People's Satisfaction with Reconstruction Management after Bam Earthquake (Case Study of Baravat City)

Iran is one of the countries with a relatively high vulnerability to earthquakes and experiences several seismic events every year. Since recorded history, earthquakes have frequently struck the Iran plateau, taking a heavy toll.
The city of Baravat, a small town near Bam city, is located in the southeast of Kerman province in Iran. The major economic drivers of Baravat are farming and gardening as the city has large orchards of palm groves. According to the Statistical Centre of Iran, Bam had a population of 70,000 in 1996 and its population in the rural and urban areas reached 142,376 in January 2003. In the very early hours of 26th December 2003, a devastating and strong earthquake with a magnitude of 6.5 struck Bam, one of the historical cities of Kerman province in the south of Iran. According to the official reports, more than 30,000 were killed and about 25,000 injured. More than 80% of the town’s buildings were also destroyed. The 2003 bam earthquake is important in terms of notable physical damage, financial losses, high death toll, the characteristic features of the earthquake, the extent of damaged area, unique features of the region, the process of providing temporary housing and its reconstruction process.
The post-disaster reconstruction managers faced fundamental questions and challenges, due to a high number of human losses and related social issues, extensive damage to the historical town, and also a lack of experience in urban reconstruction. In the absence of any post-disaster urban reconstruction experience in Iran, except post-war reconstruction experience in cities, there were many questions about reconstruction management process of the damaged area. The performance of reconstruction management in housing provision was considerably different from previous reconstruction projects in Iran, because of factors, such as the performance of the governmental and international agencies, adoption of new managerial approaches and the application of appropriate reconstruction methods. As a result, it is important to evaluate the reconstruction management of Bam and Baravat areas through analyzing people’s satisfaction and to learn their perceptions about the strengths and weaknesses of this program.
This study investigates factors influential in people’s satisfaction level about the performance of reconstruction managers in Baravat. The level and performance of managers according to people’s satisfaction level is analyzed and the weaknesses and strengths of reconstruction management are explained. Finally, regarding the weaknesses and strengths of reconstruction in this case study, the paper provides a number of strategies for improving the reconstruction management processes in future disasters.