Transforming governance: How national policies and organizations for managing disaster recovery evolved following the 4 September 2010 and 22 February 2011 Canterbury Earthquakes
Laurie A. Johnson, and Ljubica Mamula-Seadon
Earthquake Spectra, Volume 30, No. 1, pages 577–605, February 2014
Abstract
Large-scale disasters simultaneously deplete capital stock and services which then requires many complex rebuilding and societal activities to happen in a compressed time period; one of those is governance. Governments often create new institutions or adapt existing institutions to cope with the added demands. Over two years following the 4 September 2010 and 22 February 2011 Canterbury earthquakes, governance transformations have increasingly centralized recovery authority and operations at the national level. This may have helped to strengthen coordination among national agencies and expedite policy and decision making; but the effectiveness of coordination among multiple levels of government, capacity building at the local and regional levels, and public engagement and deliberation of key decisions are some areas where the transformations may not have been as effective. The Canterbury case offers many lessons for future disaster recovery management in New Zealand, the United States, and the world.
[DOI: 10.1193/032513EQS078M]