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PurposeUnderstanding the supply network of construction materials used to construct shelters in refugee camps, or during the reconstruction of communities, is important as it can reveal the intricate links between different stakeholders and the volumes and speeds of material flows to the end-user. Using social network analysis (SNA) enables another dimension to be analysed – the role of commonalities. This is likely to be particularly important when attempting to replace vernacular materials with higher-performing alternatives or when encouraging the use of non-vernacular methods. This paper aims to analyse the supply networks of four different disaster-relief situations.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from interviews with 272 displaced (or formally displaced) families in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Turkey, often in difficult conditions.FindingsThe results show that the form of the supply networks was highly influenced by the nature/cause of the initial displacement, the geographical location, the local availability of materials and the degree of support/advice given by aid agencies and or governments. In addition, it was found that SNA could be used to indicate which strategies might work in a particular context and which might not, thereby potentially speeding up the delivery of novel solutions.Research limitations/implicationsThis study represents the first attempt in theorising and empirically investigating supply networks using SNA in a post-disaster reconstruction context. It is suggested that future studies might map the up-stream supply chain to include manufacturers and higher-order, out of country, suppliers. This would provide a complete picture of the origins of all materials and components in the supply network.Originality/valueThis is original research, and it aims to produce new knowledge.

The delivery of health, food, and shelter to the 68.5 million people displaced worldwide represents a significant challenge. Camps can house hundreds of thousands of people, and the provision of shelter on such a scale uses considerable amounts of energy and construction materials. Although there have been several attempts to calculate the embodied energy of small numbers of shelters, summary statistics for the embodied energy (EE) and embodied carbon (EC) in general remain unknown. This makes it impossible for those designing shelters to know where their solution sits relative to the median. The primary aim of this article is to resolve this gap by using data collected from eighty-one shelter designs in thirty-four countries to complete the first large scale and global estimate of the EE and EC of shelters. Second, it aims to introduce a web-based and open-access tool, developed to help any stakeholder or interested party obtain an idea of the EE and EC of their design. The median EE was found to be 920 MJ per m 2 of footprint with a 95 percent confidence interval (CI) of 599 to 1200 MJ/m 2 . The median EC was 90 kgCO2e/m 2 ; 95 percent CI [39.2, 99.6]. Importantly, when these figures were further normalised per annum of service life and statistically analysed, more robust shelters did not generally have a greater environmental footprint per annum. Just three material categories-metal, clay bricks/tiles, and concrete-were found to dominate EE and EC.

The expanding use of IT has brought an increase in productivity to the world of business, industry and commerce. However, this is not mirrored by an equivalent growth in the use of IT by aid agencies in post-disaster situations. We report a pioneering two-stage study which tested the appetite for the increased use of computational IT tools in this sector, assessed their level of usefulness and whether they can be practically implemented. Thirty aid workers across nineteen countries were surveyed on their use of IT and computational tools in shelter design and provision. The key finding was that none of the participants used any building simulation tools or software packages in any of the design stages of shelter construction. Using this result, two example tools were created-one assessing daylighting and the other environmental impact. A second survey involving 48 aid workers was then carried out to record their experience of using the new tools and 97% of the participants identified a need for such shelter design tools. The majority felt that the new tools were useful and that they would like to use similar tools in their work, most of them preferring tools in the form of web applications. It is concluded that humanitarian workers in the shelter sector are very willing to adopt IT-based computational tools in their work and would appreciate doing so, but only if they have access to suitably simple tools which are quick to use and easy to learn.

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