Post-tsunami recovery in Tamil Nadu, India: combined social and infrastructural outcomes

Recent disasters have highlighted the need to better understand why communities recover differently from the same disaster. This research aims to study what pre- and post-disaster conditions lead to infrastructural and social recovery. We collected data from 15 villages in India that were affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami through observations, interviews, and secondary sources on pre-disaster community conditions, post-disaster strategies, and infrastructural and social recovery outcomes. We examined conditions posited to affect recovery and analyzed the data using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis. There were multiple pathways to infrastructural and social recovery, but strong access to government resources and good recovery agency coordination were necessary in all pathways. A lack of social vulnerability, recovery agency embeddedness, and contracting agency oversight were also important. Through this research, we extend theories of community resilience and vulnerability by linking both pre- and post-disaster conditions to multi-sector recovery outcomes. Using these findings, practitioners can target specific dimensions of community resilience prior to disasters and target successful post-disaster strategies to contribute to recovery.