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 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.