Recovery means the coordinated efforts and processes to bring about the immediate, medium and long-term holistic regeneration and enhancement of a community following an impacting emergency event.

Recovery should:

• Support cultural and physical wellbeing of individuals and communities
• Minimise the escalation of the consequences of the disaster
• Reduce future exposure to hazards and their associate risks – i.e. build resilience
• Take opportunities to regenerate and enhance communities in ways that will meet future needs.

The impact of a natural or man-made emergency event always leaves something to be fixed.  How well we recover from an event will mostly depend on how well we have prepared ourselves.

The recovery process after an event is about supporting people to rebuild their lives and restore their emotional, social, economic and physical wellbeing. It is more than rebuilding infrastructure.

Effective recovery requires preparation

To help you understand, prepare, respond to and RECOVER from any emergency there are some key points that need to be understood to help support your planning.

Visit the get ready website to learn more about planning for an emergency at home.

From an emergency management perspective, there are five environments that can impact us.

Social 

• Safety and wellbeing
• Health
• Welfare
• Education
• Community activities, networks and support
• Psychosocial

The social environment incorporates individuals, whānau and common interest groups, and the relationships, communication, and networks between them.

Examples of consequences on the social environment after an impacting emergency include:

• psychosocial trauma, grief and stress from bereavement, injury or direct threat to life, personal health and safety
• loss of things that individuals value · isolation or dislocation from home, school, family (including family separation) and support networks
• loss and separation of companion animals and livestock
• physical isolation from transport infrastructure damage and public transport closure
• financial hardship and inability to maintain income-generating activities
• escalation of pre-existing social issues such as poverty, homelessness, family violence, substance abuse and poor mental health
• loss or disruption of routines, relationships, social interactions, communication, and familiar patterns of daily life
• reduced quality, access and timelessness in providing education, health, childcare and government and non-government services
• changes in recreational activities including community activities such as through Rotary, Lions or parent groups · loss of future plans, hopes and aspirations, and
• loss, damage or threat to homes, property, assets, livestock, businesses, sources of income and social infrastructure including historical and spiritual places.

Ensuring the safety of people from the impact:

• keeping people out of unsafe areas and/or buildings
• implementing emergency movement control measures (i.e. roadblocks, checkpoints and cordons), and
• supporting people displaced by emergencies or sheltering in place. The security of people’s homes and assets also needs to be protected.

   Ensuring the safety and security of people remaining in the area may include:

• demolishing damaged buildings
• restricting access to damaged buildings
• repairing sanitation and hygiene facilities or providing temporary facilities to allow people to return home
• evacuating people from affected areas
• securing property, or
• increasing police presence to ward off criminal activity.

   Health consequences from an impacting emergency can include:

• individuals or groups being traumatised by their experiences.
• pre-existing health conditions are often exacerbated and can stretch the health system to support people.
• people being disconnected from their usual health care.
• providers, medication, and personal support systems due to being evacuated or isolated.
• damage or failure of medical infrastructure.
• inaccessible case notes, or
• lack of medical staff due to personal impacts
• exposure to diseases and environmental hazards

   Protecting people’s welfare during recovery includes:

• providing shelter and accommodation - Impacts on an individual’s shelter and accommodation can be short-term but may also last for many weeks, months, or years.
• financial assistance - Finance, insurance, rebuilding or relocating compound the complexity of impacts on people.
• psychosocial support - Psychosocial consequences Most people will experience some psychosocial reaction in an emergency, usually within a manageable range. A smaller number may exhibit more extreme reactions in the immediate-, medium-, or long-term and may require more in-depth support. Irrespective of the duration of the recovery, psychosocial support is about easing physical, psychological and social difficulties for individuals, families/whānau and communities, as well as enhancing wellbeing to support community recovery. With effective psychosocial support, other aspects of recovery will not further harm individuals or their communities
• addressing animal welfare needs and support people to look after their animals.

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Economic

• Individuals
• Businesses
• Funds Management
• Government: Liaison

The economic environment broadly includes the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services, and financial assets that have a direct role in supporting incomes and material living conditions. It incorporates individuals and households, businesses and enterprises of all sizes, infrastructure, and government. It also incorporates economic activity in the primary sector.

• Individuals and households 
• Business and enterprise
• Relief fund management
• Government - financial & economic activity

Impacts

Examples of the consequences on the Economic Environment after an impacting emergency includes:

• Tangible Impacts
• Tangible impacts are the loss of things that have a monetary or replacement value such as buildings or landfills

Intangible impacts

Intangible impacts are the loss of things that cannot be bought or sold but which still have an economic consequence. For example, ill-health caused by stress following an emergency is not something that can be bought or sold, but economic consequences of illhealth can include loss of income or medical costs for the government. For businesses, there may be a loss of confidence, affecting investment, or an inability to retain or attract experienced and skilled staff.

Direct economic impacts 

Direct economic impacts result from physical destruction or damage caused by the emergency itself. Direct economic impacts are often the easiest to plan for and identify after an emergency.

Indirect economic impacts

Indirect economic impacts are due to the consequences of the damage or destruction. During recovery, attention is often focused on the more visible, easily identified direct impacts of an emergency. However, this can lead to indirect economic impacts being overlooked. For example, transport disruption can lead to business closure due to a lack of trade, or the loss of childcare meaning employees are unable to go to work. Donated goods after an emergency can also cause indirect economic impacts on local businesses. For example, if a large amount of clothing is donated, business may be taken away from local clothing and second-hand businesses or there may be disposal costs.

Direct costs to individuals and households are through the loss or damage to property and assets, including:

• structures (roofs, walls, entire buildings)
• contents (furniture, floor coverings),
• external structures (access ways/driveways, retaining walls, swimming pools

Shocks and stressors, including emergencies, can have an effect on the presence or operation of industries or sectors in local communities and regions. Primary industries are particularly vulnerable to hazards such as high winds, flooding, wildfire, biosecurity incursions (including the need to de-stock), snow and drought. All industries and sectors rely on transport, power, water, communications networks and supply chains, which may be disrupted by emergencies. Businesses, particularly small businesses, can be vulnerable after an emergency. This can then affect the local, regional or national economy.

Businesses can suffer direct costs associated with:

• infrastructure loss or damage (e.g. structural damage to shops, factories, plant, sheds, warehouses, hotels),
• asset loss or damage (e.g. farm equipment, food, product stock, crops, pasture, livestock, forestry, motor vehicles, fences, fixtures and fittings, furniture, office equipment)

Indirect costs that can affect businesses include:

• costs associated with the loss of production in manufacturing, agriculture and service sectors
• impacts on income/trade/sales/value-add
• increased costs, e.g. freight and input costs
• loss or disruption of supply chain networks
• increased work/demand
• virtual business interruption
• associated costs of traffic delays and extra transport operating costs
• loss of computer-controlled systems and data,
• loss of lifeline utilities.

Businesses also play a key role in supporting recovery, as they are the vehicle of many recovery activities such as rebuilding. A vibrant economic environment is not just necessary for economic recovery but also for recovery in other environments. Recovery in the economic environment involves retaining, restoring and/or enhancing optimum trading conditions, and leveraging or building on local business capacity to renew and revitalise the local and regional economies.

This will mean:

• prioritising business interests across recovery activities
• prioritising the restoration of systems that support business operations (e.g. mobile networks, internet, roads) or finding alternative solutions     for businesses while outages persist
• involving local businesses in the delivery of welfare services to the community, such as providing accommodation and household goods and services,
• connecting businesses to expert and ongoing

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Built

• Residential housing
• Commercial structures
• Public amentities
• Roads
• Waste

The built environment refers to the physical setting for human activity, including buildings and their supporting infrastructure. It includes physical assets that have a direct role in supporting incomes and material living condition such as:

• Residential housing, including apartments
• Commercial and industrial properties
• Essential services infrastructure, health and community services, education, roading, waste
• Rural infrastructure
• Public buildings and assets
• Lifeline utilities

The built environment supports many services that communities rely on, and these are likely to be affected totally or in some way:

• water supply, wastewater removal, power, gas and communications
• food production and distribution systems
• supply chains which move goods around including food,
• construction material, fuel and fast-moving consumer goods
• public transport
• the building sector
• the health care sector
• education
• employment
• recreation
• tourism
• financial systems.

Disruption of built infrastructure and services inhibit recovery operations and the capacity of a community to recover.

Consequences of impacts on residential housing can be significant. For example, it can result in:

• individuals and whānau having to relocate, disrupting access to their usual employment, education services and support networks
• displaced and dispersed communities
• difficulties in coordinating recovery as displaced people may not be able to access community recovery services
• housing and rental market fluctuations due to decreased housing stock and increased housing demand,
• increase in premiums or a moratorium on insurance policies.

Emergencies can impact the ability of businesses to operate from their premises; for example, due to destruction or damage to the property itself, contaminated debris (e.g., asbestos), health hazards (e.g. biochemical contamination) or loss of access or essential services. Or, if they are a large employer in the area, reduced operations or closure will have consequences for individuals and families that are reliant on regular income. This not only has consequences for the affected businesses, but also for the communities that are reliant on them.

Areas that are likely to be impacted are:

• employment
• banking and finance
• supply chains such as food and fuel
• waste management
• tourism or passing trade
• the service sector, e.g., cafes, supermarkets, restaurants.

Essential Services Infrastructure

Supports health and community services and education. It includes infrastructure and property of hospitals, health care facilities, childcare, schools, polytechnics, and universities. Infrastructure and property could be impacted through loss of buildings or access, or damage to supporting infrastructure (e.g., infrastructure that delivers lifeline utilities into the building), meaning the services that are provided from them can no longer operate.

Consequences of these impacts can include:

• the need to relocate people residing in facilities, some of which may  have special or complex needs (e.g., hospital patients or aged persons)
• severely restricted services (e.g., urgent hospital care only),
• disruption of education with the potential cascading consequence of caregivers not being able to work due to children being out of school or needing to travel greater distances to education facilities.

Heritage buildings and structures

With a legacy of historic significance, heritage buildings and structures provide the link with the past and are likely to hold special meaning to the community. They are considered a high priority in recovery. During response or early stages of recovery there may be a need or desire to demolish these buildings as they may present a life-safety risk. However, the social value the community places on these sites means it may be more appropriate to isolate the sites, protecting the public while addressing the damage to the buildings or structures and how best this is best resolved.

Consequences of impacts to these facilities can include:

• loss of social and community group gathering places (e.g., community groups that used a hall are no longer able to meet)
• loss of education facilities (e.g., no children’s swimming lessons due to a damaged pool),
• loss of sense of community, culture, or heritage.

Lifeline Utilities (Critical Infrastructure Group) include infrastructure and network operators in:

• energy (including electricity, gas and petroleum)
• transport (including road, rail, ports, and airports)
• water (including potable, waste, and storm water),
• telecommunications (including broadcasting).

Lifeline utilities could be impacted in many ways such as through loss of infrastructure (e.g., destruction of a power plant or downed power lines), damage (e.g., slip over a railway line), being severed (e.g., destruction of a bridge) or from lack of personnel due to personal disruption.

Consequences of the impact to lifeline utilities can include:

• sanitation systems not operating leading to health issues
• loss of water supply and reticulation impacting humans, livestock and processing facilities that rely on clean water to continue operations
• impacts on animal welfare from, for example, loss of water  reticulation, milking and electric fences securing livestock
• firefighting being compromised due to lack of water
• businesses dependent on a lifeline not being able to operate
• recovery activities being stalled or disrupted
• loss or reduced availability of goods, including perishable goods
• difficulties accessing communities, both for individuals wanting to leave an area but also for recovery workers getting into an area due to loss of transport infrastructure
• difficulties accessing or evacuating animals and providing for their care
• difficulties delivering services and supplies
• difficulties accessing health services and education
• disruption to fast-moving consumer goods or raw materials
• disruption of communication and information technology systems,
• decreased security and safety (e.g. lack of lighting, security systems or traffic signals).

Other considerations for recovery in the built environment include:

• significant demand on land use planning, consent, and infrastructure delivery due to relocation
• waste management of bulk building demolition materials
• having to provide temporary services while permanent solutions are found.
• potentially complex insurance claim processes or limited insurance coverage,
• slowing rebuild and repair.
• complex remediation issues such as land damage not foreseen before the emergency, leading to delays in reinstating buildings and infrastructure.
• public health concerns such as sewerage, sewage-contaminated ground and asbestos contamination
• the health and safety of people working and accessing buildings, including homeowners gathering belongings and volunteers assisting with clean-up.
• having to provide services for feeding and housing companion animals
• including rural communities and businesses,
• including rural residential and lifestyle blocks.

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Rural

• Government agencies
• Rural infrastructure
• Rural support agencies
• Private sector
• Organisations
• Iwi liaison

Consequences on the rural environment will have unique challenges that will benefit from being identified/considered as a separate environment when identifying consequences.

The rural environment is predominantly focused on the primary industries / producers’ sector. However, rural residential occupiers along with Māori land and households living in remote areas are interrelated in this environment.

The Rural Environment normally sits under the Built environment. However, Waitomo, with its very large rural area was made a separate ‘environment’ subject so sufficient understanding and preparation can be had for this key sector to support any planning for both response and recovery.

Rural infrastructure supports daily lives and businesses in rural communities. It can include water infrastructure, farm buildings, productive land, factory and storage infrastructure, fencing, tracks, housing for seasonal staff, pasture and crops, machinery and horticulture, tourism, and aquaculture structures. Rural infrastructure could be impacted by loss or damage. Impacted buildings or land may also pose a health and safety risk.

Examples of the Consequences on the Rural Environment after an impacting emergency event include:

•  loss of income or a reduced income — damage to infrastructure directly affects income and given the generally large investment, seasonal nature, and delay in return for the primary sectors, often the impact is significant and long-lasting
• disruption to operations (e.g., inability to milk dairy cows due to loss of power to milking sheds)
• damage to essential machinery or plant (e.g., damaged machinery may cause loss or disrupt harvesting of crops, forestry, and aquaculture)
• loss of internal access tracks (e.g., animals may not be able to access grazing water, milking sheds or yards — they may have to walk further causing animal welfare issues such as lameness
• loss of power causing outages in fences — damaged fences can cause wandering stock, animal welfare and biosecurity concerns, and potential road accidents, and
• disruption to roads and lifelines, which can disrupt ease of daily life, and social networks (e.g., loss of access to schools, doctors, and other services

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Natural

• Natural resources
• Waste management/pollution
• Parks and open spaces
• Special places
• air
• water
• land and soil
• Plants and animals
• Biodiversity
• Ecosystems

The natural environment helps sustain community and individual health and wellbeing, the primary sector and industry, and is central to many amenity and cultural values.

Parks and opens spaces

Many elements of the natural environment have great significance or amenity value for communities. Amenity value describes aspects of our physical environment that have some form of recreational, cultural, or social importance.

 Places with an amenity value include:

• parks, public gardens, waterways, ecological reserves,
• Māori Customary and Māori Freehold land, Māori land,
• scenic tracks and lookouts,
• swimming pools, sports grounds, bike or skate parks and other places for recreation.

The amenity value of something may be in addition to the physical or ecological value it has.

This could be for a variety of reasons, including:

• there is an association with a community’s collective identity,
• history or tīpuna
• it provides a way of getting exercise, socialising or enjoying the outdoors.
• it provides protection to vulnerable landscapes, e.g. sand dunes or wetlands.
• it provides an educational resource,
• it contributes to the local economy via employment or tourism.

Special Places

Wāhi tapu are places or sites sacred to Māori in the traditional, spiritual, religious, ritual, or mythological sense.

A wide range of places may be considered wāhi tapu, including:

• urupā (burial grounds) or places associated with ancestors,
• tīpuna, or traditional or historic activity.

Wāhi tapu often include features of the natural environment, such as particular streams, hills, or tracts of forest. A participatory approach is essential for evaluating the importance of particular places and deciding how measures for wāhi tapu can be incorporated into recovery planning and management.

Air

Impacts to air quality can be a result of particulates, chemicals or biological aerosols.

Consequences can include:

• immediate health effects (e.g. asthma)
• long-term health effects (residual pollution)
• wind erosion denuding landscapes.
• death from reduced air quality (e.g. smoke),
• contamination of waterways, crops and livestock. 

Water

Water quality can be affected by biological, particulate or chemical contamination, and water quantity can be affected by changes in water flow or storage capacity.

Consequences as a result of impacts on water quality or quantity include:

• loss of drinking water, leading to health effects
• loss of livestock and crops from lack of water
• loss of recreational water areas
• reduced production and manufacturing,
• loss of useable land from a changed water course.

Planning and management of water use has increasingly been focused on sustainability by safeguarding water quality and ecosystems while meeting the social and economic needs of communities.

Land and Soil

• erosion
• deposition
• contamination
• compaction
• damaged landforms and landscapes.

     This can result in consequences that include:

• reduced productivity of farmland
• loss of land from erosion
• loss of aquatic habitats
• increased risk of future events (e.g. flooding and rockfall)
• loss of geographically significant areas or landforms,
• loss of recreational areas (e.g. walking tracks and infrastructure).

Recovery provides an opportunity to consider how land use can support reduction of risk from future hazards and build resilience, particularly around coastlines and in areas prone to flooding. Managing land use is a central function of local authorities, and an equally critical element of recovery planning. Making development ecologically sustainable and resilient is a key priority in both business-as-usual and recovery contexts.

Plants and Animals

Biodiverse environments are those where variety exists and thrives — within species, between species and between ecosystems. As the impacts of human development are examined, both globally and locally, more emphasis is being placed on biodiversity as a cornerstone of sustainability and resilience.

Plants and animals can be impacted in many ways, including:

• biosecurity incursion
• loss of habitat
• disease
• pollination
• loss of species and populations

The resultant consequences can include:

• disturbed, destruction or contamination of marine habitats reducing species population and affecting fisheries (e.g. sea-grass damage
• from sediment deposition or uplifted seabed exposing sub-tidal habitat)
• loss of habitats for bird life reducing horticulture productivity due to reduced pollination.
• loss of nationally significant species
• reduced horticultural productivity due to increased concentration of pests,
• damage to forestry plantations causing downstream damage or the need for immediate processing

Ecosystems

Recovery involves considering interactions within and between whole ecosystems, rather than focusing on a single species. While action is often needed to protect vulnerable species (such as New Zealand’s native birds)

a holistic suite of measures may be necessary to:

• maintain and improve air, water, soil, and landscape quality,
• actively support various species to recover and thrive

Waste Management

Waste management must also be considered in the natural environment.

• Waste can be created from the emergency itself, such as silt deposition during flooding, or
• can be the result of recovery activities such as building demolition
• Activities in the early stages of recovery must address the immediate and long-term adverse consequences of the emergency on waste systems and sources of contamination or pollution
• Any action taken across all of the recovery environments must also consider long-term implications for the health of communities and the environment

Waste management actions to consider include the following:

• assessing damage to waste systems, and identifying sources of contamination
• or pollution avoiding or
• limiting exposure of people, animals, ecosystems or
• the landscape to contamination or
• pollution examining environmental impacts for planned recovery activities, or
• those that are already being undertaken, maintaining or
• finding alternative solutions for waste systems, while minimising further impact on the environment

During an emergency event any one of these, or all of them, may be impacted to varying degrees. When planning for an emergency, it is important to look at each of these environments and address what the impact of these consequences may have on you and your home.

A study was undertaken by the Waikato Regional Council in 2017 and produced a report of what the likely hazards and their possible consequences could be and impact us.

View the Matrix chart and use as a guide when planning.

Matrix Chart (PDF 117 KB)

Read more about hazards and what should be considered in your planning.

Reduction

This is where there is a risk or hazard but with forward thinking, planning and implementation this is either mitigated completely or reduced to the best that it can be. 

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Readiness

Developing plans to prepare and recover from an impacting event supports those around us and gives clarity during this anxious and stressful time. Resourcing those plans with supplies, equipment, services, and then training, familiarising people or those mostly affected on how those plans will be implemented will bring this phase together.

If you are reading this and starting your planning, you are in the Readiness phase.

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Response

This is when the impacting event has occurred or is happening and those previously prepared plans and resources, including your business continuity plan, are now put into action.
Psychosocial effects (stress/anxiety) on people are also reduced when there has been a good planning process developed prior to the event and then activated during the response and recovery phase.

It may be a severe impact, but people see hope as they now have something tangible (a plan) to work their way through and support their recovery

History and experience have repeatedly identified that once this response phase has commenced it is too late to start planning for the emergency

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Recovery

Starts at Reduction in the planning stage and looks forward at everything with all staff and/or the community and stakeholders involved.

To build you plan during the Readiness phase (preparedness) your thinking should consider….

• what the environment (your home, your business - all aspects) looks like before the impact (i.e., you need a picture of what you want to get back to)
• what is likely to change during the impact (how could each hazard effect your home/ business)
• what will the important needs be after the event. (This is where those who will be with you can assist in your thinking and planning)

It won’t be possible always to pluck money out of a bottomless barrel to make the perfect world, but it will be possible to understand what will be necessary in the recovery from an event so that the various views and expectation levels are understood and managed.

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Community

There are several things that communities can do to ensure they are better prepared towards being resilient to an impacting emergency and the recovery afterwards.

A prompt sheet to help prepare a community response plan has been developed and is a vert effective tool for community groups.

View the prompt sheet (PDF 135 KB)

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Business Continuity Planning.

Many businesses will have undertaken business continuity planning.

However, if your business has not done so, there are many online resources and templates to support your planning.

See the links below

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If you are not sure in which direction to start check out these online resources that will help explain some of the areas you should be considering in your planning.

• How resilient is your business? 
  Resilient Organisations -this website has great Resources available, and you can use the checklist to assess your organisation’s resilience
   
• Business continuity plan template
  Templates can be found here or here (DOCX 66 KB) (DOCX 66 KB) – there are many sites on google that have free business continuity planning templates available to download or personalise to suit you.
  
  
• Managing buildings through an emergency
  Managing buildings through an emergency
  Guide for residential buildings post-earthquake
  Designated areas for building emergency management
  Rapid building assessment system
  Flood damaged buildings

If you have these plans in place or in preparation, at home or at work, you and your family and team are on the path to being better prepared to recover from an impacting event.