What is the future of a city center after an earthquake? A case study of the reconstruction process of Portoviejo, Ecuador

Abstract

The lack of coordination between national and municipal government entities, and the always-changing nature of their policies tend to create contradictory scenarios in reconstruction processes. This situation often leads to overlook the opportunity to address the vulnerabilities of the affected population through the implementation of an integrated reconstruction process. Conflicting conditions increase when a disaster hits central areas of predominant economic, political, commercial and social activities. Therefore, Portoviejo, Ecuador was chosen as case study to examine the challenges involved in the reconstruction process of a city whose central area was severely affected by an earthquake. The specific questions addressed in this thesis were: why the city center of Portoviejo was left unattended in the reconstruction process? and why new centralities were created to relocate commercial and administrative services outside the city center? With these results, this thesis aims to define the causes and consequences of disregarding the recovery of the city center in the reconstruction process of Portoviejo, Ecuador. The lessons learned from the reconstruction process of Portoviejo can encourage researchers, practitioners and citizens to advocate for reconstruction processes with a more holistic approach.