Maximising the net social benefit of the construction of post‐disaster alternative housing projects

Abstract

The widespread destruction that follows large-scale natural disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, challenges the efficacy of traditional temporary housing methods in providing adequate solutions to housing needs. Recognising these housing challenges, the Congress of the United States allocated, in 2006, USD 400 million to the Department of Homeland Security to support Alternative Housing Pilot Programs, which are intended to explore the possibilities of providing permanent and affordable housing to displaced families instead of traditional temporary housing. This paper presents a new methodology and optimisation model to identify the optimal configurations of post-shelter housing arrangements to maximise the overall net socioeconomic benefit. The model is capable of quantifying and optimising the impacts of substituting temporary housing with alternative housing on the social and economic welfare of displaced families as well as the required additional costs of doing so. An application example is presented to illustrate the use of the model and its capabilities.

Community reconstruction orientation by victims of the disaster of a post-monsoon flood in Malaysia

“…The mistakes in planning for disaster victims can have many effects from the economic and social standpoints. From an economic standpoint, the design of community reconstruction after disasters requires significant costs for the restoration of all aspects, including replacement housing and basic amenities (El-Anwar, 2013; Amini Hosseini et al, 2013). In fact, the longer it takes, the higher the costs that will be involved (Whitman et al, 2014).…”

Urban Resources Selection and Allocation for Emergency Shelters: In a Multi-Hazard Environment

“…In other words, there is a price for the use of urban resources. The management department is also concerned about how to maximize the social benefits of emergency shelters so that they can be used for other purposes or be in perpetual use [ 35 ]. At present, methods proposed by mathematical models and the GIS platform focus on determining and optimizing the allocation of emergency shelters to respond to a variety of disasters such as earthquakes [ 36 , 37 , 38 ], floods [ 16 , 39 , 40 ] and hurricanes [ 15 , 41 , 42 ].…”