Reconstructing Livelihoods, Not Just Houses: The Dynamic Physical and Livelihood Interplay in Wenchuan Earthquake PDRR

Abstract: Catastrophic disasters devastate both physical infrastructure and the livelihood foundations of communities, yet post-disaster recovery and reconstruction (PDRR) research and practice often focus on the physical and socio-economic dimensions in parallel tracks, overlooking the critical interplay between physical space and livelihood. This study advances an integrative framework to explanation how physical and livelihood dimensions interact and co-evolve within the complex process of PDRR. Focusing on the post-Wenchuan earthquake context and employing a mixed-methods approach, this study reveals that, despite unprecedented speed and scale in infrastructure and housing rebuilding, livelihood recovery was markedly uneven. This divergence is explained by four core mechanisms that dynamically interacted and evolved across recovery stages: (1) the tensions in planning transmission between top-down standardization and local adaptation; (2) the complex capital conversion, where investments in physical assets often constrained financial, natural, and human capital; (3) the delayed feedback regulation between lived experience and policy adjustment; and (4) the conditioning role of contextual factors that mediated outcomes. This study concludes that transcending this paradox requires a shift from infrastructure-centric delivery to adaptive socio-spatial governance—one that institutionalizes community feedback, manages cross-capital trade-offs, and enables context-sensitive implementation to align physical restoration with long-term livelihood resilience and sustainable regional development.

Keywords: post-disaster recovery and reconstruction; physical space; livelihood space; synergistic mechanisms; Wenchuan earthquake