Engaging stakeholders in pre-event recovery planning: Using a recovery capitals framework

Abstract

In 2018–2019, the Wellington Region Emergency Management Office in New Zealand, in partnership with Te Hiranga Rū QuakeCoRE, ran a series of workshops on the five recovery environments (built, cultural, economic, natural and social) to develop the region’s recovery framework. To get balanced and diverse perspectives, workshop attendees included representatives from central and local governments, iwi1, community groups, businesses, not-for-profits and academia. This paper uses a case study to highlight the challenges and opportunities of a collective partnership approach to pre-event planning. The workshop outputs are used to develop a regional recovery framework and to improve emergency management engagement before and after an emergency event. This paper demonstrates and evaluates a novel approach for engaging stakeholders about pre-event recovery planning. This can guide similar efforts for Civil Defence and Emergency Management agencies in other locations in New Zealand as well as elsewhere.