From Technical Repair to Social Repair: A Human-Centred Framework for Post-Impact Assessment of Infrastructure Disruption

Large-scale infrastructure disruptions increasingly shape human behaviour, livelihoods, and institutional trust, yet post-impact assessment remains dominated by technocratic and ex ante evaluation frameworks. Here we argue that conventional environmental and engineering assessments systematically under-capture lived experience, behavioural adaptation, and governance accountability, particularly in low- and middle-income countries where infrastructure dependence is high, and margins for error are narrow. Based on a post-impact assessment of a canal blockade affecting the Imiringi and Anyu communities in Nigeria’s Niger Delta, we propose a human-centred Post Impact Assessment (PIA) framework organized around three interdependent pillars: lived impacts, behavioural adaptation, and institutional response. We show how integrating these pillars reframes post-impact assessment from a procedural exercise into a mechanism for social learning, ethical accountability, and policy recalibration, offering a scalable approach for governing contested infrastructure disruptions in an era of climate stress, infrastructural aging, and institutional fragility. Policymakers should mandate the integration of this PIA framework into national infrastructure governance policies, requiring participatory data collection on the three pillars and linking findings to recovery funding and reforms, while agencies establish cross-functional units to initiate assessments within 30 days of disruptions for timely social repair.