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This chapter describes the complexity of large-scale disaster recovery programs in the United States, the challenges faced by these programs, and the importance of multiteam systems in overcoming these challenges.

This chapter is a case study based on the experience of the authors in hurricane recovery programs.

Multiteam systems provide the range of expertise and experience needed to implement complex large-scale disaster recovery programs. For such disasters, responsibility for recovery work needs to be divided among specialized teams with unique expertise, some of which act as checks and balances for others. Challenges facing these teams include ensuring compliance with multiple Federal and state requirements, providing sufficient training to program staff, modifying procedures in response to changing program policies, and communicating changes for all pressure to move quickly, while at the same time facing intense pressure to process applications for assistance as rapidly as possible.

This chapter provides organizations responsible for disaster recovery important information about the scope of work and challenges they are likely to face following a large-scale disaster.

There is a need to understand resourcing issues when reconstructing the built environment in a post‐disaster situation. The purpose of this paper is to determine the resourcing difficulties that are likely to face the international practitioners in post‐disaster reconstruction by identifying and comparing the factors that affected resource availability following natural disasters in Indonesia and China respectively.

The research methodology included field‐based questionnaire surveys, semi‐structured interviews and observations. A comparative analysis was used to extract similarities and differences with regard to resourcing approaches in Indonesia and China.

Despite the different resourcing approaches adopted in Indonesia and China in their recovery from large‐scale disasters, there are common issues facing post‐disaster reconstruction stakeholders, including competence of the implementing agencies, capacity of transportation, governance and legislation, and market conditions. Specifically, community‐related housing features played a dominant role in donor‐driven resourcing practice in post‐Indian Ocean tsunami reconstruction in Indonesia, whereas factors related to project control and management primarily contributed to resourcing performance of Chinese reconstruction specialists following the Wenchuan earthquake.

To solve resourcing problems, countries need to create an enabling environment and build institutional capacity. The cross‐cultural comparative analysis encourages policy makers and practitioners to exchange experiences from recent recovery operations.

The paper illustrates the infrastructural and institutional weaknesses that hindered effective resource procurement during post‐disaster reconstruction in Indonesia and China. The research findings show common areas in need of improvement in other disaster prone countries, along with the issues to be addressed in the donor‐led or contractor‐led resourcing practice in the two studied countries.

Following a large-scale disaster, medical assistance is a critical component of the emergency response. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Academic and practitioner literature is used to develop a framework studying the effectiveness of the humanitarian medical supply chain (HMSC). The framework is validated by using the findings of interviews conducted with experts and the case study of a serious humanitarian medical crisis (Ebola outbreak in 2014).

The factors affecting the effectiveness of the HMSC are identified.

To get an expert opinion on the major logistical challenges of the medical assistance in emergencies only 11 interviews with practitioners were conducted.

While the existing academic literature discusses the distribution of various supplies needed by the affected population, limited research focuses specifically on studying the HMSC aspect of the response. This paper closes this gap by describing the HMSC in the case of disaster response, and identifying the factors affecting its effectiveness, especially focusing on the factors that are unique to the medical aspect of the humanitarian supply chain.

The study aims to explore improvements to environmental management legislation that will enable the implementation of post-disaster reconstruction activities after the built environment has been affected by a natural disaster.

The study programme collates opinions from building and development control officers and other disaster practitioners based in New Zealand. The objective was to determine the practical implication of implementing reconstruction arrangements under the Resource Management Act (RMA). The survey was administered online, and a data set of 80 responses was used for the analyses.

The survey results show that the current reconstruction framework in New Zealand may cause procedural constraints and become burdensome to property owners who desire early recovery from a disaster event. Therefore, improvements are suggested to certain aspects of the RMA reconstruction provisions, so that it facilitates early recovery from natural disasters.

The paper is one aspect of a doctoral study that reviewed the implications of implementing reconstruction under existing legislative framework. It highlights the need for improvements to environmental management legislation to enable effective reconstruction after natural disasters in New Zealand. These have wider implications to other countries to revise their legislation before any disaster, thus reducing the problems that may be experienced while implementing environmental and developmental legislation.

The purpose of this paper is to provide graduate students, researchers, governmental and independent agencies with an overview of technological disasters.

Technological disasters are subjects of concern to researchers, academicians, governmental and independent agencies. Disasters are classified into natural and man‐made disasters. For an incident to be classified as a disaster, the disaster criteria should be met. Several disaster criteria have been proposed defining the disasters in terms of casualties, economic loss and environmental impact. The disasters which involve major hazard installations (MHIs) are known as technological disasters. The technological disaster definition, stages, types, criteria, factors, models have been reviewed. This paper presents an overview of technological disaster definition, criteria, stages, models, factors, and prevention.

Although the technological disasters may occur at non‐MHIs, it has been noted that most of the technological disasters involved MHIs and that their impact is not limited to the plants but can extend to neighboring surroundings. The technological disaster consists of three stages: before, during, and after disaster. There are many factors contributing to the technological disasters, some of which are observed clearly while others are partially hidden. The main technological disaster factors were identified as human, organizational and technological errors. Few models have been drawn describing the sequence of development of the technological disaster.

This paper presents an overview on the technological disaster definition, criteria, types, stages, models, factors, and prevention and combines the scattered information on technological disaster into one record.

This chapter focuses on the experiences and processes of earthquake recovery to discuss the general state of disaster recovery in Japan. In this way, it is expected that the outcome and discussion can provide effective insights for both domestic and international disaster-related efforts. First, the characteristics of natural disasters in Japan are summarized using statistical data. Quantitative and qualitative methods are flexibly used to analyze published data, materials, and semistructured interview data. Published data and materials are collected from various sources. Interview data were gained from diverse interviewees. Then, four case studies of earthquake recovery are introduced and the application of their recovery experiences to future disaster risk reduction is proposed. Finally, conclusions have been drawn from these case studies to show the practical influence of disaster-recovery experiences to regions that are currently experiencing or are likely to experience natural disasters in the future. More specifically, the chapter illustrates what challenges and influences past earthquakes can have on our present preparedness against a Nankai Trough Earthquake, which is predicted to occur in the near future.

All disasters produce wastes of some kind, be it the trees fallen by a cyclone, a house destroyed by an earthquake, a beach coated by an oil spill, or animals killed by a flood. Postdisaster responses also produce wastes – from the human excreta of people staying in the camp to day-to-day household wastes. The issue of management of wastes created by disasters is becoming an increasingly important issue to be addressed in postdisaster response due to their scale, complexity, and cost. The cost of disaster waste management (DWM) has crossed the billion dollar mark in some of the major disasters, which is necessitating and prompting the emergence of a separate stream of expertise in DWM. In January 2011, the Joint Unit of the United Nations Environment Programme and Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) came out with Disaster Waste Management Guidelines (2011).

After the occurrence of natural disasters, the rapid and accurate delivery of geo-afforestation is the key to emergency rescue and is the fundamental solution to the “last mile” problem. It provides technical support for the territorial rapid and accurate delivery. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Through literature and theoretical research, combined with the research experience of scholars, the qualitative research method is adopted. The paper establishes a three-dimensional analysis framework, including disaster predictability, resource availability and transport accessibility, and proposes the integrated delivery triangular technical framework, including integrated monitoring analysis, the territorial virtual public storage and transportation.

Based on the analysis of the factors affecting the effectiveness of emergency delivery, the paper establishes a three-dimensional analysis framework, including disaster predictability, resource availability and transport accessibility, and proposes the integrated delivery triangular technical framework, including integrated monitoring analysis, the territorial virtual public storage and transportation. The triangular technical characteristics and functions of emergency delivery are studied, providing theoretical basis and technical support for effective rescue and emergency planning.

The territorial emergency delivery refers to the process of rapid and accurate delivery without relying on external territorial supplies. The paper establishes a three-dimensional analysis framework, including disaster predictability, resource availability and transport accessibility, and proposes the integrated delivery triangular technical framework, including integrated monitoring analysis, the territorial virtual public storage and transportation.

This paper presents a pop-up technique based on origamic architecture as a technological design solution for post-disaster temporary shelter systems. First of all, the concepts of disaster and post-disaster are briefly introduced, and the roles and needs of post-disaster temporary shelter systems, particularly in emergency periods, are reviewed. Second, pop-up techniques based on origamic architecture are briefly discussed. Third, a formal language for opening the cards of origamic architecture is introduced, out of which a geometric elasticity has been developed. With the language, a variety of flexible and expandable designs for shelter structures can be generated by incorporating different pop-up techniques. Finally, a prototype shelter has been constructed to demonstrate the adaptability and sustainability of the shelter within the local environment and the affected society, considering portability, low-cost, and easy in assembling by any unskilled person.

The purpose of this paper is to reveal the importance of the order of establishment of temporary logistics hubs (TLHs) when resources (mobile storage units used as TLHs) are limited and to present the development and implementation of a methodology that determines the order of establishment of TLHs to support post-disaster decision making.

It employed a decision support system that considers multiple decision makers and subjective attributes, while also addressing the impreciseness inherent in post-disaster decision making for ordering the establishment of TLHs. To do so, an optimization model was combined with a fuzzy multi-attribute group decision making approach. A numerical illustration was performed using data from the April 2015 Nepal Earthquake.

The results showed the location and order of establishment of TLHs, and demonstrated the impact of decision makers’ opinions on the overall ordering.

The study does not discuss the uncertain nature of the location problem and the potential need for relocation of TLHs.

This methodology offers managerial insights for post-disaster decision making when resources are limited and their effective utilization is vital. The results highlight the importance of considering the opinions of multiple actors/decision makers to enable coordination and avoid complication between the growing numbers of humanitarian responders during disaster response.

This study introduces the concept of the order of establishment of TLHs and demonstrates its importance when resources are limited. It develops and implements a methodology determining the order of establishment of TLHs to support post-disaster decision making.