Urban Planning and the Christchurch Recovery

“To hell with resilience, more action, please.”

These words of a disgruntled, uncited local have restrained me from writing an anticipated article on Christchurch’s ‘urban resilience’. While resilience might well be urbanism’s most prevalent buzzword since ‘sustainability’ itself, I feel I must honour the above-quoted, unnamed radio personality who rhetorically asked: “can we please stop patronising people by gushing about their resilience?”

Indeed Cantabrians, being those who hail from the Canterbury region in which Christchurch City is located, dealt and are dealing with the earthquakes of 2010 to present remarkably well. But people are resilient. It’s what we do. Notwithstanding how fantastically adaptable humans are, this article instead considers the positive urban planning outcomes which have come out of Christchurch’s preliminary recovery.

Is a natural disaster, a disaster? A planner’s perspective

The opportunity that’s in front of us as a city is absolutely enormous. To have the scale of the devastation, which has come at a great price to our people and our city, but as the basis of a chance to rebuild is something absolutely extraordinary’

- Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker on the earthquake of 2011

 

A natural disaster: one of man’s greatest threats, with the ability to wipe away urbanisation in any place, any time, in any form. Loss of life, livelihood and liveliness in the blink of an eye, it can have devastating effects leaving only desolation and destruction. As planners we are presented with the unique chance to recover, redevelop and recreate in a more resilient way better than ever before.  But exactly how has this opportunity come about? The answer: through ways in which planners have found the positive from a negative situation. New Orleans and Christchurch, both struck, both fell, but now both stronger due to strategic planning underpinned by community resilience, innovation and techniques of preparation in which a city can use to reduce the risk of a repeat.

Christchurch earthquake 2011