November 17-18, 2016 (Manila, Philippines)
The forum recognized that large-scale disasters often result in changing spatial structures due to corresponding large-scale reconstruction activities. Hence, the recovery process that follows provide opportunities to address both the pre-existing spatial development related challenges as well as the new ones. Some actions that may be introduced to address the issues associated with land use and housing in the post-disaster phase, may include: (i) introducing new land use strategies; (ii) regulating and providing incentives to rebuild away from hazard-prone areas; (iii) proposing new spatial growth models that factor in changing hazard patterns; (iv) addressing issues related to land title and rights; (v) adopting participatory approaches towards rebuilding thereby improving social cohesion; and (vi) undertaking a combination of structural and nonstructural investments to manage future disaster risk.
The forum covered three thematic sessions, where key messages and recommended actions were presented. The first session dealt with recovery policies, wherein policy actions may be focused on addressing the challenges related to the availability of land, risk information, local capacity, finances, and in meeting the speed required to implement activities on the ground. The second session dealt with the horizontal and vertical coordination issues, especially between national and local governments. The suggestion that came up from this session was to revisit and address the underlying causes of disaster risk. Adoption of a system-wide approach (such as focusing on watersheds) and design recovery measures that strengthens vertical and horizontal linkages may help contribute in addressing the issue. The final session dealt with good practices and innovative tools. It is in this session that IRP shared some of the international experiences. The recommendations from IRP included: reviewing past disaster experiences by specifically performing "failure analysis" and "build back better"; selecting from "menu of options" of strategies and actions from global experiences to address recovery issues and challenges - including land use and housing issues; and conducting pre-disaster recovery planning (pre-event research, pre-agreements) to help hasten the effectiveness of land use planning in post-disaster context (i.e. strengthening institutional arrangements, policies, laws, and programs).
(2016/11/21 14:40)