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Recovery

The restoring or improving of livelihoods and health, as well as economic, physical, social, cultural and environmental assets, systems and activities, of a disaster-affected community or society, aligning with the principles of sustainable development and “build back better”, to avoid or reduce future disaster risk.

Latest Recovery additions in the Knowledge Base

Assessing disaster preparedness and recovery from tropical cyclones in Zimbabwe: Insights from Cyclone Ana in Nyanga thumbnail
Documents and publications

This study assesses preparedness, response and recovery following Cyclone Ana in Zimbabwe. It finds gaps in preparedness, warning communication and coordination, and calls for community-centred DRM, stronger capacity, financing and contingency planning.

International Journal of Disaster Risk Science
Volunteers work together to clean up debris after a disaster, showcasing community effort and teamwork.
Update

Along the Nepal-Tibet border, the long road to recovery has only just begun. Amidst profound grief and loss, local communities are already providing support to their most vulnerable. Governments and international organisations should follow their lead.

Conversation Media Group, the
The view of yurts nomad village in Tash-Rabat in Kyrgyzstan
Salavat Baktybek
Case study of 15 households affected by Kyrgyzstan’s 2024 mudflow reveals how poverty, low insurance coverage and infrastructure gaps prolonged recovery. Residents want stronger drainage, risk reduction investments and community participation.
Update

Major floods in Nepal and Sri Lanka show how disasters that strike before recovery is complete can deepen losses, weaken resilience and increase vulnerability. Experts argue that recovery progress should be measured alongside disaster risk.

Conversation Media Group, the
After a fire: Considerations for residential property soil testing and restoration thumbnail
Documents and publications

This report provides guidance for homeowners, regulators and recovery professionals on assessing soil contamination, testing requirements and safe restoration after fires.

Purdue University
Community-led co-design in disaster recovery: Enabling conditions for practice thumbnail
Documents and publications

Using a case study involving residents, First Nations communities and local organisations, this paper explores how community-led co-design was enacted in local recovery across four wildfire-affected regions in Australia.

International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction (Elsevier)
Residents’ perceptions of disaster heritage in post-disaster communities: Implications for utilization policy and the risk of community burden thumbnail
Documents and publications

This study examines how residents’ perceptions of disaster heritage influence attitudes toward its preservation.

International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction (Elsevier)
Drone captures dramatic scene of firefighters battling a blaze in Minnesota.
Julie Flore
When aerial observation is connected to field verification, engineering judgement and a clear recovery decision, it can save time, reduce avoidable exposure and make infrastructure recovery more accountable.
Update

While there are many safety concerns after a wildfire, three deserve particular attention: chemicals in surviving buildings, the safety of drinking water and whether burned lots are ready for rebuilding.

Conversation Media Group, the
Update

Latest findings from the Maui Wildfire Exposure Study found that recovery from the August 2023 blaze “is underway, but it remains uneven,” as adults and children who survived the fire show signs of the physical and mental health toll.

Maui Now
Rubble to Resource Cover
Documents and publications

This guidance presents people-centred circular approaches to rubble management and reconstruction after disasters and conflicts. It outlines practical measures to reuse and recycle rubble while supporting recovery, livelihoods and sustainable rebuilding.

United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS)
The perils of risk communication in a context of uncertainty: The  long dispute over contamination after the Grenfell Tower fire thumbnail
Documents and publications

This study examines post-disaster risk communication after the Grenfell Tower fire, arguing that acknowledging uncertainty, enabling inclusive risk assessment and applying precaution can help rebuild trust between authorities and affected communities.

International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction (Elsevier)
Research briefs

This study examined recovery needs and actions after Hurricanes Irma and Maria in Sint Maarten (2017), using a SIDS recovery framework to assess whether key sectors and recovery priorities were adequately addressed.

Deltares
Aerial picture of a flooded Texan residential area
Statements and messages

Many in Sandy Creek remain stuck in a recovery system that wasn’t designed for them.

Grist Magazine
Training event
In person
AIDR is offering this workshop for delegates seeking a deeper exploration of disaster recovery. We welcome all interested delegates, with anticipated interest from all levels of government, community organisations, agencies and researchers.
Clearing of rubble in Syria through a donor funded project.
Feature

Syria became one of the earliest countries to implement UNDRR's DELTA Resilience system, which will help it better understand and reduce the disaster risks it faces as it recovers from years of war.

United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR)
Rethinking architectural education post-disaster: an analytical framework for curricular transformation after the 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquakes thumbnail
Documents and publications

This study conducts a comparative analysis of the presence and evolution of disaster and earthquake-focused courses in Turkish public and foundation universities between 2022 and 2025.

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (Nature)
Evolution of earthquake crisis management and recovery in Italy after 2009: An expert commentary thumbnail
Documents and publications

This paper presents an expert commentary on lessons learned across five dimensions: governance, community engagement, technical assessment tools, professional mobilization, and urban reconstruction.

International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction (Elsevier)
Last updated 11 Jun 2026
On 19 September, a powerful earthquake struck Puebla, Morelos and the Greater Mexico City area. The event happened only hours after a disaster drill in commemoration of an earthquake that rocked Mexico City exactly 32 years before.
Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) Report: Cyclone Ditwah, Sri Lanka 2025 thumbnail
Documents and publications

This is a comprehensive assessment that will guide Sri Lanka's recovery and reconstruction efforts following one of the most devastating disasters in its recent history.

Asian Development Bank (ADB)
Asian Disaster Preparedness Center
World Bank, the
Man in an informal settlement in Ethiopia
Research briefs

Nearly a quarter of the land in Ethiopia is degraded. It has lost its quality and can no longer grow crops, support plant life, or hold water as it used to.

Conversation Media Group, the
Characterizing changes in postfire debris-flow hazard as burned areas recover thumbnail
Documents and publications

Updating post-fire debris-flow hazard thresholds with satellite-tracked vegetation recovery reduces false alarms and improves predictions for years 2 and 3 after a wildfire.

Geological Society of America, the
Towards anticipatory disaster risk financing and index insurance mechanisms for resilience building in Eastern Africa thumbnail
Documents and publications

As climate shocks escalate in frequency and severity across Eastern Africa, the chronic reliance on post-disaster emergency aid is proving too slow, too costly, and too inadequate to protect the region's most vulnerable communities.

IGAD Climate Prediction and Application Centre
Meetings and conferences
Brisbane
-
In person
The 2026 Lessons Management Forum will be a hybrid event held at Brisbane Marriott Hotel, Queensland and online.
After disasters: stories from Talisay thumbnail
Educational materials

Filipinos’ ideas about how to improve disaster response and recovery. Distributed to local communities, local government partners and high schools to support teaching on DRR.

Monash University
Reformative recovery for resilience in disaster risk management: A scoping review and analytical framework thumbnail
Documents and publications

This paper advances the concept of ‘Reformative Recovery’ and proposes an analytical framework as a sense-making tool to guide interpretation of recovery dynamics by foregrounding the conditions that foster vulnerability and impede long-term resilience

International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction (Elsevier)
Two women sitting in a building being reconstructed after the Myanmar earthquake in 2025.
Mai Mya Mya Win
Financial inclusion is not only a pathway out of poverty, but also a critical tool for disaster risk reduction, as shown by a project of financial resilience for women in Myanmar.
A cameraman films some of the destruction caused by the tsunami of 26 December 2004 in Mullaitivu, a town in northeastern Sri Lanka. The tsunami claimed the lives of thousands of members of this community (UN Photo/Evan Schneider)
Update

When disasters strike, they do more than damage homes and infrastructure—they test how quickly countries can mobilize finance, coordinate institutions, and turn “build back better” from aspiration into action.

Development Asia
Social infrastructure and centralisation in community response and recovery from disasters thumbnail
Documents and publications

Disaster response and recovery are most effective when community-led networks combine central coordination with reciprocal collaboration, highlighting the critical role of local social infrastructure in resilience.

Natural Hazards (Springer)
Shaken, but not deterred: Acute stressors and the formation of hope and aspirations among tertiary-educated youth in Myanmar in the aftermath of the 2025 earthquake thumbnail
Documents and publications

Using data from a sample of educated youth in Myanmar, this paper documents the relationship between various sources of chronic (ongoing and long-term) and acute (brief and intense) stressors with measures of hope and aspirations.

World Bank, the
Update

Flooding caused by extreme and prolonged rainfall is occurring more frequently across Europe. The way countries recover afterwards varies widely. These differences offer valuable lessons.

Deltares
Research briefs

Study covering five major economies finds smaller communities face the longest economic recoveries, with damage persisting for up to four months.

The Society for Risk Analysis (SRA)
Update

Because Fukushima is considered a national responsibility, it is legally stipulated that all contaminated soil must be removed from the prefecture by 2045.

Japan Times Ltd., the
Update

TC Alfred was the first tropical cyclone to impact the Brisbane region in more than 50 years. It made landfall as a category 1 but peaked as a category 4 off the coast and ranked among 2025’s costliest global disasters.

National Emergency Management Agency (Australia)
Research briefs

A review published in Civil Engineering Sciences examines how machine learning (ML) methods are being applied to support infrastructure recovery following natural hazards.

Civil Engineering Sciences (AAAS)
Update

In Japan, it is not uncommon to see community disaster manuals stating, "Women are responsible for cooking" in times of such emergencies.

Mainichi Newspapers Co., Ltd., the - Mainichi Daily news, the
Summer scenery of Bulyeongsa Temple in Uljin-gun, Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea.
Update

Achieving social and environmental goals simultaneously is at the heart of the ambitious effort underway to restore the forests of Uljin, which in 2022 suffered the country’s second-worst wildfire on record.

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Tourists traverse the side of a road eroded by floods in Doubtful Sound, New Zealand
Update

Our analysis of New Zealand’s post-disaster reviews over the past decade shows the same problems – some dating back to 1986 – have been repeatedly identified but rarely translated into meaningful policy reform.

Conversation Media Group, the
Kingston, Jamaica - October 30, 2025: Aftermath of Hurricane Melissa in the Heart of Kingston
Adriana Navarro-Sertich
If we make destroyed homes the global measure of disaster impact, we risk channelling resources toward the most visible part of recovery while neglecting the systems that make four walls and a roof actually livable.
Update

Fifteen years after 3/11, the anniversary offers an opportunity to reassess the importance of sustained engagement in disaster recovery and what can still be learned from it.

Japan Times Ltd., the
Training course
Online
Develop comprehensive Business Continuity Plans tailored to organizational needs.
  • Coursera
Case study
Location: United States of America
When severe weather swept across southern Somerset County on May 13, 2025, the County’s response became a case study in how local leadership, disciplined documentation, and persistence can influence statewide policy.
  • Domestic Preparedness
PDNA Guidelines Road Sector in Cambodia
Documents and publications

This paper aims to develop Cambodia’s context specific road sector guidelines for Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA).

Cambodia - government
Asian Development Bank (ADB)
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Meetings and conferences
Online
This online session will explore how technical support staff deployed for disaster response can enhance immediate relief efforts and long-term recovery outcomes by effectively linking with national/local systems.
Meetings and conferences
Online
The Christchurch Earthquake was a turning point disaster in New Zealand’s history. This webinar will bring together disaster and resilience experts from across New Zealand to mark the 15th anniversary of this deadly catastrophe.
River bed and destroyed village after the July 2021 floods in Germany
Last updated 9 Feb 2026
In July 2021, weather system ‘Bernd’ caused catastrophic damage and inconceivable human suffering in several European countries. Severe flooding, particularly in Germany, claimed more than 230 lives and left many communities in ruins.
Lismore on a map of Australia's East coast.
Update

Lismore businesses hit by the 2022 floods are rebuilding with practical resilience measures, from flood‑ready materials to improved evacuation plans, while urging government support for stronger infrastructure, especially reliable power.

Conversation Media Group, the
View of Barrouallie with sea and palm trees in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Update

Saint Vincent’s recovery has impacted several critical areas, including support for household incomes and employment, restoration of essential services, and strengthened emergency preparedness.

World Bank, the
Meetings and conferences
Online
This event will bring together policymakers, technical agencies, regional bodies, civil society, private-sector partners, and development institutions to reflect on lessons learned and shape the next phase of resilience.
Meetings and conferences
-
Online
Researchers from the University of California and other institutions will share the latest research related to water resource contamination, soil contamination and remediation, backyard chicken and livestock safety, and rebuilding and structure loss.