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The purpose of this paper is to explore the challenges of transitional shelter provision for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in urban informal settlements. While there has been considerable research on postdisaster transitional shelters, less is known on shelters for IDPs in urban informal settlements.

A case study is presented based on field research at the communities in Olaria and City in São Paulo, Brazil. Collection of data included personal communication with the dwellers, surveys and interviews with representatives from Techo, one of the few organizations that provide transitional shelters for IDPs. A review of documents regarding the construction, design and users' adaptation of transitional shelter was also undertaken. Data was analyzed using thematic analysis.

The study found that Techo's program impacts positively on the nonphysical aspects of shelter, such as physical and mental health, security, household responsibilities and community participation. However, Techo's transitional shelter for IDPs in urban informal settlements and most postdisaster transitional shelters share similar problems. These programs respond to the needs of a small proportion of the affected populations with shelters of minimum quality and low durability.

This paper is limited to a single case study of the NGO Techo and further case study research is recommended to further develop and validate the study results in other urban development contexts.

This research contributes to describing and understanding the context and the provision of transitional shelters to IDPs in urban informal settlements and impacts in the community. With increasing numbers of IDPs settling in urban informal settlements in many parts of the world, this paper is valuable to policymakers, NGOs and researchers operating in this field to facilitate community development.

“Process” vs “product”: this concept was originally introduced by Ian Davis in 1978 in Shelter After Disaster. However, 40 years later, in the halls of universities, it would appear a long way from having settled in the minds of upcoming engineers and architects looking to contribute to the field of disaster management. This key understanding is a major steppingstone to those pursuing careers in the shelter and settlements sector. However, the clarity of the argument and its importance still fails to reach some humanitarians in the early stages of their career. This perspective reflects on the key arguments for and against process over product and reflects on the reasons for the lack of recognition of this concept in early stage academics in the shelter and settlements sector. It also discusses the academic practitioner divide and pathways for learning within the sector.

This perspective reflects on discussions over four years of a progression into the humanitarian shelter and settlements sector from a construction and engineering background. It discusses the author’s personal progression in understanding process over product and observations of other early stage researchers taking similar pathways. It also examines literature in the sector and the key texts which affect this progression. Furthermore, this perspective provides comments from experts in the shelter and settlements sector through a small series of informal interviews. This provides insight into their experience with upcoming architects and engineers, and key messages for early stage researchers.

This reflection found that upcoming architects and engineering students still undergo a journey of understanding over “process vs product” despite changes in the industry. These students can benefit from the understanding of shelter as a process.

The concept of process vs product is not a new one. It is arguably one of the most central arguments to the shelter and settlements sector. However, there is very little written on the learning of this concept or the effects it has on understanding the broader aspects of the sector. This reflection can provide significant value to early stage researchers who have yet to engage with this concept, and further highlight its importance of learning pathways to the sector.

This paper aims to report on a study to investigate the feasibility of thermal reflective multi-layer system (TRMS) as support for disaster resilience.

It is an innovative insulation system, developed from space engineering studies, is lightweight and is characterised by a thermal conductivity of 0.038 W/mK, making it a strong candidate for inexpensive shelter after disaster design.

One of the results of this study is a proposal for the air shelter house, a new concept design of a shelter based on TRMS.

The combined use of TRMS with the low cost of building materials and a 3D printer system for the construction joints provides a good compromise between building cost and energy efficiency performance. Such an innovative design supports disaster resilience during response, reconstruction and mitigation phases, and it is suitable for a wide variety of cultural and environmental situations where energy efficiency is important.

The purpose of this study is to examine people’s preferences for some of the key attributes of emergency shelters, including type, privacy level, location, spatial arrangement and pet-friendliness.

Choice experiment (CE) method was used in this study. A standard CE questionnaire was designed and completed by a sample of 293 residents of the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario (Canada), during the winter of 2015.

When using publicly provided shelters, people prefer to stay in hotels, places of worship and then community shelters, in that order. These findings correspond to the values that they place for various attributes through the CE survey. Findings show that responders place the highest values for emergency shelters that provide more privacy, located close to their home, and are pet friendly. Type of shelter and the “arrangement” attributes were not found to be as important and valuable.

This study uses a convenient sampling method as such may not fully represent the study population.

Emergency shelter provision by local, regional and national governments cost significant amount of money and thus it is important that the society get the maximum benefit from it. This will be possible when users’ preferences are considered in planning, design, and operation of emergency shelters. The findings enable emergency managers to perform cost-benefit analysis an increase the efficiency of emergency shelters.

While previous studies have examined emergency-shelter types, characteristics and user-satisfaction levels, this is a novel study because it uses a choice experiment method to extract monetary values for key emergency-shelter attributes.

Finding an appropriate place for temporary housing after an earthquake is one of the main challenges of disaster risk management, especially in developing countries. Therefore, it is necessary to create pre-disaster location plans for the homeless population. This study aims to systematically find safe places and select suitable sites according to influential factors.

The research methodology used is a descriptive–analytical method. A field survey with a quantitative–qualitative approach is applied to recognize physical vulnerabilities and select suitable sites for temporary settlements. Due to the occurrence of several earthquakes in recent decades around the city of Isfahan, Iran, this area has been studied. Fuzzy analytic hierarchy process, geographic information system and rapid visual screening have been used for data analysis.

According to the site selection and vulnerability criteria and their prioritization, the findings indicate that 60% of the study area is vulnerable. Moreover, vacant lots, stadiums and public green spaces that can be used as multi-purpose sites are the most appropriate options for the temporary settlement.

The research criteria are generalizable and can be used for decision-making, concerning urban fabric vulnerability and site selection of temporary housing in cities exposed to earthquake risk.

Cultural features, accessibility, land conditions, the slope and type of land, availability and construction materials were addressed in locating temporary settlements. In addition to vacant lots and open spaces, safe buildings were also identified for temporary housing, and religious minorities and similar communities were considered.

In this study, the effects of permanent housing (PH) practices carried out after an earthquake in Turkey were investigated with a case study. Determining the factors that increase occupants’ satisfaction at the local level and transferring them to the projects to be conducted were aimed.

The data obtained with questionnaires, statistical analyses, drawings and area examinations belonging to the PH areas built after the 2003 Bingöl earthquake were based on a complementary qualitative research study. Exploratory (EFA) and confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were used in the analysis of the data. In the CFA, various fits or conformity indices were used to determine to what extent the suggested models showed compliance with the data. SPSS and AMOS were preferred as analysis software.

When the findings were examined, it was observed that there are significant deficiencies in the activities regarding planning and carrying out the PH production process after the 2003 Bingöl earthquake. An analysis to determine success factors revealed that the most important factor affecting satisfaction is “housing environment.” In addition, the factors “housing design,” “economic recovery,” “cooperation,” “built quality” and “social effect” were determined as important elements for successful results.

The most important way to reduce the destructive effects of disasters is to develop correct solutions. Therefore, it is of great importance to conduct research in an earthquake-affected region, to examine the performance of the produced environments, to present the existing problems and to determine the satisfaction of the users in the new housing and their environment.

This study raises awareness of the importance of creating living spaces that respond to the needs of victims in order to reduce social, physiological and psychological risks in PH applications after the earthquake.

The question of “why we are in disaster studies” can be essential to reflect on discourses and practices – as students, researchers and professors – in constituting an oppressive disaster science and finding ways to liberate from it.

This paper is based on autobiographical research and institutional ethnography to observe and analyze the discourses and practices about career trajectories as students, researchers and professors in disaster studies.

The paper provides some categories, concepts, theoretical approaches and lived experiences helpful for discussing ways of liberating disaster studies, such as public sociology of disaster.

Few papers have focused on professional trajectories in disaster studies, bringing insights from public sociology and questioning oppressive disaster science.

The interview documents early days in the field of disaster risk reduction.

The transcript and video were developed in the context of a United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) project on the History of DRR.

The transcript presents important developments during the 1980s with valuable lessons about risk reduction.

It takes the readers on a history of the journey of DRR over three decades.

Fuzzy theory provides a rigorous, flexible approach to the problem of defining and computing. Therefore, to facilitate decision making in a geographic information system (GIS), the graph layer indicator and the Takagi‐Sugeno (T‐S) fuzzy model must be integrated. This study aims to explain several versions of the T‐S fuzzy model based on fuzzy theory and fuzzy operation.

An inference model is constructed for GIS using the T‐S fuzzy model to formulate an integrated T‐S decision‐making (TSDMK) system.

The TSDMK system accommodates inexact, linguistic, vague and uncertain GIS data. The operator assigns most graph layer indicators by intuition.

Simulation results for the Hualien main station show that the proposed TSDMK system is an effective approach for GIS decision making.

This investigation assesses applications of fuzzy logic for decision making in a GIS based on TSDMK graphs focusing on model‐based systems.

This study aims to examine the impacts of temporary housing on housing reconstruction after disasters using data collected after the December 2003 Bam earthquake.

A questionnaire was developed and completed by 281 disaster-impacted households living in small and large campsites and on site of damaged properties provided by government and non-government agencies. Cross tabulation analyses were carried out to analyze the data.

Results of this study show that the type of temporary housing (campsite and on property site) that had been provided to the victims has impacted the speed, quality and the overall satisfaction of the housing reconstruction.

Provision of on-site temporary housing to disaster impacted population where possible could speed up a higher quality and more satisfactory housing reconstruction.

This paper provides original research evidences for the relationship between type of temporary housing and housing reconstruction.