Socio-Natural Disaster Recovery Projects: Lessons from Recovery After Wenchuan and Bam Earthquakes

This book offers a comprehensive analysis of socio-natural disaster recovery projects, using the Bam and Wenchuan earthquakes as case studies to evaluate their success and failure. With escalating losses from socio-natural disasters and a high failure rate among recovery projects, it addresses the urgent need for effective management guidelines by leveraging past experiences. Tackling the discrepancy between reported project success and public perception, the book emphasizes the importance of stakeholder perspectives and assessment timing. It sets out to solve the problem of ineffective disaster recovery management by proposing a robust framework and practical guidelines for successful recovery projects, aiming to prioritize project goals and refine evaluation criteria, leading to more desirable outcomes and enhanced community resilience. The main topics covered include:

1. Critical Overview and Conceptual Framework: The book begins with a thorough overview of socio-natural disaster recovery projects, leading to the development of a conceptual management framework. This framework outlines essential steps based on a continuous life cycle to streamline recovery efforts.

2. Success Factors and Dimensions: It identifies key success factors and dimensions to comprehensively measure project outcomes. These findings are structured through rigorous triangulation of primary and secondary data.

3. Comparative Policy Analysis: A micro-comparison of recovery policies in Iran and China, two of the most vulnerable countries, provides practical suggestions using success factors, influential pathways, and SWOT analysis.

4. Community Recovery Dynamics: The book explores why communities recover differently, applying qualitative comparative analysis to neighborhoods in Bam and towns affected by the Wenchuan earthquake.

The target audience includes policymakers, project managers, researchers, and practitioners in disaster management, urban planning, and civil engineering. Academics and government officials responsible for managing socio-natural disaster recovery projects will find this book invaluable for improving project success and community resilience.

Homa Bahmani is currently a Senior Research Professor at the College of Environment and Civil Engineering at Chengdu University of Technology in China. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Architecture Engineering from Shariaty Technical University and a Master's degree in Project Management from Shahid Beheshti University, both located in Tehran, Iran. In 2022, she completed her doctoral studies in Civil Engineering at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China. Afterward, she joined Chengdu University of Technology as a postdoctoral researcher. Additionally, she has been recognized as a young scientist by the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk Office. Her primary research focus revolves around disaster and emergency management, as well as the study of human behavior in response to emergencies.

Yibin Ao is currently a full professor at Chengdu University of Technology, China. He earned his Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctoral degrees from Chongqing University, Harbin Institute of Technology, and Sichuan University, respectively. His research focuses on understanding the inter-relationship between the rural built environment and the daily activities of rural residents. Through July 2017 to July 2018, he was seconded to Eindhoven University of Technology, in the Netherlands, as a visiting scholar.

Wei Zhang is an Associate Professor and PhD supervisor at the School of Civil and Hydraulic Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology. He earned his Doctor of Engineering degree from Tsinghua University in July 2007, following a Bachelor of Engineering from the same institution in July 2002. His research interests focus on disaster prevention and safety management.