Masurier, J L; Rotimi, J O B and Wilkinson, S (2006) A comparison between routine construction and post-disaster reconstruction with case studies from New Zealand. In: Boyd, D (ed.) Proceedings of 22nd Annual ARCOM Conference, 4-6 September 2006, Birmingham, UK.
Abstract
Legislation that applies to routine construction provides for the safe development of infrastructure, capital improvements and land use, ensuring preservation and environmental protection, however there is often little provision in legislation to facilitate reconstruction projects. Much existing legislation was not drafted to cope with an emergency situation and was not developed to operate under the conditions that will inevitably prevail in the aftermath of a severe disaster. If well articulated and implemented, the regulations should not only provide an effective means of reducing and containing vulnerabilities (disaster mitigation), but also a means of facilitating reconstruction projects. The purpose of this work is to examine how reconstruction differs from routine construction, focussing on the interrelated reconstruction challenges of allocation of responsibility for coordination, scarcity of resources and the application of legislation and regulations that were written for routine construction rather than post-disaster reconstruction. Case studies of reconstruction following recent small scale disasters in New Zealand are presented to support the points raised. Extrapolation of the main issues to larger scale disasters identifies some significant challenges which, if not addressed in advance, are likely to hinder the reconstruction process. The paper concludes that whilst routine construction processes have proved adequate for small-scale disasters, the greater degree of coordination required for programmes of reconstruction following a larger disaster has not been adequately addressed in policy and legislation.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | coordination; legislation; reconstruction; regulation |
| Index terms: | vulnerability, post-disaster reconstruction, small scale, disaster mitigation, regulation, construction process, coordination, routine, New Zealand, environmental protection, case study, legislation, reconstruction, land use, programme |
| Subjects: | legal systems, real estate economics, data collection methods, political science, environmental engineering, environmental hazards, project controls, sociology, building construction, Geography, production management, management, post-disaster and reconstruction |
| Topics: | Project Management, Geographical Context, Research Practice, Engineering Principles, Governance, Sustainability, Legal Issues, Urban Studies, Site Management, Organizational Design, Time Control |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCE |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here