Strategic planning for post‐disaster temporary housing

Abstract

Temporary housing programmes suffer from excessively high cost, late delivery, poor location, improper unit designs and other inherent issues. These issues can be attributed in part to a prevalence of ad hoc tactical planning, rather than pre-disaster strategic planning, for reconstruction undertaken by governments and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the chaotic post-disaster environment. An analysis of the process and outcomes from six case studies of temporary housing programmes after disasters in Turkey and Colombia in 1999, Japan in 1995, Greece in 1986, Mexico in 1985, and Italy in 1976 yields information about the extent to which strategic planning is employed in temporary housing programmes, as well as common issues in temporary housing. Based on an understanding of these common issues, this paper proposes a framework for strategic planning for temporary housing that identifies organisational designs and available resources for temporary housing before the disaster, but allows modifications to fit the specific post-disaster situation.

The role of temporary accommodation buildings for post-disaster housing reconstruction

“…The costs of these temporary buildings are usually high, which has been considered a waste of funds owing to the relation between the great investments needed to buy them and their short life span. That problem seems to be more criticized in the case of temporary housing (Johnson 2007a(Johnson , b, 2008, since the cost of a temporary house can be the same as a permanent one (UNDRO 1982) or even three times higher (Hadafi and Fallahi 2010). This is a critical question because that overspending draws away resources that are crucial for the permanent reconstruction of houses (Johnson 2007b).…”

“…They are the support for social life, so designing them is designing the physical structure for social networks. The provision of public spaces may enable community to maintain their social ties as in pre-disaster, or even develop new ones, which is important during recovery (Johnson 2007a). Thus, it is essential to design social spaces as squares, plazas, gardens, parks, etc.…”

“…Temporary housing solutions have the necessary conditions and spaces to allow people to return to their normal activities such as cooking, housekeeping, working, socializing, and attending school. Thus, it is a crucial phase because it promotes the return to normalcy in a chaotic and uncertain post-disaster situation, being an essential step of reconstruction programs (Johnson 2007a). Two main groups of temporary housing solutions can be identified (Félix et al 2013a):…”

“…Propose beforehand possible solutions for units after their intended period of use. Alternatives to reuse, for the same or a different purpose, and to recycle are extremely advantageous (Johnson 2007a(Johnson , b, 2008Arslan 2007;Arslan and Cosgun 2007;2008). (l) Non-pollutant solutions.…”

“…With the data collected from the previous tasks, it is possible to establish the priorities in terms of works, the type of temporary accommodation solutions to use and their materials, how the units will be erected, and spatially organized on the ground. At the same time, the pre-plan should consider other issues, such as long-term outcomes for units and their sites (Johnson 2007a).…”