ABSTRACT

The previous chapters in this book amply show that post-disaster reconstruction has many levels of complexity – politico-social complexity, economic complexity, technical complexity, organizational complexity and functional complexity:

• politico-social complexity – because of the large numbers of stakeholders, their different origins and cultures and their not-so-converging priorities (without mentioning their often-hidden agendas);

• economic complexity – because of the structures of financing through international and national public entities and the demands of private-sector fund-raising, added to the complexity of deciding how much to invest in immediate relief or in sustainable development;

• technical complexity – because of the need to choose between imported and local building methods, within several timescales and within the contexts of available skills and technologies, and within the constraints of climate and logistics;

• organizational complexity – because decisions have to be taken and activities initiated rapidly and coherently, in the best interests of the affected communities; various actors with different organizational cultures, and sometimes limited experience, have to work together, often without a clear project leader;

• functional complexity – because housing requires much more than the creation of houses; successful human habitats require multiple services

and public and private spaces of different natures and different uses.