Shelter and Settlements in Emergencies
Outline
1. Need for Shelter in Emergencies
2. Categories of Shelter
• Emergency Shelter
• Temporary Shelters
• Temporary Housing
• Transitional Shelters
• Progressive Shelters
• Core Shelters/One-Room Shelters
• Permanent Housing
3. Issues Related to Shelters
4. Guidelines for Shelter Design
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Need for Shelter in Emergencies
Meeting shelter needs pre- and post-disaster remains a major
challenge for governments, humanitarian agencies, and, most
important of all, survivors. Disaster shelters are considered vital for
personal safety, climate protection, security, and resistance to disease
and ill health.
Shelters not only provide immediate and short-term shelter for the
victims of a disaster, but they also help them to recover from the
trauma of a disaster as well as provide a base to start the process.
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Need for Shelter in Emergencies…
Typical examples of disaster relief shelters include plastic sheets, tents,
prefabricated units, and public community buildings such as leisure centres,
university halls of residence, places of worship, sports venues, and private
rentals.
A shelter requires more than just a roof for a space to be habitable. People
living in a shelter must have enough clothing, blankets, mattresses, stoves,
fuel, and access to services such as water and sanitation. Many DR shelters
are designed and planned so that they can be erected, dismantled, and
stored for future use.
Although the provision of shelters is widely accepted as a necessary
component of response and recovery following disasters such as
earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, and floods, it is not yet clear which type
of shelter is most appropriate given various circumstances that can occur in
practice - climate, cultural differences, poorly located settings, camp-
related social issues, expenses, overcrowding, poor services, and delays.
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Categories of Shelter
1. Emergency Shelter: This type of shelter is used for brief periods of time to
deliver life-saving support and is the most basic kind of shelter support to be
used for a temporary period)for a single night to a few days during an
emergency.
2. Temporary Shelters: This type of shelter is meant for short-term use. A
simple tent or a public mass shelter used for a few weeks following a disaster
constitute a temporary shelter.
3. Temporary Housing: This type of shelter is often distributed for long-term
periods such as six months to three years. Temporary housing such as rental
houses and prefabricated unit allow people affected by a disaster to return
to their normal daily activities.
4. Transitional Shelters: This type of shelter is usually developed by displaced
individuals themselves following a disaster, and such resourcefulness and
self-management should be supported. Transitional shelters are commonly
relocated from a temporary site to a permanent location, upgraded into part
of a permanent house, resold to generate income to aid with recovery,
recycled for reconstruction, and reused for other purposes
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Categories of Shelter…
5. Progressive Shelters: This type of shelter is designed and built to be more
permanent and upgradeable in the future through alterable structural
components.
6. Core Shelters/One-Room Shelters: This type of shelter is designed and
built with the intent of being permanent housing in the future, including a
foundation and all or some of the key services, such as plumbing and various
utilities.
7. Permanent Housing: Permanent housing may be upgraded from a
transitional shelter, a progressive shelter, a core shelter, or even a new
house. Such houses should be resistant and resilient to future hazards and
disasters.
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Issues Related to Shelter
It is not yet clear which type of shelter is most appropriate for different real-
life disaster circumstances. As a result, several environmental, economic,
technical, and sociocultural issues can affect survivors when their shelters
are designed improperly.
1. Environmental issues arise when changes in climatic conditions are not
taken into consideration by designers, such as when simple tents are
provided to survivors in a winter season or when a lack of local materials and
resources is overlooked such as a lack of hygienic water and air, which leads
to a significant amount of pollution.
2. Economic Issues include when a temporary house unit costs more than
rebuilding a permanent house. Experts claim that such units can be up to
three times more expensive
Another economic issue is a shelter’s lifespan. Certain types of shelters, such
as temporary houses, are usually set up for a temporary period. However,
these shelters often require facilities, services, and utilities such as
electricity, sanitation, sewerage, roads, etc. Thus, the entire infrastructure of
such shelters requires a significant amount of money, which makes them
very expensive to build, especially for less developed and developing
countries.
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Issues Related to Shelter…
3. Technical issues include lack of space and planning for storing units and
materials and illegal occupancy of shelters after a disaster period has passed.
In addition, certain kinds of units are more complex in design than others
and require highly skilled workers and kits. The performance of shelters
tends to suffer when they are small, uncomfortable, and difficult to maintain
and upgrade and less of isolations in materials
4. Sociocultural issues include cultural differences between aid suppliers and
survivors, which can create misunderstandings, when certain solutions are
not suitable for users, poor social networks, a lack of places of to
communicate, inequality between poor and rich survivors, lack of support to
vulnerable people, gender issues, religious issues, and educational issues.
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Guidelines for Shelter Design
1. Environmental Factors
• Climate variations: The weather varies significantly between potential
disaster locations by season. People of different regions with different
temperatures may find different types of shelter more appropriate and
comfortable based on their home environment.
• Recycling, upgrading, and disposal: The material of DR shelters should be
easy to recycle, upgrade, reuse, resell, and relocate after a shelter is
disassembled.
• Hygienic (water & air): Promoting personal and environmental hygiene is
required in order to protect people’s health. Water, sanitation, and
hygiene infrastructure and facilities have to be adequate in camps.
2. Economic Factors
• Type of shelters: Money plays a vital role in disaster response and
recovery. It is often a critical element in ensuring design and shelter costs.
There are several types of shelters that can be used in disaster responses,
such as plastic sheeting, tents, prefabricated units, and permanent
buildings (to be used for a temporary period).
• Lifetime: The design and planning of shelters should understand their
intended life spans given the standards and conditions of the locations
where they are to be built
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Guidelines for Shelter Design….
2. Economic Factors…
• Livelihood: Livelihood support for shelter users applies for the most part
to long-term displacement scenarios. After providing initial shelters to
affected people, support groups can assist locals to begin earning money
by helping them to start small businesses. The psychological recovery
process of an affected population can be facilitated by encouraging
activities that support life and elevate the socioeconomic status of
affected people.
3. Technical Factors
• Easy to Erect and Dismantle: In order to make shelters easy to erect and
dismantle to serve many functions and purposes, they need to be of light
weight and have few pieces. Certain types of shelters, such as plastic
sheets and tents, are simply erected for a short time span and then
dismantled. If the design of a shelter is complex, it will require more
training and resources to build it, leading to potential delays.
• Materials and Insulations: The materials used in construction should
avoid environmental pollution of any kind. The materials should cause no
harmful emissions, and ideally should be made of recyclable, sustainable
materials; they should also be easy to manufacture and construct, as well
as light in weight.
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Guidelines for Shelter Design….
3. Technical Factors…
• Classification of Hazards and Performance: A shelter’s structure should
be designed so as to protect its occupants from hazards such as
earthquakes, storms, and diseases. Furthermore, when a shelter will
become part of a permanent home should also be taken into account in
areas prone to floods and high winds.
• Materials and Insulations: The materials used in construction should
avoid environmental pollution of any kind. The materials should cause no
harmful emissions, and ideally should be made of recyclable, sustainable
materials; they should also be easy to manufacture and construct, as well
as light in weight.
• Physical and Psychological Effects: individuals whose homes have been
damaged entirely commonly have serious stress issues. Losing a house
has a considerable psychological impact and can cause physical stress
symptoms. Losing a house can not only cause serious trauma, but can
also cause long-term negative outcomes such as posttraumatic stress
disorder. Therefore, it is important to consider design elements to reduce
stress of affected people when designing and arranging shelters.
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Guidelines for Shelter Design….
4. Sociocultural Factors
• Cultural Difference: Shelter orientations, styles, and design details are
different between regions, countries, and even ethnic groups within
countries. As a result, they must be adapted to local communities and
their cultures. Providers or aid suppliers must respect and understand
users’ cultures to provide adequate shelter solutions for them. Shelter
solutions must reflect the needs and requirements of users’ traditional
values, religions, family sizes, genders, and local architectural styles.
• Dignity and Security: Dignity and security in a shelter have a significant
impact on individuals that varies from region to region, community to
community, and culture to culture. Shelters should not be developed as a
simple physical structure, but so as to make users feel socially integrated
and provide space to live with dignity and security.
• Communication: Communication in the early stages of disaster recovery
has a significant impact on survivors, and their participation in recovery
decisions during these periods can reduce negative impacts and help
them to think about requirements such as their future living locations and
needs. There are several possible means of communication for a
community to develop strong social networks: television, radio, internet,
mobile phone, newspapers, leaflets, posters, information packs,
committees, workshops, and training.
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