INTRODUCTION
Disaster Relief Shelters or Temporary Dwellings are a common key player in disaster scenarios. The provision and deployment of temporary dwellings in sites are executed after the strike of a disaster during the emergency, reconstruction and rehabilitation phases to incubate the affected people from the onset of a disaster until permanent housing solutions are available. Earlier to this, preparing for the provision and construction of temporary dwellings in similarity to their design process optimally takes place in pre-disaster (pre-event) phases when resources and efforts are allocated in preparation for the outcomes of future disaster events. The main considerations related to these processes are strongly argued to be quality oriented and include for instance materializing the users’ requirements into a solid coherent solutions of quality as well as achieving minimum negative environmental impact in all stages. The provision of temporary dwellings is about the prompt readiness and availability of the dwellings to affected people as well as the absence of conflict between the different parties providing the dwellings (represented in the easy distribution of units of similar or at least close standards). On a similar note, the main considerations of the construction process of temporary dwellings include ease of assembly/deployment in sites, affordability and targeting communal participation in the construction process.
All of these considerations relate directly to the overall quality of temporary dwellings. For example, communal participation helps establish a strong identity relationship between the occupants and their new dwellings. Similarly, affordability of the dwellings is a main issue that has to be addressed especially in economically vulnerable disaster communities. To investigate the relationship between the notion of quality and the concept of post-disaster temporary dwellings; the later are first defined and categorized in order to be examined in terms of the qualitative consideration of their provision, design and construction.
DISASTER-PRONE AREAS IN INDIA
Natural disaster and Climate change are fast emerging as the most defining challenges in 21st century. India’s unique geo-climatic condition makes it highly susceptible to climate change and natural disasters. Uneven temperature rise over the Indian subcontinent has propelled more energy in regional and local climate systems, and thus, has magnified climate anomalies and frequency severity of natural disasters. It results of massive loses of lives and property.
India continuously receives distress due to natural disasters where no part of the country lies under disaster free zone. India loses almost 2 percent of its GDP every year due to these calamities.
Among of 35 total state/union territories in the country, 27 are disaster prone, and more than 300 million people each year are affected by disasters caused by nature. The states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Uttrakhand, and Jammu & Kashmir account for India’s 56 percent population and 45 percent area, constitute the property of the country.
TYPES OF DISASTER IN INDIA
Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) categorizes natural disasters into hydro-meteorological disasters (floods, landslides, mudflows, avalanches, tidal waves, windstorms, cyclones, droughts, extreme temperatures, and complex disasters associated with drought) resulting from climatic variability and other climatic and meteorological causes, and geological disasters (earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis)
Disaster prone areas in India
The major 5 natural disaster in India are :-
- Flood
- Earthquake
- Cyclone
- Drought
- Tsunami
IMPACT OF CLIMATIC CHANGE
In 21st century, the variation in climatic change differ a lot and it increases day by day. The Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climatic Change (IPCC); IPCC AR4 has provided compelling evidence that climate change in advancing rapidly as a global risk with impacts far beyond just the environment. These changes brings a big challenges for the future. Recent projections and analytical studies indicate that the increasing global temperatures, arctic and glacial melt down, sea level rise and weather events and other climatic change. Disaster were linked to climate change through short term natural variability manifesting in extreme weather events such as earthquakes, floods, cyclones, windstorms, storms, heat waves and other natural hazards with potential for catastrophic loss of human lives, damages to infrastructure and environment.
The impacts of climate change due to change in extreme weather and climate events to the mid to late 21st century are :
- Heat waves frequency increases over most areas – very likely (90% – 99%).
- Intense tropical cyclone activity increases – likely (66 – 90%).
- Area affected by drought increases – likely (66 – 90%).
- Warmer and fewer cold days and nights, warmer and more frequent hot days and nights over most land areas–virtually certain (greater than 99%).
- Increased incidence of extreme high sea level (excludes tsunamis) – likely (66 – 90%).
- Heavy precipitation events frequency increases over most areas – very likely (90- 99%).
IPCC AR4 has categorized established that climate change is advancing rapidly with global warming as a prime causative factor. The warming of the climate system has been termed “unequivocal” by global scientific consensus as evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice and rising global average sea level (IPCC, 2007a). According to latest evaluations, the average temperature at the surface of the earth has increased by 0.75 (0.56 – 0.92) degree Celsius during the twentieth century.
