Urban Reconstruction and House-rebuilding after the Great East Japan Earthquake in Rikuzentakata City, Iwate Prefecture

DOI IR IR (HANDLE) Web Site 1 Citations Open Access

Bibliographic Information

Other Title
  • 岩手県陸前高田市における東日本大震災後の都市復興と住宅再建
  • イワテケン リクゼンタカタシ ニ オケル ヒガシニホン ダイシンサイ ゴ ノ トシ フッコウ ト ジュウタク サイケン

Search this article

Description

The tsunami caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011, devastated the Sanriku’s coastal areas of northeastern Japan. Since then, local governments and residents have engaged in reconstruction. In order to prevent and reduce possible future tsunami damage, it is important to raise the ground in the once area damaged by tsunami and to relocate to higher ground. This study attempts to analyze the changes occurring in affected urban spaces during the process of reconstruction. Taking up the example of Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, the characteristics of location tendency of the housing reconstruction urban spaces are analyzed in the pre-earthquake period, the reconstruction period immediately after the earthquake, and the post-reconstruction period. In the pre-earthquake period, Central Business District (CBD) was located in the coastal lowland, which was protected by the black-pine forest on the coast and the tide embankment that was constructed after the Chilean Tsunami of 1960. In the reconstruction period, the city offices, public facilities, and stores were all temporarily relocated to hastily-constructed buildings located on higher ground that was unaffected by the tsunami disaster. The residents who lost houses chose to settle in temporary shelters or to rebuild their houses independently on high ground. Consequently, new urban areas became dispersed outside the area damaged by tsunami in contrast to the compact urban area developed in the coastal lowland prior to the great earthquake. The official reconstruction plan of Rikuzentakata aims to recreate a compact city by rebuilding CBD on the raised ground once flooded by the tsunami. On the other hand, independendently-reconstructed houses, public housing to be built by the city and prefecture governments, as well as collective, high-ground relocation projects are all scattered in the municipal area. It is predicted that the future urban space of Rikuzentakata will be constituted by dispersed housing.

Journal

  • Geographical Space

    Geographical Space 7 (2), 221-232, 2014

    Japan Association on Geographical Space

Citations (1)*help

See more

Keywords

Details 詳細情報について

Report a problem

Back to top