Emergency shelters for humanitarian aid after natural disasters [Elektronische Ressource] / by Nicole Becker

Nicole Hodcent

Sujets

• Social work

Informations

• Publié par: technische_universitat_carolo-wilhelmina_zu_braunschweig
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 31
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 6 Mo

Extrait

Emergency Shelters for Humanitarian Aid after Natural Disasters

Dissertation

submitted to and approved by the

Faculty of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Environmental Sciences
University of Braunschweig – Institute of Technology
and the
Faculty of Engineering
University of Florence

in candidacy for the degree of a
Doktor-Ingenieur (Dr.-Ing.) /
*)
Dottore di Ricerca in Risk Management on the Built Environment

by
Nicole Becker
Born 20 February 1979
from Cologne, Germany

Submitted on 3 April 2008
Oral examination on 29 May 2008
Professorial advisors Prof. Berthold Burkhardt
Prof. Claudio Borri

2008
*) Either the German or the Italian form of the title may be used. iiiii
Abstract
Every year hundreds of thousands of people become homeless due to natural disasters
and are consequently in need of temporary accommodation until they can return to
their reconstructed homes. Immediately after a disaster this temporary accommodation
is provided by emergency shelters. In developing countries these emergency shelters
are often family tents which, especially in cold climate disaster regions, however do not
provide adequate shelter. An example of this is the Pakistan earthquake in 2005 where
no appropriatewinterisedtents were available and thermalcomfort could not be gained,
giventheextremelycoldwinterconditions. Aimingtoimprovethissituationthepresent
work researches in detail the possibilities of a floor and roof insulation as well as the
required bedding as parts of a winterisation kit.
Theveryspecificproblemoftentwinterisationfitsinthemuchbroarderoveralltopic
of this work, i.e. the risk management of post-disaster homelessness. Using the data of
past disasters, the spread of homelessness for different disaster types and regions was
analysed. Furthermore, a risk index for homelessness due to earthquakes was developed
and the significant influence of the socio-economic boundary conditions on the
postdisaster sheltering situation was identified.
In its second part the work responds to the pressing need for the winterisation of
family tents by presenting a number of different options for a floor insulation. The use
of infrared reflective materials for the floor as well as for the roof insulation proved to
be very promising. Finally, due to the lack of any guidance on the required disaster
relief bedding in cold regions, a model for the determination of thermal comfort during
sleeping was developed. Concluding, the developed winterisation kit facilitates better
living conditions not only immediately after the disaster but as well in the long term,
as adequate emergency shelters offer more time for a better reconstruction.
Zusammenfassung
Jedes Jahr werden Hunderttausende Menschen durch Naturkatastrophen obdachlos. In
der Folge benotigen sie eine temporare Unterkunft bis sie in ihre wiederaufgebauten¨ ¨
Ha¨user zuru¨ckkehren k¨onnen. In der Anfangsphase werden daher zuna¨chst
Notunterku¨nfte zur Verfu¨gung gestellt. In Entwicklungsla¨ndern sind dies h¨aufig Zelte, die
jedoch keinen ausreichenden Schutz vor Kalte bieten. Dies wurde einmal mehr durch¨
dasPakistanErdbebenvon2005unterstrichen,beidemkeinewintertauglichenZeltezur
Verfugung standen. Daher untersucht die vorliegende Arbeit unterschiedliche Optionen¨
fu¨r die Boden- und Dachisolation, die schließlich in einem sogenannten ”winterisation
kit”fu¨r Familienzelte zusammengefasst werden.
Neben dem winterisation kit besch¨aftigt sich die Arbeit im ersten Teil mit den
allgemeineren Aspekten des Risikomanagements von Obdachlosigkeit nach
Naturkatastrophen, welches das Gesamtthema der Arbeit ist. Basierend auf den Daten vergan-iv
gener Katastrophen wird die Verteilung der Obdachlosigkeit uber verschiedene Katas-¨
trophenarten und Regionen ausgewertet. Ein Risikoindex fu¨r Erdbeben wird entwickelt
sowie der Einfluss soziookonomischer Randbedingungen auf die Unterkunftssituation¨
nach Katastrophen nachgewiesen.
AusgehendvondemdringendenBedarfanwintertauglichenZeltenwerdenimzweiten
Teil der Arbeit verschiedene Varianten einer Bodenisolierung prasentiert. Besonders die¨
Verwendung infrarot reflektierender Materialien sowohl fu¨r die Boden- als auch fu¨r die
Dachisolierung ist viel versprechend. Als Reaktion auf das Fehlen jedweder Standards
fu¨r den Einsatz von Bettzeug in kalten Klimata wurde ein Model entwickelt, welches
den thermischen Komfort beim Schlafen sicherstellt.
Zusammenfassendresultiertdasvorgestelltewinterisationkitfu¨rNotunterkunftszelte
in einer Verbesserung der Lebensbedingungen nicht nur unmittelbar nach der
Katastrophe sondern auch auf lange Sicht, da adaquate Notunterkunfte mehr Zeit fur einen¨ ¨ ¨
besseren Wiederaufbau bieten.v
To my husbandvivii
Acknowledgements
The present work was elaborated as part of the international graduate college ‘Risk
Management of Natural and Civilization Hazards on Buildings and Infrastructure´ of
the TU Braunschweig, Germany and the Universit`a degli Studi di Firenze, Italy. I
would like to thank the DFG (German Research Foundation) for its financial support
of this graduate college which allowed me to carry through this thesis. Furthermore my
thank goes to my two supervisors, Prof. Berthold Burkhardt of the TU Braunschweig
and Prof. Claudio Borri of the Universit`a degli Studi di Firenze for their support and
valuable comments which they have provided over the last three years. I would also
like to thank Dr. Ulf Hammerschmidt of the PTB in Braunschweig for his advice on
thermodynamical subjects. Due to the topic of this work, the contact with people
working in the field of humanitarian aid in general and on emergency shelters in special
has been a precious source of information for which I thank them very much. I would
like to specially mention the Shelter Centre and its half-yearly Shelter Meeting which
gavemeaccesstovalueablematerialaswellastoalargenumberofexpertsinthefieldof
emergencyshelteraid. OfthemIwouldliketohighlightMarcusAlberandHeinerGloor
of SDC/HA for the exchange of ideas on tent winterisation and the helpful comments.
Furthermore, many thanks to OCHA and the UNHCR for providing me access to their
material on winterised tents. Finally, I would like to thank my parents and my husband
for their wonderful support which has largely contributed to this work.viiiContents
1 Introduction 1
2 Risk Management and Analysis of Homelessness 7
2.1 Risk Management of Homelessness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.1.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.1.2 Pre-disaster Risk Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.1.3 Post-disaster Risk Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.1.4 Risk Management Process over Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.2 Risk Analysis of Homelessness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.2.1 Homelessness Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.2.2 Data Source for Risk Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.2.3 Analysis of Homelessness for Disaster Types . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.2.4 Analysis of Homelessness for Regions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.3 Development of a Risk Index for Homelessness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.3.1 Influence of Disaster Magnitude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.3.2 Influence of Socio-economic Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.3.3 Risk Index for Earthquakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3 Impact of Vulnerability on Sheltering Options 33
3.1 Contribution of Socio-economic Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.2 Diagram of Influencing Factors for Shelter Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.3 Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.3.1 Why does somebody need temporary accommodation? . . . . . . 40
3.3.2 Which type of temporary accommodation will be available to the
person? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.3.3 How long will the person have to stay in the temporary
accommodation? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4 Need for Shelter Aid 47
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4.2 The Right to Adequate Shelter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
ixx CONTENTS
4.3 Functions of Shelter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
4.4 Disasters in Cold Climate Regions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
4.5 The Pakistan Earthquake, 8 October 2005 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
4.5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
4.5.2 Disaster Situation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
4.5.3 Climatic Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4.5.4 Winter Race . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4.5.5 Winterisation Campaign for Non-winterised Tents . . . . . . . . . 59
4.5.6 Shelter Situation 2 Months after the Earthquake . . . . . . . . . . 59
4.5.7 Temporary Shelters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .