Post-Disaster Reconstruction Planning and Urban Resilience: Focus on two Catastrophic Cases from Japan and Italy

In distinction from other developed countries, Japan and Italy have had much experience in preliminary risk reduction and urban rehabilitation planning for disaster-affected built-up areas, working in accordance with socio-cultural characteristics, as both nations tend to have more natural disasters than the average. Due to this feature, the long-term scattering evacuation caused by catastrophic disasters brings multiple problematic circumstances to administrative centres and their surrounding small cities. These include the fragmentation of local communities and the development of tentative living environments. In response to these difficult states, central governments tend to adopt shortterm emergency response through their top-down systems. At the same time, it is necessary to share with diverse actors a vision for long-term rehabilitation and appropriate planning and to enhance the cooperation of citizens through their resilience. This paper focuses on two cases of catastrophic reconstruction following scattering evacuation on different scales. One is the case of the city of L’Aquila in Italy, affected by Abruzzo Earthquake in 2009, and the other is the town of Namie in Japan, which suffered in the First Fukushima Nuclear Plant Disaster in 2011. This study obtains suggestions for post-disaster planning from the different approaches of the two countries examining and comparing responses on the following two points: 1) development of a temporary living environment by a government system during scattering evacuation period and 2) programs and achievements of participatory activities for citizens, implemented by institutions, associations and universities.