Case Study: Crisis And Disaster Management For Build Back Better

Introduction to BBB

Discuss about the case study Crisis and Disaster Management for Build Back Better.

The Build Back Better policy is one of the most important as well as useful aspect for an organization in order to improve their business and profits. The motto of ‘Build Back Better’ was accepted more officially when the BBB guidelines were created in the year of 2006 by Clinton. The guidelines were created after the mishap of South Asian tsunami in the year of 2004 occurred. The main purpose of this policy or strategy is to secure the organization from threats such as the environment, production and many others. Clinton used the “Key Propositions for BBB” as the primary authorized document over the subject. In context of reconstruction as well as recovery, the concept of BBB is the accepted standard for conducting the procedure.

Some of the examples are mentioned below to make it clear that how integral the BBB policy is:

• United Nations Disaster Relief Organization(UNDRO) has a guideline of ‘Principles for Settlement and Shelter’.
• Reconstruction strategy, as well as Post Tsunami Recovery measures undertaken by the government of Sri Lanka, is an example of implementations of Build Back Better.
• To rebuild the future planet, free from problems that current generations suffer from, Federal Emergency Management Agency’s operational framework can be used.
• Monday’s “Holistic Recovery Framework” is an ideal framework providing implementation and strategic details of Build Back Better policy.
• ‘Recovery and Reconstruction Framework’ of Victorian Bushfire Recovery and Reconstruction Authority provide specific details on real time integration of BBB strategies.
• Christchurch Earthquake Recovery Authority’s Response and Repair strategies are direct measures that embark on the strategy of BBB.

The concept of creating the better framework for BBB policy, we evaluate and discuss the situation thorough case studies of multinational dimensions. Figure 2 illustrates the concept of BBB. The central concepts mentioned in the BBB framework, are of the recovery of the community, risk management, and reduction, after the occurrence of a major disaster. One important aspect of Build Back Better policy is focuses on proper implantation of the strategy.

As figure 1 show, the restoration of the community is further subdivided into social and economic recoverable strategies. Community support and involvement are the primary focus for Social recovery which is illustrated as on Table 1. The act of Encouragement, education, and engagement of communities are the primary equipment and tools proposed to help communities to deal with overcoming the trauma of environmental disasters.

In 2010 and 2011, two major earthquakes struck Christchurch. The first referred to as The Darfield Quake, struck the suburb of Darfield with a magnitude of 7.1 on the Richter scale. The earthquake occurred on the 4^th September, 2010 with a considerable aftershock of magnitude 6.3 again on the 22nd of February the same year. The reports of Liquefaction became more extensive in the eastern parts of the city. The reports intensified after the occurrence of the second earthquake, which had affected huge parts of residential areas (Scott 2003). The estimated losses were in the range of 40 billion New Zealand Dollars which is approximately around 19 percent of New Zealand’s total GDP. Almost three fourth of all households in the area were destroyed beyond recognition. The major infrastructural buildings like healthcare, financial, educational, and historical buildings also bore the full brunt of the impact of the quake. In the central business district, nearly forty-seven percent of the buildings were declared unsafe and unfit. Nearly 627 buildings were earmarked for Demolition and finally destroyed. The authorities estimated the repairing and refurbishment costs of residences to be around NZ $13 billion. The disintegration of the Canterbury TV building and Pyne Gould Corp. building raised the death toll by 115 and 18 persons respectively. 28 people were reported to be killed in the central city alone. Eight people in a public bus were killed. The total death toll rose to 128 persons with several persons missing.

Greater Christchurch Earthquake (2010-2011)

The district of Waimakariri, in Christchurch, along with eastern suburb of the city, was in ruins after the Earthquakes. The eventual aftershocks caused the effects of liquefaction to be intensified. Liquefaction spread laterally in the adjoining areas. Nearly twelve hundred houses in Pines Beach were badly damaged. The authorities had earmarked almost 1048 houses for demolition. Some areas were permanently marked to be unsafe for rebuilding (Koh 2012). The earthquake had disrupted the normal flow of life. The damaged infrastructural facilities of the town took the entire systems down and prevented quick response from authorities. Many small and large business houses suffered huge losses to their businesses as there was shortage of raw materials. The infrastructure of the town including a total of 16 km of roads, 16 bridge approaches, and two walkway footbridges were badly damaged beyond repair. The damaged roads prevented goods trucks from plying on the roads and the retail chain suffered. The potable water supply systems of Waimakariri was gravely disturbed and damaged.  The damage amounted to a loss of 12 km of mainline water supply, ten kilometers of storm water drainage and three major water pumping stations (Twort, Ratnayaka and Brandt 2006). The damage also included 18 km of sewage gravity separators, and a total of 15 sewer pipe systems (Control monitoring range launched for use with pumping stations 2003).

The creation of the regulatory body CERA was a result of the vastness in the  scale of the disaster. CERA was ultimately given the task of managing Recovery and repairing activities in the Greater Christchurch areas. CERA was tasked with reporting to the Central New Zealand Government (Singh 2008). By the time of 31st March 2016, The Earthquake Commission had repaired 67,468 residential house repairs. The community buildings and historic architectures were greatly affected by the aftershocks. Brick and mortar masonry buildings suffered chimney collapses while residences with timber wood frames stayed upright. The falling of rocks and ground liquefaction resulted in limited land use over potentially dangerous lands in the greater Christchurch areas.

Rebuild Framework

The BBB framework dedicates its efforts to regenerate the economy of the disaster affected communities (Jones 2005). They do this by providing business support, commercial support to rebuild the local economy of the affected regions (Momani, 2011).

The Christchurch Earthquake Recovery principles contain the fact of guidance for the recovery of Canterbury. The strategic partners and community were developed in consultation to recover from the problems (Wilson 2004). It also provides the direction, confidence, and coordination in the case of the recovery effort (Tracy 2014). The Recovery Strategy has provided the government and the stakeholders with credible blue prints where the development plan is integrate the natural environment, economic recovery, cultural recovery. The Recovery Strategy has integrated the leadership and quality deliverance of the projects in a time bound manner (Phillips and Freeman 2010). The CERA Recovery Strategy aims to restore Christchurch to its former glory. The framework by CERA is very crucial for providing the future generations with an ideal disaster proof foundation. It places the prime focus on community recovery. It diverts its attentions to identify the company risks, environmental hazards, land zoning and lastly housing problems (Mortensen 1998).

The recovery principles regarding the Christchurch earthquake

The recovery report can be divided into three components by CERA. The first stage comprises repair and formulation of the entire action plan. To rebuild, replace as well as reconstruct the affected sites, a short-term phase is required. The actual repairing and remodeling is done at this phase. Medium and long term phases are involved in improvement, restoration and refurbishment activities. While developing a system to protect the city from the environment, it is very crucial to concerned with the idea of integrating infrastructure (Memarzadeh and Pozzi 2015). The housing infrastructure must be cost efficient and accessible to general public. The housing societies must have a well connected network of transport systems (Trans-European Transport network 2005).The housing plans also include blast resistant underground shelters. The resilient land zones which are certified to be stable, incorporates an urban design. The Recovery Strategy aims to prioritize investment on infrastructure for supporting Greater Christchurch (Infrastructure 2004).

The Christchurch case was covered by a newspaper, which was reported to be critically affected by the earthquakes in the year of 2010 and 2011 (Branley and Lloyd 2005). The recovery and redevelopment process is still going on. So the role of BBB may be instrumental in reduction of risk of the future generations. The Build Back Better strategy can be used as an initiative in other countries, in the event of a disaster.

A design of “mix method” can be used to substantiate our research findings. The method of mix can be carried out for conducting the key official interviews from the Christchurch case study. The interviews with Earth Recovery Authority and the city councils were conclusive and were justifiable in accordance with the related literature. The direct involvement of the interviewee in the post disaster crisis is crucial for the interview subject. It helps the researcher to understand the ground realities and plan the recovery process efficiently and effectively. It took one hour to complete each semi-structured process of interview. So minute attention was devoted to plan and improvise intricate details of the whole process. The data for the conducted interviews are provided below.

Table 1: Case study data collection

Research trip	Interviewee	Description
Research trip 1 April 2014–May 2014	P1	Visits and Relations Advisor, CERA
P2	Structural Engineer, CERA
P3	Manager, Utilities and Roading, Waimakariri District Council
P4	Recovery Manager, Waimakariri District Council
Research trip August 2015	P5	General Manager, Constructions, CERA
P6	Chief Advisor, Insurance, CERA
P7	General Manager, Community Resilience, CERA
P8	Former Recovery Manager, Waimakariri District Council
P9	Manager, Central City Development, CERA
P10	Senior Advisor, Communication Central City Rebuild, CERA
P11	Service Centre Manger, Waimakariri District Council
P12	Earthquake Support Service, Waimakariri District Council
P13	Recovery Manager, Waimakariri District Council
P14	Utility Manager, Waimakariri District Council
P15	Visits and Relations Advisor, CERA
P16	Head, Strategy and Planning Group, Christchurch City Council

References

Branley, F. and Lloyd, M. (2005). Earthquakes. New York: HarperCollinsPublishers.

Control monitoring range launched for use with pumping stations. (2003). World Pumps, 2003(444), p.11.

Infrastructure. (2004). London: European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Jones, C. (2005). Framework. Madrid: Santillana.

Koh, R. (2012). Residences. Singapore: Page One.

Memarzadeh, M. and Pozzi, M. (2015). Integrated Inspection Scheduling and Maintenance Planning for Infrastructure Systems. Computer-Aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering, 31(6), pp.403-415.

Hamada, M. (n.d.). Engineering for earthquake disaster mitigation.

Momani, N. (2011). Integrated framework for earthquake consequences management. Disaster Prevention and Management, 20(3), pp.314-333.

Mortensen, C. (1998). Speeding earthquake disaster relief. Menlo Park, CA: U.S. Geological Survey.

Singh, S. (2008). Disaster management. New Delhi: A P H Publishing

Phillips, R. and Freeman, R. (2010). Stakeholders. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

Scott, M. (2003). Speeding in residential areas. [Washington, D.C.]: U.S. Dept. of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.

Tracy, B. (2014). Leadership. New York: American Management Association.

Trans-European Transport network. (2005). Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.

Twort, A., Ratnayaka, D. and Brandt, M. (2006). Water supply. Oxford [England]: Butterworth-Heinemann.

Wilson, J. (2004). Strategic partners. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe.