Sustainable Disaster Recovery: Operationalizing An Existing Agenda

Abstract

Disaster recovery represents the least understood aspect of emergency management, from the standpoint of both the research community and practitioners (Berke, Kartez, & Wenger, 1993; Rubin, 1991). When compared to the other widely recognized phases of emergency management, that is, preparedness, response, and mitigation, scholars have yet to address fundamental questions, while practitioners have failed to establish an integrated policy framework or utilize readily available tools to improve disaster recovery outcomes (Berke et al., 1993; May and Williams, 1986; Mileti, 1999). Since the 1990s the concept of sustainability has been adopted by hazards researchers and applied to mitigation (Berke, 1995a; Burby, 1998; Godschalk, et. al., 1999; Mileti, 1999), recovery (Becker, 1994a; Berke, Kartez, & Wenger, 1993; Eadie et al., 2001; Oliver-Smith, 1990; Smith, 2004; United States Department of Energy, 1998), and to a lesser extent preparedness and response (Tierney, Lindell, & Perry, 2001). While recognized as a meaningful paradigm among scholars and a limited number of practitioners, achieving sustainable recovery following disasters is not a widespread phenomenon in the United States, owing in large part to the current recovery model in practice today. It is therefore the intent of this chapter to describe an improved policy implementation framework focused on achieving sustainable recovery. Emphasis is placed on the analysis of the United States model of recovery and the development of specific recommendations to improve the process. Key issues and research questions are identified in order to advance this agenda, including the need to develop a theory of recovery that emphasizes specific factors that facilitate or hinder this approach. Next, a review of the literature highlights the fact that while past research has addressed several recognized dimensions of sustainable recovery, the research has not been linked to a unifying theory that helps to clarify our understanding of how sustainable recovery can be achieved.