Safe City

Safe City

Criteria for Successful After Disaster Housing Reconstruction Program

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
1 Earthquake Engineering Graduate, Imam Khomeini University, Qazvin, Iran
2 Department of Architecture & Urbanism, Technical and Vocational University (TVU), Tehran, Iran
3 Department of civil, Technical and Vocational University (TVU), Tehran, Iran
4 Earthquake Risk Management Research Center, International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (IIEES), Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Introduction
Located in the Alpine-Himalayan seismic zone, Iran is considered one of the most seismic countries in the world. After recent disasters and extensive destruction of urban and rural housing, various approaches to rebuild housing have been noticed by planners and policy makers. However, few researches comprehensively have dealt with this issue and considering many different factors.
Identifying, categorizing and scoring the effective criteria on the reconstruction of housing after the earthquake, the research purpose is creating a comprehensive model for the management of after disaster housing.

Methodology
The research strategy is Analytical one based on Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). At first, more than 200 qualitative contents of technical literature of permanent housing reconstruction were extracted, and in the next step, a comprehensive list of effective measures was identified in the planning of the housing reconstruction program. In the third step, by analyzing the obtained sources, the number of 58 criteria that have the greatest effect on the successful implementation of a reconstruction program was identified. In the fourth step, after discussing and exchanging opinions with experts and considering the practical aspects of implementing the model, as well as based on the quantitative information obtained from the results of the second step, it was decided to reduce the number of criteria to 4 groups of main criteria and 17 sub-criteria. These factors have been fully described in the extraction of criteria and effective factors in reconstruction. The final step was to set up a pairwise comparison questionnaire and conduct a survey by 31 experts. The results were analyzed using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method, and their validity was determined by scoring each of the criteria.

Results and discussion
The criteria are categorized in 4 main groups of “Coordination and organizational affairs”, “Technical and engineering affairs”, “Economic and financial affairs”, and “Social participation and community affairs”. Prioritized by experts, the factors of “Economic and financial affairs” and “Coordination and organizational affairs” are recognized the most influence, and it is followed by the next priorities “Technical and engineering affairs” and “Social participation and community affairs”.
sub-factors would be listed as:
Cooperation between public authorities, Coordination between local and national administrations and volunteers in the reconstruction program, The existence of government structures and organizations, Coordination between governmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) (Organizational sub-factor)
“Updating and modifying construction standards and regulations”, “Applying new construction methods and technologies” and “Considering the principles of sustainable development in construction”, “Use of local labor”, “Qualification of contractors and skill of local workers”, “Continuous monitoring and evaluation” (performance evaluation), “Quality and speed of construction”, (Technical sub-factors)
“Expediting the payment of emergency funds” (financial assistance and loans), “Long-term budget plans to finance the reconstruction in the country”, “Public accident insurance coverage” (Financial sub-factor)
Considering local culture and lifestyle, Safety and public health, Considering the situation of vulnerable groups (indigent people, female-headed households, the elderly, etc.), Effective consultation with key stakeholders and beneficiaries of the reconstruction (Social sub-factor).
Among the sub-factors higher priorities are “Long-term budget plans to finance the reconstruction in the country”, “Public accident insurance coverage”, and “Coordination between local and national administrations and volunteers” in the reconstruction program, found to have the greatest impact on the success of post-disaster reconstruction. Factors such as “Use of local labor”, “Updating and modification of construction standards and regulations”, and “Effective consultation with key stakeholders and beneficiaries of the reconstruction program” were identified as the three factors with the least priority.
The prioritization shows that, despite common opinion, from the point of view of this group of experts, factors such as social participation, are not among the main success factors of reconstruction programs, and instead, financial and organizational affairs are more important. This issue can be investigated and evaluated in other groups of experts.

Conclusion
The analysis finally led to a model that shows a prioritized set of main factors affecting the success of reconstruction project and can be used to evaluate the success of reconstruction projects and programs.

Funding
There is no funding support.

Authors’ Contribution
Authors contributed equally to the conceptualization and writing of the article. All of the authors approved the content of the manuscript and agreed on all aspects of the work declaration of competing interest none.

Conflict of Interest
Authors declared no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments
We are grateful to all the scientific consultants of this paper.
Keywords
Subjects

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