Household recovery strategies in Longmen Mountain area, Sichuan, China, following the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake disaster

After the Wenchuan earthquake, the overall post-reconstruction of the affected area was completed in 2 years with significant achievements in a top-down fashion. However, the secondary large-scale mass movements and floods that followed the earthquake have shattered mountain settlements and resulted in serious loss of life and property over the last ten years. Local people have taken their own initiative for house reconstruction and recovery. Having taken the tremendous government-driven reconstruction into consideration, the current study aims to understand the contribution of bottom-up approach in whole reconstruction process in Jianjiang River, Longmen Mountain Town of Sichuan, China. This study reveals that in the process of individual rebuilding, local households have tried to construct houses by using more contemporary structures and local resources to rebuild smaller buildings. Such reconstruction activities have changed their lifestyle and source of income to cope with future disasters and adapt with the post-disaster recovery process. Rural households shifted their income sources from tourism to labour migration while revitalizing farming for food and additional income. More than half of residents have no worry about the risk of disasters in reconstruction areas. The bottom-up adaptation can be more sustainable in Longmen Mountain area and provide a reference for other rural areas under recovery after disasters.