Land Management

The Wenchuan earthquake affected 20
cities, 158 counties, and 3,655 towns and villages.
Geographic and demographic conditions varied significantly
from small, rural villages to county-level cities, as did
the magnitude of the physical damages. The reconstruction
strategy and plan, inclusive of land management, depended on
the conditions specific to each locale, from in situ
reconstruction for the cities and towns with limited damage
in relatively safe locations to the possibility of physical
relocation from high- to low-risk locations that is, total
reconstruction. This land management note focuses in
particular on how to efficiently provide land to the
Wenchuan earthquake-affected population and more generally
on land management issues. It is based on two World Bank
works: (i) a study entitled, 'the spatial organization
of cities: deliberate outcome or unforeseen
consequence?" and (ii) the ongoing Sichuan Urban
Development Project, where new urban land in peri-urban
areas is being developed through rational spatial
development planning.