This is a continuation of the Recovery Issues discussion and it also builds on the earlier posting titled Disaster Recovery is a National Disgrace. I think the problems described are not just in the U.S. but are international.
Since this blog is dedicated to discussing the recovery phase of disasters, it attracts comments and questions from readers in many countries. The Diva often chats with experienced and influential researchers and practitioners in Canada, NZ, Australia, and other countries also are struggling to find the intellectual and practical knowledge base re recovery. Typically, they are unable to find good definitions, policies, guidance, and case studies with respect to long-term recovery from disasters.
In this digital era, a country should be able to find a way to work through some of the needs for information sharing, knowledge collection, and a repository for best practices. And ideally countries could be working with each other to advance the state of the art and practice.
Anyone want to take on the challenge?
Update: So far 3 people have contacted me to tell me about efforts underway. Be glad to hear about more.
Recovery Diva 
Thanks Rob. Look forward to seeing your new book.
Claire, We’re trying. Our book (still trying to finish it!) tries to draw common lessons from cases of recovery after large disasters in six different countries. But this is still not enough. We need more comparative studies, rather than practitioners/researchers deeply reflecting on the one case they worked on. If more people did comparative studies, then each one could focus on a theme: public involvement, contents of plans (this one is on our to-do list), money, use of information and maps, etc. etc. I am also especially interested in focusing on the topic of environmentally-triggered relocations—here again, it has to be a comparative study, whereas virtually all of the literature on this topic consists of one-off case studies. This is why we keep citing your work, along with Haas: because both of you did comparative studies. -Rob
Robert B. Olshansky, FAICP, Professor, Department Head Dept. of Urban and Regional Planning University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign IL; robo@illinois.edu