Abstract
Disaster recovery is a special driving force for urbanisation in China, and the household registration system makes the interaction between recovery and urbanisation unique and complex. During the post-Wenchuan earthquake recovery efforts, many towns and villages altered original land-use patterns to accelerate the pace of urbanisation. This process expedited the reconstruction of infrastructure and boosted regional economic development, but also resulted in changes in household registration for farmers whose land was requisitioned, creating a new series of social problems. This study examined one town in Sichuan Province as a case study to explore perceptions of the recovery process and analyse quantitatively the relationships between economic recovery level and household characteristics during the post-disaster recovery period. Based on personal interviews and 513 valid household questionnaires, the study found that: (1) households that changed their household registration during the recovery were more dissatisfied with the recovery process and their life status; (2) the economic conditions of households whose householders were between 46 and 55 years of age deteriorated significantly, which created an emerging vulnerable population; and (3) people who work away from their hometown all year were more dissatisfied with the recovery work to date. These analyses helped us visualise the interaction between post-disaster recovery and urbanisation in China, and identify and understand the vulnerable population that emerges from this process. This study indicates that there is a strong need for more flexible policies and population group-orientated regulations in post-disaster recovery.
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Notes
Data resource: China Statistical Yearbook 2013.
Data source: Social and Economic Statistical Yearbook of Pingwu County 2009.
Data source: The instruction of post-disaster reconstruction planning of Nanba Town (2008–2015).
Data sources: Social And Economic Statistical Yearbook of Pingwu County 2008, Social and Economic Statistical Yearbook of Pingwu County 2009.
Data source: Table 11. Death rates for 113 selected causes, drug-induced causes, alcohol-induced causes, and injury by firearms, by age: United States, 2010. National Vital Statistics Report (NVSR) “Deaths: Final Data for 2010.”
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Acknowledgments
This study was supported by an Integrated Risk Governance Project Grant (2012DFG20710) from the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, and the 973 Program of the National Basic Research Program of China (2012CB955402).
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Yang, S., Du, J., He, S. et al. The emerging vulnerable population of the urbanisation resulting from post-disaster recovery of the Wenchuan earthquake. Nat Hazards 75, 2103–2118 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-014-1413-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-014-1413-z