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Mitigating the impacts of disasters293Box 12.13 Integrated Urban Emergency Response Centre, Nanning, ChinaNanning City is located in southwest China, with apopulation of 1.7 million and a built area of 170square kilometres. The city has experienced rapidurbanization over the last decade, with its populationgrowing by 172 per cent. This has been accompaniedby increased threats to safety and security, includingnatural and human-made disasters. The oldemergency response system, characterized byfragmented agencies, was poorly adapted to thechanging environment of the city. Thus, the cityestablished an Emergency Response Center, asuccessful example of an integrated emergencyresponse system.The Center, the first of its kind in China,started to provide emergency services in November2001 by integrating telephone calls for the PoliceService (110), Fire Service (119), Ambulance Service(120), Traffic Accident (122), Mayor’s Hot Line(12345), and other emergency response systems forSource: Nanning Municipal Government, 2007flood, earthquake, water, electricity and gas supplies.To prevent emergencies and disasters, and tominimize their impact, the Center has preparednumerous prevention and emergency responseprogrammes for natural disasters, public health,management of dangerous chemicals, housing safety,school safety and public space safety. This Center,consisting of 15 sub-units, has the following technicalcapabilities:• to identify immediately, with the support of GISand GPS systems, the location of incoming callsfrom among nearly 1 million landlinetelephones, and display the distribution of allpolice units;• to identify the location of available rescueresources and make the best choice ofresponse;• to transmit voice, image and document informationbetween the Center and the site of theemergency;• to monitor, record and intervene trafficconditions;• to set up temporary command stations atemergency sites and provide commanding andcommunication serves by deploying emergencymobile communication vehicles; and• to record all relevant voice and digital informationfor each case for further search.The Center has improved the overall efficiency andcoverage of emergency responses in the city, particularlyrescue services. The experience of the Centershows that a municipal government can successfullymobilize stakeholders and use modern technologiesto create a safer living environment for its residents.ties, and which experiment with more decentralized planningand programming that builds on pre-disaster risk reduction.Speed and sustainability in shelter provisionA longstanding tension in reconstruction is between thedemands of delivering basic needs, including shelter, quickly,and the desire for sustainability, which requires greaterparticipation and a longer time commitment. Fair andefficient distribution of housing that provides a basis foreconomic development and resilience building is repeatedlyundermined by a rapid and fragmented approach to shelterreconstruction, which does not consider the economic,social and environmental consequences of reconstructiondecisions.Part of this challenge is conceptual and lies in thevery nature of housing, which, unlike other relief itemssuch as food aid or medicine, is a significant, long-term andnon-consumable asset. While the logic for humanitarianactors to lead in the post-disaster provision of life-savingmedical care is clear, this is less so for settlement reconstruction,which is, at heart, a developmental activityrequiring the skills and knowledge of housing and urbandevelopment specialists. Reconstruction in Bam during2003 – one of the first times that UN-Habitat had beenformally consulted on post-natural disaster reconstructionplanning – shows that the integration of developmentwithin shelter reconstruction is rare. 52The disconnection between shelter reconstructionand development is perhaps also partly a reason for the manyinstances where temporary shelter is not replaced andbecomes, de facto, permanent. In Santo Domingo (theDominican Republic), public confidence in the ability of thestate to adequately deliver reconstruction followingHurricane Georges in 1998 was severely undermined by theknowledge that many still remained in ‘temporary’ housingbuilt after Hurricane David struck in 1979. In extensivedisasters, a scarcity of large construction firms can lead tothe creation of virtual monopolies, forcing up prices toexorbitant levels and creating a long waiting time for completion.The long waiting period for temporary housingfollowing Hurricane Katrina has contributed to anxiety andfinancial hardship among those affected.An awareness of the opportunity for shelter provisionto contribute to longer-term development has stimulatedsome reappraisal by humanitarian and development agenciesof the processes through which shelter is provided. It isimportant that, as far as possible, those people whose homeshave been lost or damaged in disaster are involved in repairand reconstruction. This saves costs, provides a mechanismfor transferring new or improved construction skills and canbolster the local economy. Time and again, survivors of disasterexpress a preference for working on reconstruction,rather than being made to receive aid in temporary camps.Where possible, survivors should be allowed to return to thesites of their former occupation and begin reconstruction assoon as possible. Where the costs of reconstruction areaffordable, this can further enable survivors to take over theprocess of providing their own shelter.Where settlements have suffered great damage orbeen shown, through disaster, to be at unacceptable levels ofhazard exposure, settlement planning and, in extreme cases,relocation will still be required. This opens a rare opportunityfor progressive land-use and ownership planning,including the extension of basic services for those peoplewho may previously have lived on the margins of urban life.It is commonplace for landownership to be disputed in theaftermath of a disaster, which is made worse by a lack ofdocumentation or the destruction of local public offices thatheld records. Networked electronic databases of citizenA longstandingtension inreconstruction isbetween thedemands of deliveringbasic needs…and the desire forsustainability…