10 - Local and Professional Knowledge in Post-disaster Reconstruction: Overlaps and Differences in Maierato

Summary

Introduction

Disaster risk management is defined as the set of actions (or phases) that can be undertaken by governments and civil society before, during and after the occurrence of a calamitous event (catastrophe) that impacts communities (Alexander, 2002; Coppola, 2011). In particular, the term post-disaster means (i) all the activities and actions implemented to manage the emergency generated following the impact of the calamitous event (response) and (ii) all the actions taken for the recovery, rehabilitation and post-disaster reconstruction (recovery).

Social, economic and environmental aspects are important to ensure the success of actions as part of post-disaster reconstruction; the lack of consideration of these aspects by decision-makers can increase the vulnerability of local communities. Also, community involvement and the active participation of members of the community should be encouraged (Coppola, 2015). This chapter will deal with the social dimension of post-disaster reconstruction in the case study of Maierato (Calabria, Southern Italy) (see Figure 10.1).

This town was hit, in February 2010, by a large landslide which forced the local authorities to evacuate the entire community (about 2,300 inhabitants). The landslide, which fortunately did not cause any human casualties, destroyed a few uninhabited country houses and compromised approximately 800 metres of an important road that provides access to the inhabited area (Borrelli et al, 2014). This event produced relevant social and economic impacts. To understand if its impact led to a different perception and post-event experience among the community and professionals (administrators and local technicians), this chapter compares the results obtained from two different participatory surveys, both carried out in February 2018 in Maierato. The first survey, carried out through structured interviews, involved the community of Maierato with the aim of investigating, among other things, the perception and awareness of the landslide risk as well as knowing the point of view of the population on the 2010 emergency management phase and the subsequent recovery phase.