This note builds on the proactive measures taken by the Government of China as announced in: (i) the Decree of the state council of the people's Republic of China, issued on 9 June 2008, providing regulations on post-Wenchuan earthquake reconstruction
(ii) the Directive on Counterpart Assistance (Directive) of 11 June 2008
and (iii) the land policies to support the reconstruction of Wenchuan (land policies) of 11 June 2008 by the ministry of land and natural resources. This note cites selected international experience in reconstruction from recent earthquakes in Kobe, Japan
Gujarat, India
Bam, Iran
and Marmara, Turkey. The Wenchuan Earthquake affected a wide spectrum of rural and urban settlements in varying geographic contexts across a large area. The government quickly devised four categories of damage for the provinces of Gansu, Shaanxi, and Sichuan: (i) extremely affected, (ii) heavily affected, (iii) moderately affected, and (iv) affected areas. Analysis of the then-interim information on affected towns, townships, counties, and cities suggested that settlement planning efforts would need to respond to very different contexts.