Research Approach to Evaluate Post-Disaster Road Reconstruction in Indonesia

In the decentralized system in Indonesia, the authority and responsibility in the management of most infrastructure facilities, including road networks, have been transferred from the national government to the local governments. In the event of major disaster, road infrastructure sector often suffers a considerably large amount of damages and losses. As nearly 80% of the road networks in Indonesia are district roads, the overall quality and sustainability of the road infrastructure are significantly dependent upon the capacity of local government in road management. Nevertheless, even though literatures on road maintenance issue are abundant, literatures that link road reconstruction with the maintenance aspects in post-disaster reconstruction context are very limited. Accordingly, this paper, which is based on an on-going PhD research, highlights the main issues in post-disaster road reconstruction and subsequently discusses the research methodologies adopted for the study and illustrates how the philosophical stance perceived in the study leads to the selection of a case study as a suitable approach.