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Emergency shelters are often designed to be of temporary nature but end up adopting a more permanent nature in becoming informal settlements. On one hand, these settlements suffer from the conflicts and environmental pressures. On the other hand, they also bear the inadequacies of services and facilities. This adds to the vulnerability of the refugee population to climatic extremes and environmental extremes along with a low quality of life. The present study aims to identify the pressures both environmental and socio-economic on a refugee camp in the Dalhamyie settlement in Bekaa, Lebanon and design a resilient model which address both internal and external risks. We propose a master plan as a suggested guideline representing a preliminary design umbrella plan that may be updated and altered depending on the population of the community, the site's limitations, and the general availability of resources. To help the local refugees become more resilient and self-sufficient in times of crisis, recommendations are here presented are not strict structural plans but rather a strategic, data-driven collection of actions. With the increasing mental stress that refugees experience, the idea of resilience at all levels is needed to lessen and reinforce the constant environmental, physical, and economic threat that they are subjected to. Residential zoning has been detailed out with respect to the form, structure and assembling of components along with cluster planning within the settlement. Recommendations are not a rigid structural plan but a strategic, data driven set of actions that can be implemented by the local refugee community in order to achieve greater resilience and self-sustainability during crisis situations. Such model is applicable with modifications for other emergency settlements also with varying risk factors. The proposed model addresses the challenges and the multiple risks that the people are exposed to present a framework that can lead to better quality of life in temporary settlements. With more climate refugees, conflict driven refugees and internal refugees, absence of such models was a gap and the authors have tried to build the same through one case study.

Importance of water is not a new concept for human kind, everyone knows and is well aware of the various reasons why water is vital for the human society, what is perhaps more ambiguous is the extent of this importance. This paper reflects upon the importance of water in a societal point of view, through various examples of issues and difficulties faced by areas having less to no access to water. The difference of rural and urban areas, with respect to availability of water and its consequences is established. Also the paper tries to identify the various traditional indigenous techniques, reflecting the geographical peculiarities and cultural uniqueness of different communities with the example of Dholavira, Indus valley civilization city and Mandu fort from Madhya Pradesh. The paper explains how efficient the water harvesting systems were and how various regions adopt vernacular techniques to save the precious resource. Lastly the paper sheds light on how and why these techniques can and should be adopted in modern and more urban context with amalgamation of new technology and how participation at neighborhood level can be a vital approach to the concept of rain water harvesting and water conservation.

The climate is changing at a fast rate and the impact of the same can now be felt across all the world. The worst hit is the Asian countries which are the most vulnerable when it comes to extreme events. To cope with same, local level actions are the most effective if originated from local community and local context. Traditional wisdom originates from deep cultural and environmental considerations along with generations transformation that transcends these traditional practices to a much-suited action with respect to resiliency. The paper establishes the role of such traditional practices in the achievement of climate resilience in communities. The authors draw insights from the existing indigenous practices from various Asian countries and try to analyze the various challenges and potential in adoption of such practices on larger scale. The paper concludes with recommendations to overcome such challenges.

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