Lessons Learned from Chile, Evaluating Strategic Reconstruction Master Plans in Post-Disaster Scenarios

Natural and manmade disasters have been increasing in the last decade all over the world affecting millions of people and generating high costs to recover from them. There is a need to implement policies that will foster mitigation and prevention measures and that will address recovery as a long-term process rather than short-term solutions. Chile has overcome several disasters in the last decade and has designed innovative tools to rebuild from the aftermath. The purpose of this research is to evaluate one of these tools, Strategic Reconstruction Master Plans, and what lessons have the different government periods have learned from past disasters in order to apply them for future ones. The research compares and contrasts two case studies in which master plans were the main tool implemented for recovery purposes, these are Pelluhue and Santa Olga, and both are located in the Maule region. The study evaluates the methodology that each project implemented to recover from the disaster period and what lessons are drawn from each case for future policy applications. The paper incorporates three main research methods. First, archival research on post-disaster efforts; second, technical documentation from each case study and local media from each period; and third, in depth interviews to experts and stakeholders involved in each process together with field observations.