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National-scale project may be needed to rebuild economy
National-scale project may be needed to rebuild economy
25 Feb 2011
A
geographer and former urban planner who has written a book
about the aftermath of the devastating 1995 Kobe earthquake
in Japan, says New Zealand will likely need to respond with
a national-scale multi-faceted project to assist
Christchurch long-term, in the same way the Japanese
Government did to revive Kobe.
That could
involve the Government injecting money into business sector
ventures and efforts to resurrect tourism, as well as
subsidising the building of new housing and rebuilding
infrastructure.
The 6.8 magnitude Great Hanshin
earthquake devastated Kobe, a city of 1.5 million people on
January 17, 1995, leading to around 6,400 deaths and the
destruction of over 200,000 homes. It caused US$102 billion
in damage.
David W. Edgington is Associate
Professor, Department of Geography, University of British
Columbia and author of Reconstructing Kobe: The Geography of
Crisis and Opportunity. He said there were lessons from the
Kobe earthquake that can inform disaster recovery and
reconstruction efforts around the world, including in
Christchurch.
Dr Edgington is
Vancouver-based, but available for interviews today and over
the weekend. Please contact the SMC for further details.
View a recent video interview here.
On medium-term town
planning priorities:
"The puzzle with
reconstruction after such a terrible disaster, whether its
Kobe, Haiti or Queensland after the floods and cyclone, is
that decisions are squeezed into such a short period of
time. People want to know where they can build. With the
best will in the world, not all of the decisions made will
be palatable, but the planning should start immediately.
They have to inject certainty into the situation as soon as
possible.
"As the city council and the authorities get back to turning on the lifelines, electricity, water, gas and utilities, then they're having to send it teams of engineers and architects on a block by block, building by building basis. We can't have these buildings up for the next quake. Unfortunately in Christchurch lightning does strike twice.
"It's a case for all cities in earthquake zones including San Francisco and my own city Vancouver. We have a building stock very like Christchurch because we are an old colonial English city - brick and masonry buildings from around the turn of the century. They'll never make code no matter how you try to strengthen them.
"The effort in Vancouver is going into public buildings such as schools, hospitals, bridges across our waterways.
"Over the next year, the key thing will
be to check out the entire building stock and map it. The
public has to be involved. In a western society they expect
transparency, there should be debate."
"Town planners
need to be sensitive to different neighbourhoods that have
different needs. There are rich and poor, there are socially
disadvantaged people but they have to be carried along as
well."
On disruption to business:
"It really took Kobe ten years to recover and the
economy has never fully recovered.
"The level of the damage to the economy in Kobe was such that it became a national project. With Christchurch the second largest city in New Zealand it may have to be a national project to protect the future of that urban area.
"Kobe had the fourth biggest port in the world. Within two years, the shipping had gone elsewhere. The delay was inevitable in fixing the port, getting the gantries back together. Kobe's traditional industries, ship building and steel making were declining. They never really recovered after the earthquake. It was up to the national government to work with the local leaders to build up new industries and revive tourism for the region. They focused on biotechnology.
"The
government in Japan plays a big role in choosing new
industries. They thought Kobe might never recover without
some outside help so money was given to try and generate new
start-up biotech firms. There have been some successes, but
some failures It has been a mixed bag.
"There are a lot
of new, gleaming buildings in Kobe, but it has been a very
slow economy since 1995.
"There were subsidies paid to
build big, bright new condominium blocks. You have to look
at the economic figures. You don't see people on the street
unemployed. In Japan it's a bit hidden, but the economy took
a big hit."
Need for decisive
leadership:
"In Kobe, the Government at
the time didn't do a good job in the two weeks after the
earthquake. The equivalent of the Civil Defence in Japan is
the army. The Government had a problem sending the army into
a city, knowing Japan's history, without the city mayor and
the local governor of the Yogo prefecture around Kobe making
that request.
"There were too many delays. The troops weren't on the ground with their shovels and pickaxes until about 48 hours later."
"Faced with that criticism and it being election year in 1995, the Government just issued whatever financial bonds were necessary to get the infrastructure back in place. The Government had to save face, which is the Japanese style.
"The local city did all the heavy lifting but the financial aid came from the Government. Kobe assembled a shopping list. They asked for a new regional airport, the biotech cluster on reclaimed land, a new convention centre, an earthquake museum. The World Health Organisation put a large medical research centre there. There was an opportunity. The planners build on the crisis. They had a clean slate."
Importance of lifting public morale:
"Within the first year the leaders came up with
something to keep everyone's spirits up. The earthquake
happened in January, the coldest part of the year. People
were displaced, living in temporary housing and barracks.
They started a "light up the city" programme with these
astounding illuminations, a bit like Blackpool in England.
It brought in people outside who spent money. It was a
highlight for the locals in the second winter when things
still weren't really functioning a year after the big
event."
ENDS
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