Post-disaster Shelter Research Articles

A Systematic Approach to Developing Sustainable Post-Disaster Shelters in the Southern Region of the United States

This study aims to propose a sustainable shelter design involving energy savings, less environmental impact, and rapid construction. The structural design of the shelter is based on 3D-printing technology. Sustainability assessments, including life cycle analysis (LCA), life cycle energy assessment (LCEA), and energy justice of the designed shelter, were conducted to prove the sustainable shelter design. The outcomes of this study for several scenarios will not only allow decision-makers to design permanent shelters with maximized utilization of limited resources but also help local communities strengthen their ability to recover with minimal outside assistance post-disaster. Furthermore, residents can utilize the sustainable shelter to maintain critical functions, including business continuity and local business in emergencies.

A region-based criterion weighting approach for the assessment of post-disaster shelters

The need for shelter after disasters is a common issue, and its planning should occur during the risk management phase, not in the post-disaster process. Following the initial few weeks of emergency aid, the rehabilitation phase comes into play, encompassing the period spent in tem- porary housing units until a transition to permanent housing is achieved. Like the emergency aid phase, this phase cannot be sustained solely by emergency shelter tents due to its extended duration, which is shorter than the time required to construct permanent housing. Specific de- signs suited to the rehabilitation phase are necessary. However, many post-disaster temporary housing implementations have failed to meet the requirements. The study aims to establish a decision-making model for assessing temporary housing alternatives in the aftermath of a disaster. The experts must initially identify the criteria and assign their respective weights to build this model. They contend that the significance of criteria should differ depending on the particular attributes of diverse locales. To accomplish this, a methodology for determining cri- teria weights and an evaluation model is suggested, considering discrepancies in urban density, household size, urban accessibility, and climatic conditions based on regional dissimilarities.

Design of transformable transitional shelter for post disaster relief

PurposeThe most important need after natural disasters is the sheltering. However, most of the existing temporary shelters do not meet all requirements for long-term use and not provide adequate flexibility within the space. This paper aims to develop a transitional postdisaster shelter transforming from a closed shape to an expanded form in response to changing functional and spatial needs of disaster victims. The study also proposes alternative unit combinations for various functions, and settlement layouts to create a comfortable living environment for occupants.Design/methodology/approachThe research methodology is based on theoretical and design frameworks which requires inductive and deductive approaches. Forming the background of the study, the theoretical framework consists of four parts which are literature review on temporary shelters presenting state-of-the-art; determination of design guidelines and strategies based on shelter standards; identification of technical requirements; and analysis of existing temporary shelters. Having three parts, the design framework includes design of transformable transitional shelter based on three-dimensional modeling, creation of different unit combinations to be used for various purposes and development of settlement layouts as case studies.FindingsThe analysis conducted in this study demonstrates that most of the existing temporary shelters have limited geometric configurations and major problems in terms of their performance, transportation and storage. On the other hand, the transformable shelter proposed by the authors can provide form and spatial flexibilities thanks to its expansion properties, occupy less space for transportation, easily be transported to any desired location in its compact state and be customized according to user needs. Several units can be combined either to serve larger families or to be used for different functions.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the literature as presenting not only a theoretical framework on temporary shelters but also a design framework on transformable shelter design for the ones who are willing to develop similar transformable shelters based on the determined guidelines, strategies and requirements.

Development of post-disaster shelters (case study: Gampong Pande post-rehabilitation and reconstruction of the earthquake and tsunami disaster)

Indonesia has a high risk of earthquake and tsunami disasters, especially in areas around the long and relatively sloping coastline. Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam as an area that has been hit by an earthquake and tsunami, in its development of settlements it is more directed to disaster-prone areas in coastal areas. This study aims to identify the development of housing after rehabilitation and reconstruction due to the earthquake and tsunami in the Gampong Pande area, in the context of mitigating earthquake and tsunami disasters in the future. This research is related to ethnographic research that uses an emic approach in field surveys, emphasizes the natural setting context, focuses on interpretation and meaning, involves the community deeply, and focuses on contemporary phenomena as a whole. Post-disaster mitigation actions carried out in residential development are structural modifications referring to and in line with the Building Code. Post-disaster mitigation actions carried out in the development of residential areas are land grants for road widening as an evacuation route during disasters and the construction of sea dikes to reduce tidal waves of sea water entering settlements and planting mangroves along the sea wall as a green belt that doubles as a green belt and source of fishermen’s economy.

Post-disaster sheltering process after the 2019 floods, in Golestan province, Iran

PurposeAs a flood-prone region in Iran, Golestan province has encountered various disasters in its history. The last one occurred in March 2019, affected Aq-Qala County and caused irreparable physical, economic, social and environmental problems. The purpose of this study is to investigate the process of providing shelter in emergency, rehabilitation and reconstruction phases after the floods in the villages of Aq-Qala.Design/methodology/approachA research method is a hybrid approach. The collection of data involved a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches in addition to reviewing the documented texts in resources to collect the required data using observations, field survey activities, questionnaires and in-depth interviews. From April 2019 to December 2019, nine separate visits have occurred to collect the needed information.FindingsThis paper shows dissatisfaction with providing shelter and attempts to identify the factors which caused the challenges. The findings revealed issues such as hygienic problems in collective camps, lack of thermal resistance in temporary accommodations and rising material prices. These findings lead to a contributive list of suggestions avoiding the recurrence of the harms in the future.Originality/valueThis study proposes solutions and approaches to improve the post-flood settlement process for possible floods in the future such as equipped camps, proper temporary housing, monitoring the reconstruction and the price of the materials. If these approaches are used by authorities and people in similar rural areas, the long-term effects of inadequate post-flood shelter can be reduced.

Determination of Temporary Shelter Areas by the Analytic Hierarchy Process Method: The Case of Burdur City Center, Turkey

Disasters adversely affect human life. Many people face sheltering problems after disasters. Temporary shelter areas are very important in terms of meeting people's post-disaster sheltering needs. In this study, it was aimed to determine temporary shelter areas in the city center of Burdur. The AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) method was used to determine temporary shelter areas. According to certain criteria and spatial standards, six temporary shelter areas were determined in the city center of Burdur, and their adequacy was tested. Temporary shelters are located in urban open and green lands. Temporary shelter areas determined under today's conditions are adequate. However, it is predicted that temporary shelter areas will be inadequate in the upcoming process. Some recommendations were made about the problems and the path to be followed in the upcoming process. These recommendations will be useful for the post-disaster process.

Defining a humanitarian shelter and settlements research agenda

Despite the knowledge gained on post-disaster sheltering and housing over the last several decades, there remains a disconnect in the evidence needed by humanitarian practitioners and the learning that the research community is capturing. To determine the research needed by practitioners, we assembled a Delphi panel of experts in humanitarian shelter and settlements. They first identified and then ranked the relative importance of research topics. Ninety-six research needs were identified and ranked by importance in six key areas that included: (1) comparing and evaluating approaches to sheltering, (2) shelter and settlement programming, (3) design and construction of shelter, (4) understanding impacts and outcomes of shelter, (5) disaster risk reduction and the humanitarian-development nexus, and (6) challenging contexts and topics. Top research priorities identified include a need to better understand how to support shelter self-recovery, longitudinal and long-term impacts of shelter, and the transition from response to recovery. The resulting needs provide a research agenda for humanitarian organizations, academic institutions, and donors, aligning with the Global Shelter Cluster's strategy to invest in evidence-based response.

Fit for purpose? Lessons from transitional shelter provision for internally displaced persons in urban informal settlements in Brazil

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the challenges of transitional shelter provision for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in urban informal settlements. While there has been considerable research on postdisaster transitional shelters, less is known on shelters for IDPs in urban informal settlements.Design/methodology/approachA case study is presented based on field research at the communities in Olaria and City in São Paulo, Brazil. Collection of data included personal communication with the dwellers, surveys and interviews with representatives from Techo, one of the few organizations that provide transitional shelters for IDPs. A review of documents regarding the construction, design and users' adaptation of transitional shelter was also undertaken. Data was analyzed using thematic analysis.FindingsThe study found that Techo's program impacts positively on the nonphysical aspects of shelter, such as physical and mental health, security, household responsibilities and community participation. However, Techo's transitional shelter for IDPs in urban informal settlements and most postdisaster transitional shelters share similar problems. These programs respond to the needs of a small proportion of the affected populations with shelters of minimum quality and low durability.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper is limited to a single case study of the NGO Techo and further case study research is recommended to further develop and validate the study results in other urban development contexts.Originality/valueThis research contributes to describing and understanding the context and the provision of transitional shelters to IDPs in urban informal settlements and impacts in the community. With increasing numbers of IDPs settling in urban informal settlements in many parts of the world, this paper is valuable to policymakers, NGOs and researchers operating in this field to facilitate community development.

Disaster, gender, and space: Spatial vulnerability in post-disaster shelters

Many studies have shown that women and other marginalized groups are extra vulnerable during disasters and in the aftermath. These groups experience discrimination in access to resources and are more exposed to sexual harassment and violence. Accepting the premise that space shapes gender relations, this article examines how post-disaster space plays a part in the occurrence of gender-based violence. It discusses the literature on space and gender issues in the post-disaster phase, particularly the response phase and recovery phase. The study reviews literature broadly from 1990 to the present because of the limited literature on gender and space in a disaster context. This article argues that the disappearance of boundaries and the collapse of territoriality due to disaster contribute to the occurrence of gender-based violence and the construction of fear among marginalized groups. This article incorporates the concept of defensible space and gendered space to propose a gender-sensitive space in post-disaster shelters. It concludes that emergency and rehabilitation shelters mustconsider privacy and define the territory for each family. Furthermore, these sheltersshould allow for community surveillance to be arranged in order to enhance the sense of security for all community members.

Legal Pluralism, Cultural Values, and Post-Disaster Housing Project in a Philippine Municipality

This article argues that cultural values can act as dominant norms and subvert the state’s official law in the awarding of post-disaster shelters to Typhoon Ondoy (Tropical Storm Ketsana) victims in a housing project in the Philippines. Applying some tenets of legal pluralism and some qualitative data from a case study, this article aims to show how the key Filipino cultural values of “palakasan,” “sakop,” and “padrino system” acted as the key unofficial laws or informal norms in the government’s post-disaster housing project for Typhoon Ondoy victims, thereby sidestepping the official legal provisions on the awarding of housing units to disaster victims. Specifically, it describes how these cultural values undermined the implementation of the official law on the qualification of applicants and proper awarding of housing units to beneficiaries under the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction Management Act of 2010 and the Urban Housing and Development Act of 1992 in the Southville 8 Housing Project (S8HP), a governmental post-disaster housing project in Rodriguez, Rizal. In a highly politicized environment with plurality of stakeholders and norms in S8HP, the official state regulations became colonized by some powerful groups’ dominant cultural values that acted as “unofficial laws” in the distribution of the housing units as shown by this study, resulting in the awarding of shelters to disqualified beneficiaries, forfeiting the intended effects of the state law. Ultimately, it argues that the law is not what the official state law says “it is’ but what powerful individuals and groups say “it is” in actual social practice. It debunks the belief of legal formalists who advocate legal positivism and centralism, claiming that the law can deliver what it promises under the “rule of law” principle.

Legal Pluralism, Cultural Values, and Post-Disaster Housing Project in a Philippine Municipality

This article argues that cultural values can act as dominant norms and subvert the state’s official law in the awarding of post-disaster shelters to Typhoon Ondoy (Tropical Storm Ketsana) victims in a housing project in the Philippines. Applying some tenets of legal pluralism and some qualitative data from a case study, this article aims to show how the key Filipino cultural values of “palakasan,” “sakop,” and “padrino system” acted as the key unofficial laws or informal norms in the government’s post-disaster housing project for Typhoon Ondoy victims, thereby sidestepping the official legal provisions on the awarding of housing units to disaster victims. Specifically, it describes how these cultural values undermined the implementation of the official law on the qualification of applicants and proper awarding of housing units to beneficiaries under the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction Management Act of 2010 and the Urban Housing and Development Act of 1992 in the Southville 8 Housing Project (S8HP), a governmental post-disaster housing project in Rodriguez, Rizal. In a highly politicized environment with plurality of stakeholders and norms in S8HP, the official state regulations became colonized by some powerful groups’ dominant cultural values that acted as “unofficial laws” in the distribution of the housing units as shown by this study, resulting in the awarding of shelters to disqualified beneficiaries, forfeiting the intended effects of the state law. Ultimately, it argues that the law is not what the official state law says “it is’ but what powerful individuals and groups say “it is” in actual social practice. It debunks the belief of legal formalists who advocate legal positivism and centralism, claiming that the law can deliver what it promises under the “rule of law” principle.

Building safety in humanitarian programmes that support post-disaster shelter self-recovery: an evidence review.

The humanitarian sector is increasingly aware of the role that good quality evidence plays in the underpinning of effective and accountable practice. This review addresses the need for reliable evidence by evaluating current knowledge about the intersection of two key outcome targets of post‐disaster shelter response: supporting shelter self‐recovery and building back safer. Evidence about post‐disaster shelter programmes that aim to improve hazard resistance while supporting shelter self‐recovery has been systematically analysed and evaluated. Technical support, especially training in safer construction techniques, was found to be a central programme feature, but the impact of this and other programme attributes on building safety was largely not ascertainable. Programme reports and studies lack sufficient detail, especially on the hazard resistance of repaired houses. Accounts of shelter programmes need to include more reliable reporting of key activities and assessment of outcomes, in order to contribute to the growing evidence base in this field.

Shelter after disaster management

Despite several stakeholders involved in the shelter after disaster management, like academia or the private sector, are focused on the introduction of new products and on direct action, Innovation in shelter after disaster is today more likely to be concerned with improvements in process and more related with facilitation.
 Design driven innovation (DDI) is increasingly applied on services, changing realities on individual, organizational or societal levels. It has clear potential in shelter after disaster management to lead the sector on interesting and important new directions, achieving breakthrough innovations and transforming the meaning of shelter as a product into a user’s centered service.
 The purpose of the workshop is to show a set of techniques from the DDI approach focused on service design projects and apply them in a disaster context to enhance current practices in shelter management.
 The aim of of this workshop is to establish a direction for the ideation of a new meaning of post-disaster shelter through the unique perspective of the participant through an ongoing value co-creation process.

Feasibility of ISO shipping container as transitional shelter-a review

The arising of natural disasters had increased the demand of post-disaster shelter. Over the past decades, concept of transitional shelter had been introduced as a better alternative compared to conventional shelter provision. ISO shipping container had become potential material as transitional shelter. However, the suitability of shipping container as transitional shelter is questionable as there is lack of previous study concern on this issue from different perspective of views. The aim of this paper is to provide a review on the feasibility of ISO shipping container as transitional shelter. The literature review was taken and the context analysis was done using “Technical, Economic, Legal, Operational, Schedule” (TELOS) framework. The strength and weakness of the shipping container as transitional shelter were summarized based on the framework and recommendations were suggested. With the recommendation done, the potential of shipping container to be used as transitional shelter can be fully exploited and become an outstanding alternative for conventional construction method.

Assessing the impact of household participation on satisfaction and safe design in humanitarian shelter projects.

Participation has long been considered important for post‐disaster recovery. Establishing what constitutes participation in post‐disaster shelter projects, however, has remained elusive, and the links between different types of participation and shelter programme outcomes are not well understood. Furthermore, recent case studies suggest that misguided participation strategies may be to blame for failures. This study analysed 19 shelter projects implemented in the Philippines following Typhoon Haiyan in November 2013 to identify the forms of participation employed. Using fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analysis, it assessed how household participation in the planning, design, and construction phases of shelter reconstruction led to outcomes of household satisfaction and safe shelter design. Participation was operationalised via eight central project tasks, revealing that the involvement of households in the early planning stages of projects and in construction activities were important for satisfaction and design outcomes, whereas engagement during the design phase of projects had little impact on the selected outcomes.

In Pursuit of Better Sheltering and Housing After Disasters: The Architectural Perspective Through Ideas Competitions

In the past, post-disaster sheltering, and rehousing involved a limited field of expertise. Architecture was deemed loosely related to the context. Today, architecture involves in post-disaster issues more than ever and does that in collaboration with other disciplines. It uses technological developments in any field related that can bring better solutions to post-disaster shelter crises. For the past few years, many architectural competitions were launched within this theme. Architectural competitions aim to find the most appropriate design for a problem through the accumulation of wide range of ideas in a short period of time that would not be possible if a case assigned to only one architect. This can be deemed as an indirect way of participatory approach in post-disaster sheltering and housing with the inputs of professionals and students. Eventually, the architectural competitions became the arena of this pursuit since architecture began to step out of the comfort zone and started to ‘design’ for people in need, for emergencies and for rebuilding for societies after long trouble times in disastrous areas. The paper reviews a range of competitions fall under the topics of post-disaster sheltering and rehousing by examination of the outstanding projects.

Design of a post-disaster shelter through soft computing

Temporary shelters become a more critical subject of architectural design as the increasing number of natural disasters taking place each year result in a larger number of people in need of urgent sheltering. Therefore, this project focuses on designing a temporary living space that can respond to the needs of different post-disaster scenarios and form a modular system through differentiation of units. When designing temporary shelters, it is a necessity to deal with the provision of materials, low-cost production and the time limit in the emergency as well as the needs of the users and the experiential quality of the space. Although computational approaches might lead to much more efficient and resilient design solutions, they have been utilized in very few examples. For that reason and due to their suitability to work with architectural design problems, soft computing methods shape the core of the methodology of the study. Initially, a digital model is generated through a set of rules that define a growth algorithm. Then, Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithms alter this growth algorithm while evaluating different configurations through the objective functions constructed within a Fuzzy Neural Tree. The struggle to represent design goals in the form of Fuzzy Neural Tree holds potential for the further use of it for architectural design problems centred on resilience. Resilience in this context is defined as a measure of how agile a design is when dealing with a major sheltering need in a post-disaster environment. Different from the previous studies, this article aims to focus on the design of a temporary shelter that can respond to different user types and disaster scenarios through mass customization, using Fuzzy Neural Tree as a novel approach. While serving as a temporary space, the design outcomes are expected to create a more neighbourhood-like pattern with a stronger sense of community for the users compared to the previous examples.

A Comparative Analysis of Coordination, Participation, and Training in Post-Disaster Shelter Projects

The delivery of post-disaster shelter assistance continues to be fraught with challenges derived from the coordination of resources, involvement of project stakeholders, and training of households and builders. There is a need to better understand what project elements in the delivery of post-disaster shelter projects most influence resilience and sustainability. To address this need, we examined nineteen post-disaster shelter projects in the Philippines following Typhoon Haiyan. We first characterized coordination, participation, and training employed across the planning, design, and construction phases of shelter projects and then used fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to assess the influence of these elements, alone and in combination, on building resilient and sustainable community infrastructure systems. Findings show that early involvement of households in planning efforts, combined with subsequent training, was important in evolving recovery outcomes. Our results point to the importance of: (1) supporting household sheltering processes over delivering hard products; (2) strategically linking project processes across phases; and (3) aligning humanitarian actions with long-term development. Conclusions from this study contribute to theory of sheltering in developing communities and more broadly to theory of recovery processes that link to community resilience and sustainability.

A matter of speed: The impact of material choice in post-disaster reconstruction

The effects of urbanization and climate change are dangerously converging. The most affected populations are the urban poor, settled in informal settlements vulnerable to increasingly frequent disasters. This severely contributes to the existing housing gap of these regions, already struggling with housing demand. The speed of shelter delivery becomes key for an efficient response in order to prevent spontaneous informal resettlements on unsafe lands. The present study aims to understand the impact of material choice on post-disaster shelters delivery through a multiscale analysis of construction speed. The scales considered are: Constructive technology, Shelter Unit and Post-disaster settlement. At the the Constructive technology scale, nine different reconstruction solutions for the Nepal earthquake are compared, covering a range from local to industrialized. Successively, twelve shelter designs by the International Federation of the Red Cross have been studied under the same lens at the Shelter unit scale and for Post-disaster settlements. The study identifies a clear correlation between material procurement and speed at the constructive technology scale. At the shelter scale, this correlation becomes secondary and construction time is seriously impacted by the complexity of roof design. Moving to the settlement scale, the choice of local over industrialized materials seems to drive the speed again. The study indicates how a multiscale approach is necessary to analyze the impacts of material selection, providing efficient guidelines for post-disaster reconstruction. Beyond that, it highlights that effective reconstruction can be developed with diverse materials, but its emergency responsiveness can seriously be compromised by a non-appropriate design.

Doctoral abstract

Doctoral abstract