Using land readjustment in rebuilding the earthquake-damaged city of Bhuj, India

Major earthquakes cause large scale devastation disrupting life, destroying homes, damaging properties and vital community infrastructure. Such events also offer opportunities for reorganizing neighborhoods and rebuilding... [ view full abstract ]

Major earthquakes cause large scale devastation disrupting life, destroying homes, damaging properties and vital community infrastructure. Such events also offer opportunities for reorganizing neighborhoods and rebuilding disaster resilient communities. This article presents the case of reconstruction of Bhuj City in India following its devastation in the 2001 Gujarat earthquake, and showcases how  consultative and planned intervention can rebuild better cities after a natural disaster. The land readjustment (LR) process was applied in reconstruction of a densely built, historically significant inner city area of Bhuj to transform it into a safer community resilient to disaster. LR, a micro-area planning technique, is characterized as a strategy to carve out private lot sizes to create adequate public land for widening and straightening of streets, accommodating parks and amenities, and planning land lots and urban blocks with access to public infrastructure. Bhuj is one of the rare cities outside of Japan where the land readjustment technique was successfully implemented for post-earthquake  planning. This article provides insights on the challenges and opportunities that land readjustment implementation offers for post-disaster reconstruction.

This paper is of value for planners and policy makers who are interested in disaster planning and building back better. It is also of interest for land use planners interested in understanding the application of land readjustment as a versatile tool for planning and land reconstitution, infrastructure provision, and building community resiliency. This paper is has been published in the Journal of Urban Planning and Development in July 2016, and may be cited as follows:

Byahut, S. and J. Mittal. 2016. “Using land readjustment in rebuilding the earthquake-damaged city of Bhuj, India”. Journal of Urban Planning and Development, Vol. 143, No. 1.