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SOME IMPLICATIONS OF THE JULY 16, 1990 EARTHQUAKE ON
URBAN AND REGIONAL PLANNING IN THE PHILIPPINES Arturo G. Corpuz School of Urban and Regional Planning University of the Philippines Dilimann Quezon City, Philippines
Land use planning is a major concern of many urban and regional planners, especially those involved with government, because it is a direct input to the formulation of zoning ordinances and other land development regulations. It may be expected to become an even more active field of planning with the recent signing into law of the 1991 Local Government code, which decentralizes many planning functions and responsibilities to local governments. This means that more planners are going to be engaged in land use planning as the initiative and responsibility for this activity shifts from handful of national planning agencies to over a thousand local government planning and development offices. Land use planning, however, because it deals primarily with the identification of broadly-defined activities for certain land areas, is unable to directly address earthquake-related disasters caused by the failure of specific structures. In effect, the standard land use classification (residential, commercial, industrial, etc.) does not distinguish among the individual abilities of buildings to withstand earthquakes and, it is indifferent to the varying degrees of disasters--from the minor to the catastrophic--that can take place during earthquakes. Although it can be useful, through zoning, in limiting the density of activities in areas identified as susceptible to earthquake-related disasters--in restricting liquefaction-prone riverine areas from being densely occupied, for example--it needs to be complemented by strategic urban and regional planning. By strategic planning, I refer to planning that deals directly with the mitigation of earthquake-related disasters associated with, first, production and service networks that cut across standard land use categories (e.g. water, power, communication systems) and, second, production and service elements within a particular land use area-category (e.g. individual buildings in an industrial estate or government center or university complex). In both cases, land use planning will not directly lead to measures that can reinforce, for example, a water distribution network that simultaneously services residential subdivisions, factories, schools, etc., or measures that prioritize among individual structures such as a widely-patronized public market and an adjacent and unmanned market storehouse, to cite another example. n additional limitation to the use of land use planning for earthquake disaster mitigation, especially in large cities such as Metro-Manila, is the difficulty in or the slow process of changing land use. Often, urban land use cannot be altered according to proposed disaster mitigation measures because changes in the ownership, occupancy, or physical environment of urban lands are difficult to do in the short term. Substantial changes in urban land use usually take place only after decades of conscious and purposeful efforts on the part of the public and private sectors. This requires a relatively stable structure of public administration that is the exception rather than the rule in developing countries. Frequently, more immediate action steps can be taken to mitigate the effects earthquake-related disasters through strategic planning.
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