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‘Build back better’ sounds great in theory, but does the government really know what it means in practice?

Public Policy / opinion
‘Build back better’ sounds great in theory, but does the government really know what it means in practice?
pic
Getty Images.

By Suzanne Wilkinson*

In the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins promised to invest billions in disaster-hit communities to “build back better”. But building community and infrastructure resilience will take more than just cash.

In our 2018 book, Resilient Post Disaster Recovery through Building Back Better, my co-authors and I argue for a systematic approach to disaster recovery that focuses on building resilience. This can be achieved by using the principles of building back better and embedding these in all disaster recovery practices.

The ultimate goal of building back better is to make communities stronger and more resilient following a disaster.

In the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle, the government will need to work with a wide range of groups – including community and industry leaders, businesses and insurance companies – to rebuild affected social and economic environments, rehabilitate and improve the natural environment and create a resilient built environment.

This is a challenging task that requires a systematic rethinking of how we create the places we live in now – and how we want to live in the future.

Learning from past disasters

A “build back better” approach was advocated in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Ten key principles proposed by former US president Bill Clinton were adopted in the aftermath of that disaster.

These principles included a commitment to community-led recovery, the promotion of fairness and equity and the goal of leaving communities safer by reducing risks and building resilience.

Closer to home, the post-earthquake Christchurch rebuild provides a case study of where opportunities to build back better were largely missed. Reconstruction was mainly focused on repairing the physical damage caused by the earthquakes.

Creating resilience, however, was largely seen as too costly, and building back better was not fully implemented in most of the city’s reconstruction.

Insurance payouts for damage were fraught with difficulty. Rebuilding with resilience wasn’t considered, with homeowners given like-for-like payouts, or payouts that didn’t fully meet market values. Faulty repairs were common.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has committed billions to the rebuild effort. But building back better requires more than cash. Phil Yeo/Getty Images.

Inadequate funding

That said, some build back better principles were applied in Christchurch, including initial community participation in rebuild planning. There were also building code changes to create stronger buildings that could withstand future earthquake damage and the repurposing of unsuitable land.

Big projects, such as the convention centre, justice and emergency precinct and bus interchange, were delivered with earthquake-resilient design features.

But these projects, and others like them, were also marred by controversy, lacked full community support, and have been mostly over-budget and delayed.

The Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team was one of the few organisations seeking to create resilient infrastructure for future communities. But the funding didn’t fully match the intent, and there is still ongoing work to create genuinely resilient infrastructure in Christchurch.

Offsetting future risks

Building back better requires resilience to be fully costed into the rebuild. It requires a focus on disaster-risk reduction – improving how we build and where, putting the community at the centre of recovery decisions, providing effective governance, and providing mechanisms for recovery monitoring and evaluation.

New legislation and regulations can be used to facilitate post-disaster recovery activities, often by fast-tracking and exempting normal procedures.

As seen in Christchurch, improving the resilience of buildings and infrastructure meant changing building codes. But there needs to be caution, as building code changes can slow recovery efforts.

Changing land use, as with the Christchurch red zones, reduces future risk to life and livelihoods. Before the 2011 earthquake, some 10,000 people lived in suburbs along the Avon river. However, in the 12 years since, almost all of the houses have been torn down and the land largely reverted to public green spaces.

During the 2009 Australian bushfire recovery, town planning was addressed collectively by community recovery committees. These worked with relevant agencies to improve the functionality of town layouts, improve future resilience, and ensure communities understood future hazards and risks.

The five stages of recovery

But timing is essential. Our research showed the key stages of recovery after a disaster: chaos, realisation, mobilisation, struggle and new normal. It’s important for all of the groups involved in a recovery to understand the patterns that develop organically after an event, and what is needed at each stage.

For the regions hit by Cyclone Gabrielle, there will need to be a well-resourced authority to coordinate and lead recovery and to help communities move forward with their lives.

This is not just about rebuilding houses and infrastructure. The recovery agency also needs to offer support services – such as assistance with welfare and counselling services. Financial assistance, plus training and support for businesses trying to rebuild should also be provided – though this all comes at a high cost.

Reducing future risk, putting the community at the heart of decision making, and creating resilient infrastructure and buildings will be expensive and take time. But by following a systematic approach to building back better, communities will be safer from future events.The Conversation


*Suzanne Wilkinson, Professor of Construction Management, Massey University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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23 Comments

Auckland council's actions forcing developments to spend mountains of cash on stormwater detention/retention systems instead of investing in appropriately sized stormwater pipework upgrades is a disaster in deluge events like we just had. Once the tanks are full they're completely useless, and having larger pipes would be far more effective.

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Doing both of those seems sensible. 

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If you have enough stormwater pipework for the deluge's you don't need the tanks the rest of the time. We need to stop wasting money on the tanks and put it into the pipework infrastructure.

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That cyclone, any cyclone would have devastated any area in New Zealand, rural & urban. Australia has both greater experience and exposure. Lismore for example recently. Yet their problems will still undoubtedly recur. There is nothing at all protecting New Zealand from the Antartica storms, 1968 Wahine for instance, and tropical counterparts as has just occurred. The first priority for protection should be basic knowledge of history of weather events and the natural results therefrom and what mitigation is possible. That includes assessment and prevention of obvious impediments and hazards such as forestry slash and building on highly suspect land such as this government proposed last November, for 700 homes in Mareanui in Napier even though it was 9ft under water two years ago.

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Well put! Just need to add well managed monitoring system so people can be alarmed in time to prepare and/or evacuate.

Japan agency sends txt messages to their citizens as an advanced warning that an earthquake of certain strength is coming, for example.

Only when civil defense, local and regional government together with engineers and geologists in respective fields start working together to build and rebuild infrastructure alongside sound monitoring and warning system, then we may see a better response to any event, be it weather of geo.

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Good article. It’s just another dangerously empty slogan

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and if anyone can do a spectacular job of stuffing it up it is this labour government.

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I'm not sure if we have the social cohesion to build back even Mediocre, let alone Better.

Everyone will want something Better, as long they themselves don't have to pay.

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Building back better is going to cost heaps and mean a lot of people will no longer be allowed to build back next to river banks / river valleys etc.    Bigger higher bridges. closing down slash creating business.

Its a great slogan but reality will loose votes so expect not much to happen.

We want ressilient roads, healthcare, power, water.   

sounds like NZ is a bit munted.

both parties will blame lack of investment from previous, neither will get elected if honest on the tax required to fix these things, we are screwed.

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Yep so over to individuals, neighbours and neighbourhoods to do what they can to maximise their resilience.

And be very careful where you choose to live.

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Less is more!!!

 

Less spin, politicians, process, system, waste on " nice to haves"......

 

More quality infrastructure. Competition in the supply and delivery. More Transparency....

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Cancel all climate mitigation strategies and put the money in to the next earthquake/volcano/natural event resilience. The ETS is gifting money to Ikea when we can't afford Ikea furniture.

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If Christchurch is any example then all opportunity to create /improve resilience will be lost in the lack of decisiveness and delay that results in the reversion to BAU with window dressing.

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A good start would be to fund it properly , not to use Lotto which is essentially a " tax " on the poor

... geeez , Hipkins , could you be any more stupid than this  !

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Rather extraordinary actually. NZ has a gambling addiction problem. In that regard NZ as a nation is hardly alone but this let’s say, socially conscious and prioritised government cannot be unaware of that fact. Therefore it is something that is unnatural, and decidedly incongruous and unsavoury, for this government to then both encourage and embrace gambling as a vehicle to compensate for a natural disaster.  

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A systematic approach requires government to set national standards that are sorely lacking in NZ, and to set them at levels that are financially sustainable long term.

e.g one standard for the flood return period NZ wide (it can be modified over time)

Benefit cost assessments can then be done in each individual situation to determine the best way to deal with the specific risks, eg build a stop bank or buy out the property owners or raise all floor levels.

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Financially sustainable long-term?

No such thing.

A total oxymoron.

Materially maintainable, is the yardstick.

And that threshold, is several notches less than the combined infrastructure we currently carry (or were...).

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Science ....Might be cheaper to try and control our weather or weather headed our way.. 

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concrete over the undersea volcanos ? lol

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Build back better to me says we’ll receive the a product that is 25% more efficient. A highway has an extra lane or the speed limit is lifted or follows a more direct route. 
 

Sadly what I’m expecting is the same product with 25% more regulatory costs. 

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In 2020 the govt set aside $14B from the covid fund in case of a second wave. This could be used for cyclone recovery.

https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300061381/government-setting-as…

But I see Winston is now asking Robbo to explain what’s happened to that $14B?

What a mess this country is in. 

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... and yet , Labour are still high in the polls ... regardless of 6 years of abject failures , lies , deceit , profligate spending , cronyism , bullying .... people still adore them ( Lanthalidomide ! ) ...

Fecking bat sh*t crazy , ain't it ...

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It is possible to get a resilient home (not to a mudflow full of slash, but at least to rising flood waters) for an affordable cost. But as everyone knows, it can't be done with timber / gib. But it can be done as QuickBuild are demonstrating. And very affordably. But NOT bespoke designs every time.

We can build on flood plains, but timber / gib on a 150mm conc slab may not be the best way to do it.

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