Distributed Location of Temporary Housing Sites in the Existing Community: A Case from the Kumamoto Earthquake

Akihiko Iwasa (Hosei University)
Ryosuke Tomiyasu (Faculty of Science and Engineering, Toyo University)

Post-disaster temporary housings in Japan are generally built as collectively as possible in order to maintain the community within the temporary housing (TH) site. However, a unique policy was taken in Kashima-machi damaged by the Kumamoto earthquake in 2016, distributing a total of 200 TH units to 11 small sites in existing settlements managed by residents’ associations. TH sites were built on athletic parks provided for each settlement not far from central facilities of the area such as community center, firefighting team's filling station, temple and shrine etc. except for in one case. This study, consisting of site observations and interviews of residents and supporting staff, is a preliminary exploration to clarify advantages of embedding TH sites in the existing community.

Results suggest that convenience of living in TH in the vicinity of their houses helped disaster victims to maintain social connections and recover in the following aspects.

• Victims’ area of daily life and social relationships are sustained.
• Some families use both TH and their damaged house complementarily.
• Victims on site can directly gain useful information about reconstruction.
• Victims can participate in the recovering process of the settlement in parallel with reconstruction of their own house.
• Victims can keep their motivations for reconstruction through daily communication with neighbors.
  

Distributed TH sites embedded in settlements function within the geographical and social context from before the disaster. This becomes possible when the following conditions are satisfied. (1)Space that can be converted to a TH site is secured in the settlement. Parks were capable of constructing 10% of the number of houses in the settlement in this case, and the fact that damages of the earthquake required equal or less numbers of units helped. (2)Community in the settlement is tight-knit from before the disaster.