Planning for Urban and Township Settlements after the Earthquake

This note builds on the proactive measures taken by the Government of China as announced in: (i) the Decree of the state council of the people's Republic of China, issued on 9 June 2008, providing regulations on post-Wenchuan earthquake recons...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Leman, Edward
Format: Brief
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2010/12/13337555/planning-urban-township-settlements-after-earthquake
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/10122
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Summary:This note builds on the proactive measures taken by the Government of China as announced in: (i) the Decree of the state council of the people's Republic of China, issued on 9 June 2008, providing regulations on post-Wenchuan earthquake reconstruction; (ii) the Directive on Counterpart Assistance (Directive) of 11 June 2008; and (iii) the land policies to support the reconstruction of Wenchuan (land policies) of 11 June 2008 by the ministry of land and natural resources. This note cites selected international experience in reconstruction from recent earthquakes in Kobe, Japan; Gujarat, India; Bam, Iran; and Marmara, Turkey. The Wenchuan Earthquake affected a wide spectrum of rural and urban settlements in varying geographic contexts across a large area. The government quickly devised four categories of damage for the provinces of Gansu, Shaanxi, and Sichuan: (i) extremely affected, (ii) heavily affected, (iii) moderately affected, and (iv) affected areas. Analysis of the then-interim information on affected towns, townships, counties, and cities suggested that settlement planning efforts would need to respond to very different contexts.