Measuring Sustainability and Resilience Qualities across Post-Disaster Temporary Housing

Abstract

This research began with searching for a solution to temporary housing that residents can receive more quickly than current available temporary housing with an easier transition into permanent housing allowing for better overall community recovery. A framework was developed that suggests optimal temporary housing units at the household-level and at the community-level. The framework includes three key inputs that feed into an integrated sustainability and resilience evaluation model that provides tradeoffs between temporary housing options for a household. The three inputs include (1) the disaster scenario which describes the type of hazard and the level of damage to the pre-disaster home, (2) a description of the particular household in need of temporary housing, and (3) the types of temporary housing options to be evaluated. The framework is exemplified through both a wind hazard event and a flood hazard event causing moderate to severe damage to the pre-disaster homes of the households being considered. At the household-level, the tradeoffs for temporary housing are compared for six different households varying substantially based on perceived social and economic vulnerability. Common and innovative temporary housing options are considered in the examples, including manufactured homes, custom built units, hotels, and other government funding programs. A newly developed integrated sustainability and resilience evaluation model measures eight quantitative qualities of the temporary housing units that collectively formulate a quality of life index. The quantities are assigned weights based on priorities and needs of the household occupying the temporary housing unit. The temporary housing option resulting with the highest quality of life index is recommended to the household. The community-level framework uses the household-level analysis for each type of household in the community along with external constraints such as budgetary restrictions to determine an optimal community-wide solution that seeks to maximize the quality of life of all households while reducing cost of temporary housing.