Is it possible to integrate disaster governance into urbanization? Evidence from Chinese townships hit by 2008 Wenchuan earthquake and 2013 Lushan earthquake

Abstract

This research contributes to fill the void in the knowledge of the evolution of disaster governance of Asia during urban transition, by studying the changes of disaster risk management (DRM) capacities of townships in southwestern China. These townships have particular significance in China’s urban spectrum. While a number of townships were hard hit twice by 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake and 2013 Lushan Earthquake, it was a precious opportunity to examine the effect of integrating disaster governance into sustainable urbanization. The Wenchuan Reconstruction Plan had claimed the goal of building DRM capacity along the urbanization process of the post-disaster areas during the 5 years. This research finds that although with tremendous efforts, the fundamental issues of DRM remained unsettled in 2013 due to a failure of integrating the two policy systems of urbanization and disaster governance. The major contributions of this research are to link disaster governance and urbanization through DRM Capacity Framework and to put forward a new framework for forming a coalition between urbanization and disaster governance guided by governance approaches in strategic, policy, and program levels.