A Study on Community-Based Reconstruction from Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster – A Case Study of Iwanuma City in Miyagi-Pref.

Abstract

Community-based reconstruction is the process in which social, environmental and cultural reconstruction of a community is conducted by disaster survivors following a disaster. The author analyzed the community-based reconstruction process following the Great East Japan Earthquake. The author focuses on Iwanuma, a city in Miyagi Prefecture in which community-based reconstruction was carried out from April 2011 to July 2015, and clarified the characteristics of reconstruction planning which was done based on a collaboration of disaster survivors, local government officials and universities and other organizations. This process was then evaluated for community sustainability. Results have clarified four stages in reconstruction planning, i.e., grand design, community workshops, consensus building by a formal committee, and new machizukuri (community building) created by the disaster survivors themselves. Consensus building was found to be the essential factor of community-based reconstruction, with each stage having different roles in consensus building.