Reconstruction with resilience capacity : the historic city centre of Constitucion site of the 2010 earthquake and tsunami disaster

Abstract

Constitucion was one of the cities worst affected by the 2010 earthquake and tsunami. Some of the houses located in the historic quarter of this city were damaged and destroyed and its social cohesion was fractured after the relocation of victims, particularly those from the La Poza district. Four years after the disaster, change has been slow and reconstruction deadlines have been questioned. The rebuilding of the historic center has been possible thanks to individual private initiatives by residents, trade restructuration and —to a lesser extent— Governmental interventions through the improvement and repair of dwellings and the restoration of the coastal area. Most of the reconstruction process has focused on the construction of new housing units in the area outside the historic quarter. This paper discusses the scope of the process, the main changes in the urban structure and the value of property. The underlying hypothesis is that the presence of vacant plots destroyed and damaged dwellings and the forced relocation of the working classes provides the conditions for the emergence of a gentrification and expulsion process in which resilience is neither a resource nor a long-term and equitable territorial planning strategy.