many more cities that are preparing – or should be preparing – for the next typhoon, hurricane, tsunami, earthquake, or other catastrophic event. Rebuilding cities wisely, equitably, and quickly following disasters represents a global challenge. It also presents a special opportunity for global dialogue, a conversation between and among cities and nations about redevelopment strategies and initiatives that have worked and those that have failed.1
Digitized data and information and the ability to transmit it instantaneously makes sharing disaster recovery lessons and stories an easy task. But even with these advanced technologies, much of the data and many of the cautionary stories and lessons are focused on the immediate recovery from disaster.2 Far fewer stories have been shared of long-term recovery.
More than ever, a meaningful cross-border exchange of long-term disaster recovery strategies is possible. To be sure, there are significant differences between nations' legal systems and how national and local governments conduct their affairs. But these potential legal and political variables do not diminish the value inherent in partnerships that local governments can develop to achieve the best possible results where public recovery funds are inadequate, particularly in those neighborhoods where resident resources are limited. This cross-national dialogue between and among cities encourages resilience though exchange of strategies and stories that have positively influenced a city’s path to recovery. The choices that New Orleans made regarding its long-term recovery could contribute to other cities’ preparations for implementation of long-term recovery plans. Istanbul and the San Francisco Bay Area have a long history of devastating earthquakes. They face similar seismic risks. What can they learn from one another’s historical and recent earthquake recoveries?
