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Building livelihood resilience to natural disasters holds the key to sustained income generation and economic development in disaster-affected areas. This paper identifies the critical factors driving livelihood resilience in post-disaster relocated communities. A questionnaire survey and interviews in five selected relocation sites in Banda Aceh and Aceh Besar, Indonesia, were undertaken following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. We found that early recovery income support, physical and mental health, ability to transfer to other jobs/skills, availability and timeliness of livelihood support, together with its cultural sensitivity and governance structure are among the most important factors. Given the nature of resettlement, access to infrastructure, location of relocated sites and safety of neighbourhoods also played an important role in establishing sustained employment for these relocated communities in Indonesia. Under the precarious conditions of displacement, the livelihood outcome of those relocated seemed to be more tied with how their resettlement can be supported than with their own efforts. The findings highlight the importance of a coordinated approach to providing livelihood support among different organisations based on regular needs assessment throughout the recovery course.

Storm-related disasters lead to massive destruction of housing structures all over the world. In 2016, Fiji was struck by Cyclone Winston, which rendered approximately 15% of the country's population homeless. In light of the severe devastation brought about by the cyclone, there is a need to better prepare for future hazards, particularly in the resilience of housing structures in developing countries. A research delegation traveled to Fiji and surveyed two villages in Ra province, which were among the most severely affected by the cyclone. The field study was supplemented with an archival review of post-disaster reports and other background information obtained from key government agencies and non-government organizations working on the recovery and rehabilitation of the affected areas. Structural failure modes and patterns on damaged and collapsed houses were observed and analyzed. Results reveal the vulnerabilities of Fijian housing structures to severe winds. Inadequacies are observed in both design and construction aspects, underpinned by people's awareness of and access to cyclone-proofing practices and technologies, availability of skilled labor, and the corresponding costs. These underpinning factors would have to be addressed in order to develop a storm-resilient housing stock in Fiji.

The world is changing and facing new challenges such as the effects of climate change, natural disasters, population growth, and urban densification. The rampant development means that urban areas as the most populated area are vulnerable to many challenges and losses. One way to address this is to reduce the effects of disasters by enhancing the performance of cities, in other words increasing their “resiliency” to make them withstand the impact of unpredictable stresses and shocks. The purpose of this paper is to present an innovative method to identify effective policies and plans, as well as to test alternatives to improve city resiliency. Causal Loop Diagram (CLD) approach in combination with a quantitative resilience measurement tool, developed by theUnited Nations Office of Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR Scorecard) was used for planning and prioritisation of resilience works. The Auckland region in New Zealand was chosen to demonstrate how the concepts and tools found within the study can be applied within the urban context. This study used quantitative data from applying the Scorecard. Then, through data analysis, the usage of system dynamic, causal loop diagram approach, was investigated and recommendation were then provided. The projections provided evidence that CLD offers insight and creates shared understanding about resilience system and how it works. It is through rational debate that a deeper understanding is developed, and resilience system is improved. The diagram provides a visual map of connection among resilience indicators that offer a clear mental model of the resilience system. In enabling a visual output, 'what if' scenarios could be projected to visualize how certain changes made in one indicator (for example, by imposing a policy or plan) can make changes (positive and negative) in other parts. The CLD revealed that all resilience indicators within cities are highly interconnected and that building resilience takes multi-organisational efforts. Therefore, improving resilience in a specific weak area can be achieved with indirect actions by targeting the roots (cross-sectoral). Such intervention then optimises the benefits of the response and spread to a broader area within a cost-effective manner. Nevertheless, it is also important to note that our knowledge in all science is limited and any modelling based on this has flaws and limitations that will need further investigation.

Societies always need access to safe water for their health and wellbeing. While reports show tremendous achievements, more people – globally – still lack even the basic service level especially in developing countries like Tanzania. The existing water supply systems (WSSs) are vulnerable to climate change impacts such as flooding, which are already affecting the livelihood and wellbeing of the people, prompting for more resilient societies. The current study assisted with a review of existing frameworks, proposes a social resilience measurement tool that was made relevant to Tanzania through pre-assessment, pre-testing, and a three-round Delphi process. The tool was further evaluated in Dar es salaam to show how it works. The final tool contains nine indicators organised in five mechanisms for measuring social resilience. The most significant indicators include community awareness, preventive health measures, mitigation plan, houses location, and community participation. The tool provides a basis for prioritising measures that are useful in planning and budgeting processes to improve the social resilience for the country's WSSs and in other developing countries.

Following the Christchurch earthquake sequence in 2010–2011, the New Zealand government formulated a blueprint plan constituting 17 flagship projects to lead the economic and social revival of the city. Taking Christchurch Bus Interchange as a large scale project, the researcher undertakes an ex-post impact assessment to understand the social impacts the project has had on the city of Christchurch. Seventeen face to face interviews with stakeholders of the project revealed that most of the negative impacts are related to the service offered by the interchange and its environment, not limited to the building itself. The identified high impact long-term factors are linked to significant operational costs, relatively novel design, ongoing inner-city construction work, and declining passenger numbers in Christchurch. To achieve the recovery goals set at the start, a project needs to consider fundamental relationships between built, social, economic, and natural environments, align its service with those objectives for the physical building and be public-led. The case study suggested that flagship projects require careful planning that may not be possible post-disaster due to time and resource constraints. The author recommends potential solutions to mitigate the negative impacts that Christchurch faces currently.

The increasing frequency of disaster events in recent times has led to a demand for improved post-disaster reconstruction and recovery efforts. An effective recovery plan with a holistic approach is crucial after an event. Having a recovery plan with Build Back Better (BBB) concepts can reduce vulnerability and increase the resilience of communities to future disasters. It considers disasters an opportunity to improve the physical, psycho-social and economic aspects of communities during reconstruction and recovery. The BBB Framework and the indicators developed by Mannakkara and Wilkinson provides a holistic approach and solutions to plan and implement postdisaster reconstruction and recovery based on international recovery best practices. They were used as a guide to evaluate the psycho-social and economic recovery aspects in Kaikoura, New Zealand following the 2016 earthquake. Semi-structured interviews, a BBB indicator rating tool, and document analysis were employed to collect data. The paper identifies how well Kaikoura's recovery aligned with BBB indicators and how relevant the indicators are for assessing and planning recovery in Kaikoura.

Building Back Better (BBB) is a prominent concept in post-disaster reconstruction and recovery aimed at creating safe and resilient communities following disaster events. The institutional mechanism adopted for reconstruction and recovery influences the ability to BBB. It was the objective of this paper to understand what can be considered a good institutional mechanism to assist BBB. A longitudinal case study of the 2009 Victorian bushfires was conducted to examine the institutional mechanism adopted for recovery and extract lessons. Data was collected from semi-structured open-ended interviews with key stakeholders over four years. The institutional mechanism adopted for bushfire recovery involved creating a separate recovery authority with a decentralized mandate to manage, coordinate and facilitate the recovery process. Faster decision-making and implementation, expedited legislative procedures and easier access to funding were experienced as a result. However partnership, transparency, and involvement at the grass-roots level needed further improvement. The lessons learnt from the Victorian bushfires case study are presented as recommendations to assist with the selection of an appropriate post-disaster institutional mechanism to assist future recovery efforts and Build Back Better.

The supply of water following disasters has always been of significant concern within communities. Although water systems encompass physical components, a variety of social, economic, and organizational factors can affect their resilience to disasters. This paper proposes an innovative indicator-based resilience quantification model and utilizes a novel framework to identify the social variables affecting water supply resilience to disasters. The CARE model is utilized in this study to understand the building blocks of water supply system resilience to disasters. The relevant factors, indicators, and sub-indicators were gathered through a comprehensive literature review, verified and ranked through a series of interviews with water supply and resilience specialists, and social scientists and economists. The study identified seven indicators for the social attributes of communities that affect water supply resilience. The indicators are the Giving Index, homicide rate, assault rate, inverse trust in army, inverse trust in police, mean years of school, and perception of crime. These indicators were tested in Chile and New Zealand, which experienced earthquakes in 2010 and 2011 respectively. The proposed indicators were found to well explain the difference in water supply resilience between the two countries.