Negotiating Adaptation and Recovery Through Land-Use Change in Tohoku, Japan

Funding: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Fellowship, Supported by the Japan Foundation
Status: Ongoing
Anuradha Mukherji, Assistant Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, East Carolina University

The Research

This study proposes to examine how coastal communities (e.g. municipalities) in Tohoku, Japan employ and negotiate land-use change adaptation strategies following the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami to adapt to coastal land subsidence and subsequent sea level rise. In doing so, the long-term research goal in this study is to advance scholarship on local community-based adaptation mechanisms that are employed to strengthen resilience to hazards in general. The objective in this proposal is to advance knowledge and understanding of long-term local (e.g. municipality) adaptation, specifically during disaster recovery, by examining land-use change strategies being negotiated in Tohoku, Japan to adapt to coastal land subsidence and sea-level rise.

Disaster Resilience In Coastal United States: Enhancing Local Capacities Through Hazard Mitigation Plan Implementation

Funding: Division of Research and Graduate Studies, East Carolina University
Status: Ongoing
Research Collaborators:
- Principal Investigator: Anuradha Mukherji, Assistant Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, East Carolina University
- Co-Principal Investigator: Jerry Weitz, Associate Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, East Carolina University

The Research

Despite an extensive and growing scholarship on hazard mitigation as a critical component of disaster resilience, understanding of hazard mitigation plan implementation at the local level (county and municipality) remains limited. To address this gap, this proposed study focuses on issues faced by local jurisdictions (counties) in coastal North Carolina to implement multi-jurisdictional (county level) hazard mitigation plans. In doing so, the long-term research goal in this study is to advance scientific research in enhancing disaster resilience through hazard mitigation in general. The objective in this proposal is to enrich knowledge and understanding of local resilience, specifically by examining implementation of hazard mitigation plan subsequent to its adoption at the local county level.

As a place-based study, this research focuses on the 20 coastal counties of North Carolina, specifically those under the Coastal Area Management Act (CAMA). The 20 CAMA counties are vulnerable to multiple hazards (e.g. floods, hurricanes, tornadoes) and have county level hazard mitigation plans. Yet, the implementation of the mitigation plans has been highly uneven and varies within and across the CAMA counties. The proposed study examines why this is the case

Re-Housing Urban Haiti After The Earthquake: Dual Role of Social Capital

Funding: National Science Foundation Rapid Grant ($45,000), 04/2010 to 03/2011
Status: Completed
Research Collaborators:
- Principal Investigator: Emel Ganapati, Assistant Professor of Public Administration, Florida International University
- Co-Principal Investigator: Guitele Rahill, Assistant Professor of Social Work, University of South Florida
- Senior Project Expert: Anuradha Mukherji, Assistant Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, East Carolina University

The Research

Despite an emerging literature regarding social capital in disaster recovery, the actual impact of social capital on the speed and quality of early post-disaster housing recovery is little understood. The objective of this project was to enhance knowledge concerning the role of social capital, an important component of resilience, in the early recovery process following the January 12, 2010 Haiti earthquake in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area. The project had three specific aims: (1) Document the pre- and post-disaster social capital in three socio-economically diverse Port-au-Prince communities; (2) Document the housing recovery process in three selected Port-au-Prince communities; and (3) Assess the impact of pre- and post-disaster social capital on the speed and quality of housing recovery in these communities.

The study involved two waves of data collection (a baseline and a follow up) spaced six months apart in Haiti. In each wave, the project team conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews of policy makers/practitioners and community leaders, and facilitated focus groups with community residents. In addition, the team employed participant observation in community and public meetings on post-disaster housing recovery. Lastly, the team reviewed secondary sources, including post-disaster housing recovery plans, newspapers, minutes of public meetings, laws and regulations, and other published documents.

The study aimed to capture time-sensitive and perishable longitudinal data on the earthquake in Haiti, thereby contributing to knowledge on early post-disaster housing recovery, social capital, and resilience. The research goal was to enable policy makers to establish long-term recovery policies that take into account each community's unique needs and capabilities rather than developing "one size fits all" policies to guide recovery interventions. Moreover, it helped identify the capabilities of selected Port-au-Prince communities.

Following The Money: World Bank's Emergency Loan Programs For Urban Housing Recovery

Status: On Hold
Anuradha Mukherji, Assistant Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, East Carolina University

The Research

Does World Bank's emergency loan structure for urban housing reconstruction after disasters contribute to housing inequities in the recipient country? Research (Freeman, 2004) shows that World Bank loan monies allocated for housing recovery after disasters are mostly captured by middle and upper class homeowner groups, and options that are appropriate to the housing needs of low-income renters and squatters remain non-existent. The concentration of public funds for homeowner recovery comes at the cost of equitable housing recovery for all socio-economic groups and exacerbates inequalities that existed since prior to a disaster between low-income and wealthier communities (Mukherji, 2008; Oliver-Smith, 1990). Yet, it is unclear whether the current form and arrangement of the World Bank's emergency loan program directly contributes to housing inequity during post-disaster recovery. Drawing on archival study of reconstruction project loan documents at the World Bank and in-depth interviews with key World Bank staff, my goal is to examine the structure, priority, and funding process of World Bank's post-disaster emergency reconstruction loan (ERL) programs to understand how the existing arrangement of ERLs shapes the allocation of emergency loan monies for housing in the recipient country.

The Emergency Reconstruction Loan (ERL) is a lending mechanism, which allows quick disbursement of a World Bank loan to a recipient country after a disaster, often by restructuring existing World Bank loans to the country and reallocating loan monies from ongoing projects (World Bank, 2006). The Bank's involvement in post-disaster housing has grown considerably in the last two decades. In 1984, funds allocated to disaster related projects made up 9.4 percent of all World Bank loan commitments, and by 2003, it had risen to 14 percent (World Bank, 2006). Whereas, one third of these projects had components specifically for housing in early 1980s, by 2003, 50 percent of the reconstruction loans were directed to housing recovery (Gilbert, 2001). This means that while disaster projects made up only 11 percent of the Bank's total shelter lending between 1972 and 1986, they increased to 25 percent between 1987 and 2005 (Buckley & Kalarickal, 2006, p. 17). Moreover, my doctoral research shows that organizations, like the World Bank, impact housing policy and decisions in loan recipient countries through institutional practices such as the use of loan instruments like project schedules, loan expiration timelines, and review missions that evaluate ongoing projects and decide feasibility of future loans. Yet, in spite of the large dollar amounts spent through ERL on the housing sector and the impact these programs have on a large swath of population hit by disasters, ERL programs are not well understood and little studied by researchers and scholars, a gap this research project seeks to address. Moreover, despite a growing body of scholarship, among the various components of a disaster (pre-disaster mitigation, emergency preparedness, emergency response, and recovery), post-disaster recovery has received the lowest amount of attention (Berke and Beatley, 1997), and is least investigated and least understood component of post-disaster aid (Comerio, 1998). There is very limited research that has evaluated the effectiveness of programs designed to assist households and communities in rebuilding their homes and businesses (Comerio, 1998).

The significance of this project thus lies within its larger empirical scope. The study expects to contribute to future public policy debates on post-disaster housing recovery by providing a deeper understanding of the impact of external funding from organizations like World Bank on housing recovery outcomes. The study would also contribute to the debate on shelter lending policies. The World Bank's emergency reconstruction loan (ERL) mechanism – which includes quick allocation of funds for urban housing reconstruction and recovery through public programs in loan recipient countries – contradicts the Bank's own larger housing sector/shelter lending strategy – which is to re-structure and strengthen private market mechanisms and financing instruments. My research expects to offer greater insights into the implications of this contradiction on housing policies in general and post-disaster housing recovery in particular among loan recipient countries.