Design Development of Post Disaster Transitional Shelter

Abstract

Transitional Housing is a crucial intermediate phase in the disaster recovery process, where the affected population resides for a temporary period until they can return to their habitats. The built environment today is affected more and more by rapid and drastic changes due to human-made and natural disasters. Presently, Humanitarian Aid of disaster relief shelters functioning the role of transitional shelters is often in the form of plastic sheets, tents, prefabricated units, and public community buildings such as community centres, schools, hospitals, university halls of residence, places of worship, sports venues, and private rentals. The providence of such facilities is often carried out by the government administrations, NGOs, and Humanitarian Aid Agencies. The term of residence in such facility ranges from days to years, which disrupts the normal functioning of the public institution that is used to house the displaced population, especially schools and colleges. The study begins by studying the impact of disasters and Humanitarian Aid with a focus on Shelter Aid. The definition of transitional accommodation by several aid agencies is analysed with the help of case study of transitional shelters implemented in the aftermath of past disasters. We identified essential characteristics of transitional housing by making a comparative review of different solutions developed in the past in the global context by universities, architects, designers, engineers, manufacturers, NGOs, and governments. The objective of this research is to develop the design guidelines for transitional shelter aftermath of a flood disaster, with a focus to create dignified living conditions which are both environmentally sustainable and economically feasible. The context of the study is the Flood Plains of the Brahmaputra Valley in the North Eastern state of Assam, India which gets flooded annually displacing thousands of people. The residents of the flood-plains and scattered river islands in the form of sandbars of the Brahmaputra basi