Developing concentrated rural settlement (CRS) is regarded to be more sustainable and resilient in post-disaster reconstruction.Very few studies, however, have been reported until the post 5.12 Sichuan Earthquake reconstruction.Several villages in Dujiangyan were reported having successfully implemented concentrated rural settlement through the policy of rural residential exchange.Two different approaches, namely unified-planning-self-reconstruction and unified-planning-unified-reconstruction were adopted by these villages in concentrated rural settlement.However, few studies have been conducted to compare the two approaches and therefore it remains unknown that which approach is more effective.This study aims to fill this research gap by comparing the two approaches from the perspectives of social-economic condition, triggering events, implementation process, and implementation outcomes through investigating four cases in Dujiangyan.Content analysis and interview were used to collect the relevant information.It is found that no approach is perfect and specific conditions should be satisfied for each approach to ensure the sustainability of reconstruction.The findings of this research are useful for local government to make decisions when developing CRS in post-disaster reconstruction.