Post-disaster Shelter Research Articles

Household construction knowledge acquisition in post-disaster shelter training

The incorporation of safer building practices into shelter after disasters continues to plague recovery efforts. While limited resources are one potential cause, evidence from case studies suggests that poor adoption of safer construction may stem from a knowledge deficit. Despite these shortcomings, previous research has done little to examine the current state of construction education and training in post-disaster shelter and housing, and there is lacking evidence to support how households acquire new knowledge of construction practice. Examining nineteen shelter projects in the Philippines following Typhoon Haiyan, training methods were categorized using Kolb's experiential learning theory poles. Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) was then used to analyze the impact of these methods on community construction knowledge. Findings reveal that households acquired knowledge either through a combination of formal training methods that encompassed reflective observation, active experimentation, and concrete experiences or alternatively through observation of on-site construction activities.

Predictive models for post disaster shelter needs assessment

The assessment of shelter needs of displaced people in the aftermath of major earthquake events is one the main challenges that emergency responders currently have to face. Based on the scale of the disaster, the short-term shelter demand can turn into a temporary housing need for displaced population, which is a local government responsibility. The study presented in this paper is focused on a critical review of currently available methodologies and corresponding software packages that were developed specifically for estimating the number of displaced people and those who will most likely seek public sheltering and will need temporary housing. The main features and shortcomings of such tools are highlighted and interpreted with a view to future improvement and application in the disaster management field. Two software tools, ERGO-EQ and HAZUS-MH, have been identified as more exhaustive in considering all the different variables involved in the shelter needs estimation. For this reason, this study also includes a full application of those two software tools to a real case study. Specifically, the modelling of the February 22nd, 2011 Christchurch earthquake is presented, in which hazard, vulnerability and exposure (both physical and social) were characterized over a specific area of Christchurch urban area as input to the aforementioned software tools. The employed tools yielded different results in terms of dislocated people and shelter needs estimates, for which a brief discussion is presented on possible ways to improve and to better reflect the local conditions, in order to produce more realistic outputs.

Investigating the key indicators for evaluating post-disaster shelter.

This study sought to identify the primary indicators for evaluating shelter assistance following natural disasters and then to develop a shelter evaluation instrument based on these indicators. Electronic databases and the 'grey' literature were scoured for publications with a relation to post-disaster shelter assistance. Indicators for evaluating such assistance were extracted from these publications. In total, 1,525 indicators were extracted from 181 publications. A preliminary evaluation instrument was designed from these 1,525 indicators. Shelter experts checked the instrument for face and content validity, and it was revised subsequently based on their input. The revised instrument comprises a version for use by shelter agencies (48 questions that assess 23 indicators) and a version for use by beneficiaries (52 questions that assess 22 indicators). The instrument can serve as a standardised tool to enable groups to gauge whether or not the shelter assistance that they supply meets the needs of disaster-affected populations.

Post-disaster relief operations considering psychological costs of waiting for evacuation and relief resources

After a disaster, a huge number of homeless victims should be evacuated from disaster sites to temporary shelters. However, because the evacuation capacity is insufficient, victims must be evacuated in batches and some of them must wait for evacuation at disaster sites; even the victims who have been evacuated to shelters must wait for resources, because the relief resources (e.g. tents) are insufficient. The psychological penalty cost perceived by victims may increase when they are waiting for evacuation at disaster sites or for relief resources at shelters, whereas psychological interventions can decrease the magnitude of the perceived psychological cost. Novel mathematical programs were developed for multi-step evacuation and sheltering under minimization of monetary and psychological penalty costs. By developing typical scenarios, the resource scarcity and psychological severity are investigated. With Wenchuan County (the epicenter of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake) as the test case, the influence and the sensitivity of parameters, tradeoff between monetary and psychological costs, and the effects of various scenarios are assessed using six experiments. Analytical results reveal the complexity and managerial insights by applying the proposed models to post-disaster evacuation and sheltering.

Life-time performance of post-disaster temporary housing: A case study in Nanjing

Temporary housing is crucial to disaster recovery, due to the demand for large numbers within a short period. The short life cycle and unique functional requirements associated with temporary housing could lead to significant environmental impacts. However these have not been adequately investigated. This paper focuses on the life cycle performance of light-framed temporary housing in China with local technologies, taking Chinese electricity mix of each process and domestic transportation distances into consideration. The research selects four popular temporary housing in China, calculates the material requirements and compares the life cycle impact of different wall assemblies based on Future House built in Nanjing. While energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions are used as surrogate indicators of environmental impact, total life-time impact is established by including construction energy, operating energy, maintenance energy and end-of-life energy and corresponding greenhouse gas emissions. It was found that the life cycle energy of post-disaster temporary housing is much higher in comparison to low energy buildings with construction energy contributing 65% to life cycle energy due to unique requirements. The results also show that life cycle energy of post-disaster shelters could be reduced by using recycled materials, lighter structural materials and light wall cladding materials.

アクションカード避難所編改訂―東日本大震災の教訓を受けて―

アクションカード避難所編改訂―東日本大震災の教訓を受けて―

Psychological Struggles of Children in Alternative Care Settings

This article explores from a psychoanalytic perspective a variety of challenges confronted by children in alternative care settings such as orphanages, sleep-away schools, post-disaster shelters, and even home environments altered by war. Among these challenges are the effects of sexual abuse and fear of it recurring, the assault on the child’s and adolescent’s developing sense of self, and irrational guilt connected with traumatic events. The indirect, but very powerful, effects of being cared for by war-traumatized adults are explored. Recommendations on how to help and protect these children and to improve the effectiveness of their caretakers are made.

Global or local construction materials for post-disaster reconstruction? Sustainability assessment of 20 post-disaster shelter designs.

This data article presents the life cycle inventories of 20 transitional shelter solutions. The data was gathered from the reports 8 shelter designs [1]; 10 post-disaster shelter designs [2]; the environmental impact of brick production outside of Europe [3]; and the optimization of bamboo-based post-disaster housing units for tropical and subtropical regions using LCA methodologies [4]. These reports include bill of quantities, plans, performance analysis, and lifespan of the studied shelters. The data from these reports was used to develop the Life Cycle Inventories (LCI). All the amounts were converted from their original units (length, volume and amount) into mass (kg) units and the transport distance into ton×km. These LCIs represent the production phases of each shelter and the transportation distances for the construction materials. Two types of distances were included, local (road) and international (freight ship), which were estimated based on the area of the country of study. Furthermore, the digital visualization of the shelters is presented for each of the 20 designs. Moreover, this data article presents a summary of the results for the categories Environment, Cost and Risk and the contribution to the environmental impact from the different building components of each shelter. These results are related to the article “Global or local construction materials for post-disaster reconstruction? Sustainability assessment of 20 post-disaster shelter designs”[5]

Global or local construction materials for post-disaster reconstruction? Sustainability assessment of twenty post-disaster shelter designs

The number and intensity of natural disasters is growing every year, with 394 major events affecting over 268 million people worldwide in the past decade. The objective of this study was to identify whether it is more appropriate to use local or global materials in post-disaster reconstruction projects. Twenty transitional shelters were identified over 11 different locations worldwide, and their environmental, economic, and mechanical/technical performances were compared. The environmental and economic assessments were based on life cycle cost and life cycle assessment. In the mechanical/technical assessments, the relationships between hazard zones and their performances were assessed for earthquakes, wind loads and floods. Sustainability was assessed using a benchmark system that incorporates the results from these three categories. The results show that shelters with high technical performance can be achieved with low price/low environmental impact per functional unit regardless of the type of material used. Local materials withhold higher potential for low environmental impacts and costs and global materials have higher potential to produce better technical performances. Although local constructive systems can provide the best compromise between environmental impacts and cost, their structural design requires more effort.

Temporary Sheltering, Psychological Stress Symptoms, and Perceptions of Recovery

AbstractIt is crucial to understand how postdisaster shelter choices affect disaster survivors’ stress. However, no study has investigated the association of different types of temporary shelters on psychological stress symptoms and the possible consequences for long-term recovery. This research aims to fill this gap by using panel data (2005 and 2008) collected from 531 households residing in seven coastal settlements in the Nagapattinam District of Tamil Nadu, which was affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. This study investigates how elements of temporary sheltering (e.g., what type, where, for how long) influence disaster survivors’ experiences of psychological stress symptoms. The authors approached postdisaster shelter not simply as a basic material human need, but as an integral part of social identity, mental well-being, and the reconstitution of economic livelihood. They found a statistically significant decrease in the psychological stress symptoms in disaster survivors three and half years...

Getting the Message Across for Safer Self-Recovery in Post-Disaster Shelter

Self-recovery in post-disaster shelter is not the exception but the norm. Following earthquake, flood or storm, the majority of affected families will inevitably rebuild their homes themselves, using their own resources, but there is little support from the international community to encourage good safe building practice. While the communication of key messages about safer building has been carried out effectively in development contexts, it rarely forms a major part of humanitarian response programming. If the humanitarian shelter sector is committed to the principles of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), more can be done to support the process of safer reconstruction among self-rebuilders. This paper argues the case for the humanitarian community to link post-disaster shelter programming with the more developmental approach of communicating building safety to a much wider audience than just the most vulnerable beneficiaries. It proposes the shelter sector and the donor community direct more resources towards support for this process, which would augment the effectiveness and impact of a shelter response.

Shelter recovery in urban Haiti after the earthquake: the dual role of social capital

This paper documents the culture-specific understanding of social capital among Haitians and examines its benefits and downsides in post-disaster shelter recovery following the 12 January 2010 earthquake. The case study of shelter recovery processes in three socioeconomically diverse communities (Pétion-Ville, Delmas and Canapé Vert) in Port-au-Prince suggests that social capital plays dual roles in post-disaster shelter recovery of the displaced population in Haiti. On the one hand, it provides enhanced access to shelter-related resources for those with connections. On the other hand, it accentuates pre-existing inequalities or creates new inequalities among displaced Haitians. In some cases, such inequalities lead to tensions between the haves and have-nots and instigate violence among the displaced.

Principles, Practice and Lessons From Haiti for Urban Post-Disaster Shelter Recovery Programs

Principles, Practice and Lessons From Haiti for Urban Post-Disaster Shelter Recovery Programs

Summit Discusses Public Health Implications of Fracking

Summit Discusses Public Health Implications of Fracking

Hurricane Events, Population Displacement, and Sheltering Provision in the United States

AbstractDisplacement has traditionally been conceptualized as a phenomenon that results from conflict or other disruptions in developing or unstable countries. Hurricane Katrina shattered this notion and highlighted the various dilemmas of population displacement in the United States. This paper focuses on the dilemma of postdisaster sheltering and housing as experienced after Hurricanes Andrew, Katrina, and Ike. Methodology and data sources include a review of scholarly empirical research, a Lexis-Nexis search of major laws and regulations passed after the hurricanes, congressional investigations and testimonies, and newspaper articles. Evidence is found of flexible but ad hoc policy response and programmatic changes during the housing recovery process. Given the problems experienced during the recovery process and the lack of attention paid to displacement issues, recommendations are made toward integrating a process approach into current practices to: (1) recognize disaster-induced displaced persons ...

Infra-Free® (IF) Architecture System as the Method for Post-Disaster Shelter Model

Currently, International Space Station (ISS) is capable to support 3 to 4 astronauts onboard for at least 6 months using an integrated life support system to support the need of crew onboard. Waste from daily life of the crew members are collected by waste recycle systems, electricity consumption depends on collecting solar energy, etc. though it likes the infrastructure we use on Earth, ISS can be comprehended nearly a self-reliant integrated architecture so far, this could be given an important hint for current architecture which is based on urban centralized infrastructure to support our daily lives but could be vulnerable in case of nature disasters. Comparatively, more and more economic activities and communications rely on the enormous urban central infrastructure to support our daily lives. Therefore, when in case of natural disasters, it may cut-out the infrastructure system temporarily or permanent. In order to solve this problem, we propose to design a temporary shelter, which is capable to work without depending on any existing infrastructure. We propose to use some closed-life-cycle or integrated technologies inspired by the possibilities of space and other emerging technologies into current daily architecture by using Infra-free® design framework; which proposes to integrate various life supporting infrastructural elements into one-closed system. We try to work on a scenario for post-disaster management housing as the method for solving the lifeline problems such as solid and liquid waste, energy, and water and hygiene solution into one system. And trying to establish an Infra-free® model of shelter for disaster area. The ultimate objective is to design a Temp Infra-free® model dealing with the sanitation and environment preservation concerns for disaster area.

Shelter, Housing and Recovery: A Comparison of U.S. Disasters

In this paper we examine the issues associated with the temporary sheltering and housing of victims after natural disasters in the United States. Specific topics addressed include differential access to shelter and housing aid according to social class, ethnicity and related demographic factors; the relationship between post-disaster shelter and housing and long-term recovery; the role of social support networks in the sheltering of victims; and the implications of the research for the provision of shelter and housing aid after disasters.