Breaking the vicious cycle of flood disasters: Goals of project management in post-disaster rebuild projects

Korea has witnessed a significant number of post-disaster rebuild (PDR) projects following flood damages caused by unforeseeable super-typhoons. Efforts to improve the management performance of such projects are mostly limited to the development of several administrative guidelines for faster construction starts to avoid secondary damage from subsequent typhoons. However, no explicit and comprehensive studies have thus far been initiated to identify the causes of low performance outcomes of flood PDR projects in quantitative and qualitative ways. Hence, this study performed macro- and micro-level analyses to provide an overall view of the performance of flood PDR projects as well as created a comprehensive cause and effect (C&E) diagram, which reveals 12 major factors and 19 sub-factors adversely affecting the project outcomes. The findings of this study are expected to be useful in improving current project management capability as well as relevant laws and regulations both in Korea and in developing countries.

► Information about the general performance of the flood PDR projects.
► 12 major factors and 19 sub-factors adversely affecting the PDR project outcomes.
► The goal of flood PDR project management should be to break the vicious cycle.