This thesis examines how local knowledge is identified and implemented in disaster responseand recovery programmes conducted by international aid organizations. The case that isexamined in the analysis is the International Federation of Red Cross and Red CrescentSocieties response and recovery operations conducted in the aftermath of the Nepalearthquake 2015-2019. Using the method of content analysis, the final report of the Nepaloperation is analyzed using categorizations of local knowledge and informed by previousresearch on local knowledge in disaster operations, along with international aid organizations'engagement with local knowledge.The main findings of this study shows that the implementation of activities that utilize orseeks to identify local knowledge is heavily concentrated to the recovery phase of theoperation, with no activities informed by local knowledge found in the response phase. Allcategories of local knowledge are found throughout the operation, with socio-culturalknowledge being the most prominently utilized, whilst environmental knowledge andorganizational knowledge remains underrepresented. Activities that were not informed bylocal knowledge, or utilized local knowledge to some degree created unintendedconsequences, suggesting that for a productive utilization of local knowledge, it has to beconsidered in all steps of the operational planning.

<p>Post-disaster temporary housing has been a significant challenge for the emergency management group and industries for many years. According to reports by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), housing in states and territories is ranked as the second to last proficient in 32 core capabilities for preparedness.The number of temporary housing required in a geographic area is influenced by a variety of factors, including social issues, financial concerns, labor workforce availability, and climate conditions. Acknowledging and creating a balance between these interconnected needs is considered as one of the main challenges that need to be addressed. Post-disaster temporary housing is a multi-objective process, thus reaching the optimized model relies on how different elements and objectives interact, sometimes even conflicting, with each other. This makes decision making in post-disaster construction more restricted and challenging, which has caused ineffective management in post-disaster housing reconstruction.</p> <p>Few researches have studied the use of Artificial Intelligence modeling to reduce the time and cost of post-disaster sheltering. However, there is a lack of research and knowledge gap regarding the selection and the magnitude of effect of different factors of the most optimized type of Temporary Housing Units (THU) in a post-disaster event.</p> The proposed framework in this research uses supervised machine learing to maximize certain design aspects of and minimize some of the difficulties to better support creating temporary houses in post-disaster situations. The outcome in this study is the classification type of the THU, more particularly, classifying THUs based on whether they are built on-site or off-site. In order to collect primary data for creating the model and evaluating the magnitude of effect for each factor in the process, a set of surveys were distributed between the key players and policymakers who play a role in providing temporary housing to people affected by natural disasters in the United States. The outcome of this framework benefits from tacit knowledge of the experts in the field to show the challenges and issues in the subject. The result of this study is a data-based multi-objective decision-making tool for selecting the THU type. Using this tool, policymakers who are in charge of selecting and allocating post-disaster accommodations can select the THU type most responsive to the local needs and characteristics of the affected people in each natural disaster.

農業發展曾經在臺灣的經濟建設史上，佔有輝煌一頁，民國四十至五十年代，農民胼手胝足地配合政府農業政策，不只增裕農業生產，同時也奠定臺灣日後工商發展之基礎，然而隨著臺灣經濟的發展，工商業產值佔GDP比例加重，農業產值佔GDP比例卻逐年下降，農業經營也面臨許多難題及衝擊，農戶所得水準相對非農戶為低，老年農民生活保障不足等問題一再被提出討論，同時由於近年來農業生產不符經濟效益等因素，且部分農民福利措施對農民資格的界定迭起社會爭議，因此各項保障農民福利措施的公平性及必要性亦隨之引起爭論，本文試著從農民的社會保險、老年給付、租稅福利、價格補貼及其它救（補）助措施等五方面，來探討農民的福利保障現況，並針對現況缺失提出檢討與建議，尤其面對全球經濟自由化趨勢下，如何協助農業經營轉型，增進農民福利，應是農民、農業部門及政府需共同思索的問題。 / The prosperity of agriculture played an important role in Taiwan’s economical construction history. In 1940’s and 50’s, Taiwan’s farmers, actively responding to the agriculture-developing policy, not only increased the agricultural production, but also helped to establish a firm foundation for the following industrial and commercial development in Taiwan. However, as the industrial and commercial value increases yearly in GDP, the value of agriculture in GDP, on the other hand, decreases year after year. Farmers thus faced many problems and challenges. Issues such as the obvious poorer condition of farmers’ life compared to the non-farmer, and the unsatisfying welfare state of retired farmers are frequently among the arguments. Furthermore, owing to the facts that most farmers own some real estates as the grounds they plant and yet their production can’t even reach the bottom line of economical effect, the necessity and justification of farmers welfare measures are consequently evoking constant controversy. The goal of this thesis, therefore, is trying to examine the status of Taiwan’s farmers’ welfare state in the following five fields: farmer’s social insurance, elderly farmer’s allowance, tax welfare, price subsidy and other assistance measures, and to raise my proposals and suggestions to solve these problems. How to help farmers to do well in the transformation of agricultural management and thus improve their welfare state should be a public issue for farmers themselves and the agriculture departments as well as the whole government, especially when facing the trend of liberalization of the global economics.

This project studies how bureaucratic behavior influences policy implementation. It presents a novel bureaucratic access points and leverage theory, which help us understand how policies are successfully implemented in the midst of bureaucratic challenges resulting from organizational roles and responsibilities and contrasting assessments. The concept of access points has traditionally involved lobbyists and interest groups accessing elected officials and their staffs. I ask what is the effect of bureaucrats accessing bureaucrats directly in the policy implementation process and its subsequent evaluation. I argue that bureaucrats leverage other bureaucrats during policy implementation proceedings, which adds the notion of power to access points theory. The focus of this investigation is the relationship between humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HA/DR) agencies and associated Department of Defense (DOD) components, particularly DOD medical components providing wellness intervention. Bureaucratic access and leverage enables a more unified implementation of over-arching HA/DR policy by disparate agencies with unique missions, resources, capabilities, and assessment measures. The existing literature does not fully capture how such agency differences are mitigated and overcome in implementing policy that spans multiple entities. Bureaucratic access points and leverage theory offers bureaucrats the analytical capability to know who is controlling policy implementation. It also presents a tool they can use to maintain and increase their own influence and power within a policy domain. / text