The number of states requiring humanitarian assistance after a disaster has doubled every decade since 1960. Extreme weather like flooding and violent storms associated with climate change are predicted to continue to increase with intensity and in frequency in the future. Traditionally, emergency shelters have been given in the form of two options: the tent or the tarp. While both do a great job at addressing immediate shelter needs, they are not durable enough habitations to provide adequate transitional shelter for the time period between six months and two years. Most emergency shelters provided by humanitarian agencies fail before six months. This thesis will investigate the development of an emergency shelter solution that improves upon the current options for affected regions following a disaster within warm climates. The thesis proposes that by employing more robust materials for emergency shelters the life expectancy can be extended to meet the required needs. Several materials and designs were explored, tested, and evaluated as plausible shelter solutions to accomplish this task. Design shapes including Roman and Gothic arches were tested with smoke simulations, wind load calculations, and continuous frame loading. The most successful design tested, the Roman arch, was then contrasted and compared to currently used disaster relief shelters for durability and cost. Thesis findings indicate that there is potential for economical and durable emergency shelter solutions. Further research on this topic will increase the number of shelter options available to humanitarian organizations in order to help both emergency and transitional shelter roles simultaneously.

The number of states requiring humanitarian assistance after a disaster has doubled every decade since 1960. Extreme weather like flooding and violent storms associated with climate change are predicted to continue to increase with intensity and in frequency in the future. Traditionally, emergency shelters have been given in the form of two options: the tent or the tarp. While both do a great job at addressing immediate shelter needs, they are not durable enough habitations to provide adequate transitional shelter for the time period between six months and two years. Most emergency shelters provided by humanitarian agencies fail before six months. This thesis will investigate the development of an emergency shelter solution that improves upon the current options for affected regions following a disaster within warm climates. The thesis proposes that by employing more robust materials for emergency shelters the life expectancy can be extended to meet the required needs. Several materials and designs were explored, tested, and evaluated as plausible shelter solutions to accomplish this task. Design shapes including Roman and Gothic arches were tested with smoke simulations, wind load calculations, and continuous frame loading. The most successful design tested, the Roman arch, was then contrasted and compared to currently used disaster relief shelters for durability and cost. Thesis findings indicate that there is potential for economical and durable emergency shelter solutions. Further research on this topic will increase the number of shelter options available to humanitarian organizations in order to help both emergency and transitional shelter roles simultaneously.

Bachelor's thesis. / Format: PDF. Bibl.

The topic concerns families that were not lucky enough to live in their own house or apartment. It concerns families that, for various reasons, lost their house or apartment. They were moved out from rented flats, lodging houses, or their treaty on providing social service in another emergency shelter was terminated. In some cases, a family is not able to find a new house or apartment in time. These families then take advantage of emergency shelters. The purpose of this service is to mitigate or prevent social exclusion of people in such a situation where they lost their house or apartment. It is a resident service that provides people with no shelter a temporary place to stay. The final thesis consists of a theoretical and a practical part. The theoretical part consists of five subchapters dealing with the chosen issues. The beginning of the practical part defines the goals of the final thesis. The aim of this thesis was to map reasons for which families in an adverse life situation find it difficult to find a new house or apartment. Qualitative research and half-structured interview were chosen to find out the necessary information. The research was conducted in emergency shelters for families with children in the South Bohemian region. Seven communication partners took part in the survey. The method of open coding was used to evaluate the data. The results of the conducted survey show that there are several reasons for which families in an adverse life situation find it difficult to find a new house or apartment. The most frequent reason the communication partners mentioned was being a part of the Roma minority. Other reasons mentioned were a high number and the age of children in the family and the prejudice of the flat owners. Another issue that is hard to resolve is the lack of money to pay the deposit that flat owners require before renting a flat. This final thesis emphasises the need to adopt a law on social housing that should help to solve the flat situation of families in an adverse life situation.

Urban homelessness is one of the most blatant forms of social exclusion in advanced capitalist societies. In Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom, homelessness has become particularly entrenched due to systemic forces such as global economic recession, the restructuring of regional economies, the dismantlement of the welfare state, and the erosion of affordable housing that together have pushed more people towards economic marginality and housing insecurity. Despite years of advocacy and 'high profile' government investments, homelessness has persisted as an intransigent social problem. A central purpose of this doctoral thesis is to provide some insight into how homelessness is being 'managed' in one Canadian city. The papers gathered together in this dissertation are based on three years of ethnographic fieldwork (conducted between 2006 and 2009) in a medium-sized, de-industrializing city in the province of Ontario. The specific focus of the thesis is the emergency shelter system. Over the past ten years, a number of new social service models have emerged in response to rising rates of homelessness. As these have been adopted homeless shelter systems in many Canadian cities have undergone significant reconfigurations. This thesis focuses on some of the new 'management spaces' that are emerging in this unfolding policy context. The first paper explores the experiences of voluntary sector organizations and local state authorities. The second paper explores the experiential dimensions of a unique service environment providing emergency shelter and social services. The third paper examines the personal experiences of chronically homeless men as they adapt to life in an innovative 'special care' facility. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This essays main focus will be on emergency shelters in disasters, and their understanding in gender awareness, by focusing on the way gender is constructed and seen. This dissertation will examine documents from Australian Red Cross and IASC (Inter Agency Standing Committee) in order to explore how they work with gender and shelter related issues. The objective is to examine and with help from these documents see how gender is constructed. The method and theory is based on Carol Bacchis; What’s the problem represented to be approach? (WPR-approach). This means that the essay have a discourse analysis basis, which the essay is built on. This was chosen because Bacchis approach interrogates the documents and therefore it is easier to get different views of how gender is constructed. Which way it is constructed and what is not constructed as a problem. The main research question is: How is the construction of gender perspective in the documents that are intended to steer the planning of the emergency shelters?   The questions will be; What or which problems seem to represent these documents, regarding gender understanding in emergency shelters? Are there any assumptions behind these formulated problems? If so, what are they? During the review of the documents, is there anything left that is seen as a non-problem, not problematized? Are there any gap or invisibility or can the problem be seen as something else? This essay will show how gender is constructed based on power imbalance. The way gender is constructed is complex and difficult. One thing is clear and that is that the way gender is constructed and how gender is represented, matters in emergency shelters. Gender is still also a topic for crisis management to integrate.

The aim of the dissertation is to present the issue of post-catastrophic reconstruction of and and dwellings with focus on temporary forms of housing. Given the complexity of the topic, various aspects are presented, from mobile houses, the basics of environmentalism and foreign aid through temporary post-catastrophic dwellings and constructions to assessment databases of temporary post-catastrophic constructions. Observation is focused mainly on constructions and shelters built shortly after the catastrophe. Based on the study of manuals, directives, post-catastrophic reports and analyses of constructions for emergency situations, a hypothesis was created that determines the factors for the success of mobile houses in post-catastrophic conditions. The crucial factors are: transportability, efficiency, versatility, adaptability to the place of catastrophe and development in time. The hypothesis was verified on a sample of 17 selected mobile houses and on student´s works. The contribution of this dissertation is global evaluation of the issue of post-catastrophic reconstruction from several points of view, formulation of three areas of current mobile and basic types of transitional shelters, the description of post-disaster reconstruction of land and dwellings.