Assessing and Quantifying Success and Failures in Post-Disaster Housing Recovery: A Comprehensive Evaluation Framework
July 2024Over the last three decades, the frequency and magnitude of disasters have considerably increased due to urbanization and climate change, thereby causing significant loss of lives, property, and the economy. To respond to such catastrophic events, significant financial resources are allocated by a combination of public and private sources for post-disaster housing recovery (PDHR). Housing losses account for over 90% of all damages; it is considered the costliest aspect of recovery in nearly all disaster cases. A report from Global Shelter Cluster also estimated that over 5 million homes were destroyed or damaged due to natural disasters and conflicts between the years 2005 and 2018. Thus, PDHR is perceived as critical for disaster management and is taken as an opportunity to ‘build back better.’ Despite several studies and the growing interest in PDHR to achieve community recovery and future disaster mitigation, there is currently a lack of universally accepted quantifiable metrics to effectively evaluate the success of PDHR programs and approaches. Moreover, with an increasing body of literature focusing on identifying best practices in PDHR, these practices can be translated into critical success factors (CSFs) that offer quantifiable measurements. Based on a thorough literature review and extensive field experience in disaster recovery, an evaluation framework has been developed to assess the effectiveness of PDHR. This research seeks to develop a unified framework where all the CSFs governing the success of PDHR are identified, categorized, and evaluated based on the effectiveness of identified factors. The developed framework organizes commonly identified CSFs into five distinct categories: (i) Technical Factors (TF), (ii) Social Factors (SF), (iii) Environmental Factors (ENF), (iv) Economic Factors (ECF), and (v) Project Planning and Management Factors (PPMF). A quantitative approach (i.e., the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique) is employed to evaluate and quantify the success rate of PDHR. By utilizing this approach, the evaluation framework provides a systematic means for assessing and measuring the efficacy of different PDHR projects. The comprehensive evaluation framework will serve as a valuable decision-based tool for guiding the selection and design of PDHR programs. Its functions as an evaluation tool will not only enable the assessment & comparison of different PDHR projects in various disaskastscenarios but will also help in prioritizing the factors influencing the success of housing recovery post-disaster. Furthermore, the framework has the potential to raise awareness among disaster-affected communities, decision-makers, stakeholders, and practitioners regarding the critical aspects necessary for successful PDHR and resilience.
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