Recovery, Development Programs, and Place-Based Reconstruction Policy: A Flexible Framework

Abstract

Hazards, territories, and communities are not all the same and the relation between these objects might result in post-event fuzzy scenarios that will increase the complexity of reconstruction activities in the aftermath of extreme events. Thus, risk might be dependent to territories according to their socio-economic exposure, vulnerability, and resilience turning into a scattered socio-natural disasters scenario. It results that serious considerations need to be devoted to the “optimal” reconstruction policies to be implemented in order to recover quickly since several shortcomings in the management of reconstruction activities are still unsolved. This chapter proposes a flexible framework to operationalize the steps for recovery in the aftermath of extreme events and in different contexts and to prompt for reconstruction and development policies. Indeed, granted that fitting actions and policies are put into action during the recovery phase, the aftermath of a natural disaster might represent a small window of opportunity for a turning point in the development path of the affected communities. Aiming at empowering and supporting communities affected by natural disasters, this chapter presents and discusses a Context-Bound Framework for Resilience not only as a “framework for research” but also as a “framework for action.” Providing policy and investment information ex-ante such framework allows policy makers to immediately outline strategies to improve the ability of community resilience of the territories, affecting both the reconstruction process and their development path.