Introduction

Worldwide, the urban development and disaster management arena finds itself at a critical crossroads. This is driven by rapid urbanisation (and de-urbanisation), as well as a growing volume of damage caused by natural (and unnatural) disasters, which are increasingly affecting urban and rural inhabitants. Bearing this in mind, experiences from disaster management and especially from disaster recovery have led to advances in the field and an increase in the importance of the role of spatial planning.

Priority 2 of the new Sendai framework for disaster risk reduction (UNISDR, 2015, p 17) points at ‘Strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk’ and states that ‘Clear vision, plans, competence, guidance and coordination within and across sectors as well as participation of relevant stakeholders are needed’. This enlightens the key role of spatial planning as a comprehensive, overarching sectoral actor. More explicitly, land-use planning is regarded as an important actor for Priority 4: ‘Enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response and to “Build Back Better” in recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction’ (UNISDR, 2015, p 21). While spatial planning is traditionally seen as a key actor for preventive measures (see, eg, Greiving et al, 2006), the Sendai framework underlines its importance for the recovery phase: ‘use opportunities during the recovery phase to develop capacities that reduce disaster risk in the short, medium and long term, including through the development of measures such as land-use planning’ (UNISDR, 2015, p 21f ).

That is why this book brings together the experiences and knowledge of spatial planning after significant disasters and highlights ongoing efforts to improve spatial resilience across the globe. One of the main goals is to understand the influence of significant disasters on spatial planning and spatial resilience under different legal-administrative and cultural framework conditions. That is why selected contributions from different continents (Europe, Asia and Northern America) were chosen. The other continents (Africa, Australia and Southern America) are not presented by country reports, but considered in Part B of this book.

The further chapters in Part A present different prominent authors highlighting the specific relationship in various countries: authors from Japan, Indonesia, the US, Slovakia and Germany write about their experiences and efforts to rebuild their communities in a more resilient manner after major disasters and thus give an overview of the state of the art.