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Social Science Human Geography

Reconstructing Kobe

The Geography of Crisis and Opportunity

by (author) David W. Edgington

Publisher
UBC Press
Initial publish date
Jan 2011
Category
Human Geography, Disasters & Disaster Relief, Urban & Land Use Planning
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780774817578
    Publish Date
    Jan 2011
    List Price
    $39.95
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780774817561
    Publish Date
    Mar 2010
    List Price
    $95.00
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780774817585
    Publish Date
    Jan 2011
    List Price
    $45.00

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Description

The Hanshin Earthquake was the largest disaster to affect postwar Japan and one of the most destructive postwar natural disasters to strike a developed country. Although the media focused on the disaster’s immediate effects, the long-term reconstruction efforts have gone largely unexplored. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, David Edgington records the first ten years of reconstruction and recovery and asks whether planners successfully exploited opportunities to make a more sustainable and disaster-proof city. This book is an intricate investigation of one of the largest redevelopment projects in recent memory.

About the author

David W. Edgington is a former director of the Centre for Japanese Research and a professor of geography at the University of British Columbia

David W. Edgington's profile page

Editorial Reviews

David Edgington’s fine analysis of the Kobe earthquake (officially known as the Hanshin Awaji Great Earthquake) places the event within a wider context of urban planning and disaster planning in Japan and examines the long-term impact of the earthquake. In so doing, it provides the reader with one of the most precise dissections of the Japanese planning system that has yet been written, as well as furnishing a profound insight into the various aspects of urban Japan.

Urban Studies, 49:1151-1153

Edgington presents a richly descriptive account, based on meticulous data collection, of the urban planning and urban management aspects of Kobe’s long-term recovery from the Hanshin earthquake. The painstaking quality of the research is evident throughout the book, which imparts the key lessons of Kobe’s experience with disaster recovery.

Social Science Japan Journal, vol 14, no 2, Summer 2011