Worldwide, the urban development and disaster management arena finds itself at a critical crossroad. This is driven by rapid urbanization (and de-urbanization) as well as a growing volume of damage caused by natural (and un-natural) disasters, which are increasingly affecting urban and rural inhabitants. Bearing this in mind, experiences from disaster management and especially from disaster recovery have led to advances in the field and an increase in the importance of the role of spatial planning. This book brings together experiences and knowledge of spatial planning after significant disast ... More

Worldwide, the urban development and disaster management arena finds itself at a critical crossroad. This is driven by rapid urbanization (and de-urbanization) as well as a growing volume of damage caused by natural (and un-natural) disasters, which are increasingly affecting urban and rural inhabitants. Bearing this in mind, experiences from disaster management and especially from disaster recovery have led to advances in the field and an increase in the importance of the role of spatial planning. This book brings together experiences and knowledge of spatial planning after significant disasters, and highlights on-going efforts to improve spatial resilience across the globe. One of the main goals is to understand the influence of significant disasters on spatial planning and spatial resiliency under different legal-administrative and cultural framework conditions. In part A of the book, experts from Japan, Indonesia, USA, Slovakia and Germany write about their experiences and efforts to rebuild their communities in a more resilient manner after major disasters and thus give an overview of the state of the art. Part B gives a cross-country analysis of five important topics: Transformation of spatial planning after significant disasters, efforts in building spatial resilience after disasters, coordination in building spatial resilience, participation in rebuilding space more resilient and spatial planning under uncertainty. Part B further identifies key factors that can be shared throughout the countries and can be used for building back better.