Invisible recovery: physical reconstruction vs social reconstruction: The case of central Italy

This chapter presents the first results of a study on social reconstruction and changes in local communities' behaviour, which we call invisible recovery, in the context of the last three earthquakes in Central Italy: those of the Abruzzo Region in 2009, the Emilia Romagna Region in 2012 and the Abruzzo, Lazio, Umbria and Marche Regions in 2016-17. The methodology adopted is that of comparative analysis, through which the planning tools adopted in each case study were compared with the research from the scientific literature on the psychological and social effects of the above-mentioned earthquakes. The result is a strong disregard for social reconstruction in favour of physical reconstruction, and a lack of community recovery tools. The effects of the Sars-Cov2 pandemic on the community already affected by the earthquake, are also analysed showing that communities already affected by a disaster are better prepared to overcome the invisible emergency.