Integrating Green Solutions into Post-earthquake Recovery of Bam, Iran

Abstract

The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami drew attention to the need to incorporate environmental and ecosystem safeguards in disaster risk reduction strategies. Shortly after the disaster, several green approaches emerged within post-disaster reconstruction policies. These strategies were taken into account one year earlier in Bam as a response to the 2003 earthquake. Conservation of environment and cultural landscapes was acknowledged as one of the top priorities due to the exceptional urban fabric of the city. In practice, however, it seems that integrating too many complex principles into this multidimensional reconstruction caused a setback in achieving initial prospects such as safeguarding the unique characteristics of the city. This chapter presents the experiences and the adoption of green solutions in the Bam post-disaster reconstruction with a special focus on the revitalisation of gardens and qanats (the traditional water system), wastewater treatment and reuse of solid waste in the geographical scope of garden-houses. This chapter shows that in the newly built houses in Bam both green solutions and sustainable traditional techniques were overlooked, and only structural measures were adopted, whereas in the vernacular houses of the region, environmental practices can be traced, and it seems that there is an opportunity to integrate further green measures into already existing ecological approaches. This will lead to more resilience and sustainable housing and concurrently ensure the safeguarding of the traditional garden-houses. There are potentials to combine environmentally responsible practices with the principles of vernacular architecture to significantly improve the results in post-disaster housing reconstruction. Accordingly, some strategies for green reconstruction of garden-houses are proposed and elaborated within the chapter.