An Overview of Holistic Recovery
How can a community take advantage of the opportunity that disaster recovery brings? As a foundation for this effort, a framework for sustainable—or “holistic”—recovery from disaster has been developed within which the principles of sustainability become decisionmaking criteria to be applied to each and every recovery decision—not just those that involve mitigation. On the next page is a sample matrix that can be a guide to decisionmaking for holistic recovery. The sustainability principles (and some ways of implementing them) are shown on the vertical axis. Across the top of the matrix are listed some of the problem situations that could confront a community in the aftermath of a disaster: utilities must be restored, infrastructure re-established, housing repaired, social services reinstituted, and commercial sectors rehabilitated. At the intersection of the problem and the principle there are opportunities for a recovery decision and action that would be more sustainable than a return to the status quo (marked with an X on the matrix). It should be noted that this matrix is just a sample of a hypothetical disaster in a hypothetical community. A similar matrix developed by a real community to help it in recovery would have a different list of disaster situations across the top, and a different set of boxes marked with X. The principles would be the same as in this sample, as would many of the options for applying them.
This holistic recovery framework can be used either in pre-disaster planning for recovery or during the recovery period itself to ensure that people consider viable, sustainable options as decisions are made. The range of possibilities, alternatives (including returning to the status quo), and impacts of the proposed recovery actions are considered in light of the sustainability principles as decisions are made about recovery, so that sustainable options are considered in each and every disaster recovery opportunity. During this process, a community can tailor a unique set of sustainable activities for its recovery that satisfies its own particular concerns, takes advantage of its strengths, and uses the tools and techniques that are most appropriate to its situation.
This process can result in some unusual combinations of problems and solutions. For example, a stricken community with a damaged freeway overpass might well decide to incorporate seismic-resistant features into the repaired structure. However, a community striving for holistic recovery would also consider demolishing or relocating the overpass to enhance livability in the surrounding neighborhood (principle number 5), or rebuilding it to improve access to, and thus economic vitality for, a nearby commercial area that was previously difficult to reach from the highway (principle number 2). This is just one of many possible outcomes of a systematic process of analyzing recovery in light of the six sustainability principles. The possibilities are endless, because each community has unique attributes, needs, and concerns, and each disaster superimposes a distinct set of impacts.
What is Holistic Recovery? Definition: A holistic recovery from a disaster is one in which the stricken locality systematically considers each of the principles of sustainability in every decision it makes about reconstruction and redevelopment. This can be more appealing to a community than simply trying to impose mitigation measures, even with financial and other incentives, because it gives the members of a community a way to examine their other day-to-day goals within a broader context. Mitigation doesn’t drive the process—community goals, buttressed by sustainability ideals, do. But mitigation gets considered in every decision about economic development, infrastructure repair, housing needs, and environmental protection. By the same process, concerns about economic development, local environmental quality, social equity, future generations, and other aspects of a healthy community are considered in every decision about mitigation.