Sustainable Post-Disaster Reconstruction Projects in Remote Locations, and the Fit with a Conceptual Design Management Model for Remote Sites

Abstract

Reconstruction projects, such as those conducted in Sudan since 2004, need an effective multidisciplinary planning and management framework, capable of responding to transitional and long-term reconstruction requirements. When these sites are in remote locations, the planning and management issues compound further. A preliminary multi-disciplinary framework that design managers can then use to develop better management and design practices, in the context of humanitarian aid and reconstruction projects in remote locations, are discussed in this paper. The future framework will be developed from a validation of a conceptual design management model for remote sites using Sudanese case study data collected from semi-structured interviews, with selected key design decisionmakers working in West Darfur, Sudan. The model was developed from a series of commercially -based case studies in the eco-tourism and Antarctic science sectors. This paper identifies how well the collected Sudanese data matched, or added to, the original design management model, in terms of the four key factors of value generation; knowledge integration; process integration and timely decision-making. The paper also investigates whether, and how, that model may be developed into a relevant multi-disciplinary framework for reconstruction projects in a non-profit and / or humanitarian aid context. The analysis of the semi-structured interviews, suggests that the original conceptual design management model for remote sites is relevant in a non-profit and/or humanitarian aid context. In addition, the model allows for a blending of traditional and modern management methods. The impact of this aspect of the framework would need to be developed further by future applications of the model and by practitioners in post -disaster reconstruction.