A Review of Temporary Housing Management Modeling: Trends in Design Strategies, Optimization Models, and Decision-Making Methods

Daniel Perrucci,Hiba Baroud

doi:10.3390/su122410388

Abstract

Temporary housing plays a critical role in disaster response and recovery by providing a temporary home for displaced people before they return to their permanent residence. In recent years, temporary housing has faced three primary dilemmas related to design type, site selection, and cost. Significant contributions have been made in research and in practice to improve temporary housing management. However, gaps still exist in resolving the dilemmas, and a critical review and evaluation of current methods is needed to determine the path forward and identify priorities of future research. This paper presents a comprehensive overview of prior methods developed and applied towards temporary housing management and identifies future pathways for success in temporary housing research and implementation. The literature review reveals that temporary housing requires further research in proactive management, storage, sustainability, and community resilience to effectively enhance post-disaster temporary housing. This study finds that programs such as the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and the Sheltering and Temporary Essential Power (STEP) program provide methodologies which can benefit temporary housing implementation, designs, and modeling. In addition, circular economy thinking can enable the recyclability of temporary housing to reduce economic and environmental impacts.

Highlights

The frequency and severity of disasters has amplified since the late 1900s and is only expected to further increase due to climate change, population growth, increasing coastal density, and inadequate disaster preparedness [1,2,3]
In the event of a disaster, temporary housing is utilized by the displaced residents until they can return to their pre-disaster residence
These research gaps are organized into four categories including unit storage strategies, pro-active temporary housing management, community resilience, and sustainability

Summary

Introduction

The frequency and severity of disasters has amplified since the late 1900s and is only expected to further increase due to climate change, population growth, increasing coastal density, and inadequate disaster preparedness [1,2,3]. In the event of a disaster, temporary housing is utilized by the displaced residents until they can return to their pre-disaster residence. In 2018, disasters led to the prolonged displacement of over 400,000 people globally and required temporary sheltering or housing before resettlement [4]. Post-disaster housing is one of the nation’s persistent preparedness challenges, with a single deployment of manufactured housing costing upwards of $100,000 [5]. The investments in manufactured temporary housing units during Hurricane Katrina were excessive and short-lived due to the unit’s single usage and the inconvenient or isolated unit placement which deterred the displaced population from returning for reconstruction and resettlement [1,9,10]

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion