Build back better? Not only a technical matter. Insights from owner-driven reconstruction in Nepal

Abstract

Post-disaster Recovery and Reconstruction play a vital role in amplifying or reducing the magnitude of future hazards, challenging communities to Build Back Better in order to reduce their exposure to risks. There are increasing evidences demonstrating that a safe built environment, involving structural design improvements, can reduce or mitigate future disasters. Thus, it is fundamental to understand why and how communities rebuild settlements, even more when top-down guidelines and monitoring practices are reduced to minimum. This research provides an assessment critically evaluating how remote communities have recovered (looking at the safety of temporary houses) and are rebuilding their settlements after the Nepal 2015 Gorkha earthquake. The extensive fieldwork highlights how the reconstruction process, towards a safer and sustainable settlement, is not just a technical matter. Rather, deeply influenced by communities perceptions of seismic risk, driving prioritization and decision-making processes leading to the adaptation of funding opportunities and/or building codes based on local knowledge. The research provides useful insights in regard to management and operationalization of the normative and top-down build back better principles and guidelines. False behavior of safety was found to directly affected structural design changes and spatial adaptation (linked to land-use planning), hence the maladaptation of the built environment and loss of faith in traditional materials. Results suggest to consider and enhance those principles within the local intricate layers of cultural and behavioral driven practices, which deeply influence the effectiveness of the rebuilding process.