The number of people fleeing war, persecution and conflict exceeded 70 million in 2018, which is the highest level of displacement for 70 years (UNHCR, 2018; UNOCHA, 2018). It is estimated that future climate change could cause an additional 140 million people to be displaced by 2050 in just three regions of the developing world: Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Latin America (Rigaud et al., 2018). Given the widespread adoption of IT (information technology) and computer modelling by commerce and industry over recent decades, it seems reasonable to investigate whether the level of adoption has been similar in the humanitarian aid response sector and whether further adoption by the aid sector might be useful and practical. Laguerre (2013) examined at least four aspects of the aid sector to which IT has contributed and where its impact is most visible: cash management (mobile banking), remittance flows, tax disbursed to government funds, and employment growth in both formal and informal sectors. Indeed, aid organisations represent an important source of funding for projects involving IT in low- and middle-income countries. However, limited numbers of such organisations acknowledge IT as a new and important asset in the development sector (Schware and Choudhury, 1988; Belliveau, 2016; Benrós et al., 2011; Carrasco and O’Brien, 2018; Cheng, 2018). The potential contribution of IT was also identified by Grimes and Lyons (1994), including centralisation and decentralisation as possible outcomes of adopting IT. Major restricting factors include political agendas and the availability of funds and the necessary skills (Downs, 1987; Bhattacharya, 2001; Andersen et al, 2002; Benrós., et al. 2011; Biswajit, M. and B. Bhattacherjee, 2015 ). Although low- and middle-income countries have enthusiastically embraced IT, they are equally aware of the negative impact that dependence on imported technology and services might have (Bortnick, 2010). Figure 1 shows that there are some cases in which technologies that would be seen as advanced outside the aid sector have also been adopted by the humanitarian aid agencies, even in challenging conditions such as insecure and inaccessible remote locations. Jacobsen (2017) traced the development of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) biometric adaptation of pilot projects and the way that the emergence of digitalized biometric refugee data had affected the relationship between the UNHCR, donor states, host states and refugees.
One of the areas in which technological advances might play a significant role in humanitarian agencies is in the provision of shelter. Aid agencies are provided with hundreds of different designs and prototypes for shelter-based innovations and most of these products are based on the idea that a single product can function effectively in all settings (Ramalingam et al., 2009; Dabaieh and Alwall, 2018; Daubman et al., 2019). Such product-based innovations can actually be detrimental in the aid sector because they can lead to inappropriate and impractical interventions. Therefore, a different attitude to innovation might be needed to address failures in shelter provision. There is a need for shelter design tools, as opposed to shelter prototypes which tend to be designed by inexperienced architects or engineers who are not involved in managing disaster responses. A simple-to-use design tool would enable aid workers themselves to assess, compare and decide on a particular shelter design type for a specific location. Some modelling and simulation tools concerning disaster response have been developed for emergencies (Yeung and Harkins, 2011; Davis et al., 2011; Benrós et al., 2011; Wutthikornthanawat et al., 2007), but the majority of those tools focus on urban types of emergency, such as fires in office or school buildings, or earthquake incidents, and are often only suitable for small-scale emergency responses. In the event of a disaster which results in mass displacements, rapid housing and camp management solutions are needed. At present, however, existing methodologies for camp management and shelter design face many challenges. These include a lack of inclusive and longer term government policies, gap between aid agencies and host governments, treating shelter projects as of a temporary nature project (while camps last for decades), rigidity towards permanent look of shelters, lack of funds, gap between aid sector and private sectors (academia and specialist consultancies), etc. (Samuelhall.org, 2012; Manfield, 2000; Sabie et al., 2017). The inclusion of stakeholders in the early stage of design, particularly the affected family, is equally important, and a shift of focus from product to process is needed (Global Shelter Cluster, 2018). Computational tools can play a vital role in this transition.
It has been suggested that the solutions developed and prescribed by the aid agencies need a profound revision. There is a need for these solutions to be supported by computer-aided architectural and engineering techniques, tools and design strategies (Benrós et al., 2011; Davis et al., 2011; Yeung and Harkins, 2011; Jinuntuya and Theppipit, 2007; Ajam, 1998; Dabaieh and Alwall, 2018). For example, shelters can be too cold in winter and too hot in summer (Albadra et al., 2017; Fosas et al., 2018). This indicates the need to improve the designs, and IT has a role to play in this, for example, by allowing for thermal modelling prior to the rollout of a design. One key element in developing any technologically supported design solutions and/or tools will be the accurate assessment of the time, information, resources and skills available in the humanitarian sector.
In this paper, we study the use of IT in a post-disaster context, with a focus on shelter design. We also investigate whether there is an appetite for the increased use of IT and how useful IT might be in this sector. The following questions then arise:
- 1.
Do agency staff members use computer tools for design?
- 2.
If yes, on what topics?
- 3.
What other technical approaches do they use?
- 4.
Might they find design tools useful?
- 5.
What level of complexity might they be willing to accept? and
- 6.
How much time might they be willing to invest in using a design tool?
These questions were addressed by means of two separate but sequential surveys. The first survey addressed questions 1 to 3 and the second, questions 4 to 6. The first was a detailed survey of aid workers in several countries (with the majority of the participants being in the developing world) on their use of IT in shelter provision. Their responses were then used to develop two shelter design tools which were then used as the subject of the second survey of aid workers who had used them.
The adoption of IT by the construction industry and the commercial sector
It is clear that many aspects of the modern world are connected with the growth of IT (Downs, 1987; Belliveau, 2016). Computation as a design support tool combined with appropriate software has significant potential to make the construction industry more effective and efficient (Bhattacharya, 2001; Molnár et al., 2019). Information technology has been adopted widely in the construction industry and it is difficult to imagine planning, organising, communicating and managing stakeholders on a global scale without using IT within multi-national corporations (Love et al., 2005). IT is helping the construction industry not only to automate its design processes but also during the construction processes itself—robotic construction machinery and 3D printing are key examples. Additionally, the emergence of e-commerce has significantly helped the tendering and bidding processes (Kong et al., 2001). The potential use of IT in completed developments (residential, commercial or communal infrastructures) is also important (Andresen et al., 2002; Elliman and Orange, 2000). There is an intensive demand for IT in the development of smart buildings because of the need for automated and adaptive energy systems, remote monitoring and control systems and several other assistive technologies (Ozumba and Shakantu, 2018). IT has transformed the construction industry from a traditional to an industrial process. Even so, some areas are ripe for further enhancement, such as product definition processes and the use of systems products and recycling, in which IT can play a significant role in improving productivity and quality (Molnár et al., 2019). Construction companies in many developed countries create their own industrialised building concepts that have an underlying reliance on IT (Lessing et al., 2005). Both 2D and 3D CAD (computer-aided design) software is used in almost all construction companies (Molnár et al., 2019) and very few of them are unable to handle 3D CAD and BIM (Building Information Modelling) software packages.
Uses of IT in the post-disaster context
In post-disaster reconstruction, one critical aspect is the communication of information as well as of the required actions to mitigate the risk of any further casualties. This establishes an integral role for IT in the sector (Biswajit and Bhattacherjee, 2015; Farley and Hecht, 1999). Social media, radio, television, mobile phone networks and ICT (information and communication technology) infrastructure can all play crucial roles in all three stages of effective disaster management, the awareness and preparedness, response and risk mitigation, and recovery stages (Kleinau, 2015; Alexander, 2014a; Alexander, 2014b; Barr, 2011). However, a singular technology in a complex process such as disaster management and response would never be sufficient (Ismail et al., 2014; Daubman et al., 2019).
Various types of IT have to be adopted to identify, detect and assess disasters, as well as aid in the accurate identification of the extent of vulnerability of the survivors. Disasters occur suddenly and can have a huge impact, often resulting in the mass displacement of people. Managing the delivery of aid assistance at such a scale poses a great challenge to aid agencies and local governments. To ensure a swift response and sustainable recovery, human error needs to be minimised and rapid collaboration and rapid response is required. Hence, the need and potential for IT in simulation and design optimization arise (Chang et al., 2010).
Currently, the majority of reconstruction and rehabilitation procedures are undertaken manually and limited technology-backed strategies for project implementation are adopted. Automation of the procedures, prediction and simulation of the entire design process for post-disaster activities is needed to help to select rapid, optimal and real-time solutions (El-Anwar et al., 2009). Additionally, the communication of critical information between the survivors and rehabilitation stakeholders/planners is a requirement which needs careful attention to avoid duplication, shortage in the delivery of vital assistance, and corruption, and to enhance quality control and make monitoring more effective (Wang and E.Taylor, 2014). Some of the more traditional information system measures include radios, telephone systems, mobile phones and SMS (short message service), but given the current advanced levels of IT, these measures seem outdated and inadequate. However, at least 100,000 lives were saved by a single phone call in the coastal areas of South East Asia during the 2004 Tsunami (Biswajit and Bhattacherjee, 2015), which highlights the potential significance of even the simplest technology in the aid sector.
Geographical information systems (GIS), which can be defined as a system of both software and hardware, are regularly employed for the storage and retrieval, analysis and mapping of the geographic data of a disaster site. The information provided by GIS is further employed for scientific investigations, as well as for planning and resource management (Erskine and Gregg, 2012). Another application of IT is the extension of GIS to remote sensing technologies and tools for the acquisition and measurement of information about a disaster using a recording device, which gathers the necessary information about a location without physically being there. This is very useful because different agencies tend to work in different areas during a disaster and this technology can keep the agencies virtually connected with the progress of humanitarian aid measures at all sites. It also provides a visual image of critical information during an emergency (De Longueville et al., 2010) and a means of mapping who is doing what and where. The use of spatial data from the web is one of the older, yet effective, uses of IT in many industries, and this includes the aid sector. For several years, spatial data activities were limited to a particular organisation (Goodchild and Glennon, 2010), but the Web 2.0 and mobile application era has made spatial information more accessible. This has played a significant role in reaching wider geographical areas for aid delivery (Langston and Langston, 2008).
The use of IT may be sporadic in post-disaster rehabilitation but it is slowly gaining momentum. One example is the use of social media in disaster risk reduction and crisis management. In the field of post-disaster humanitarian aid, social media (such as blogs) and messaging sites (such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and Instagram) can be used in several different ways. These include listening to actions and reactions during post-disaster rehabilitation, monitoring the situations from different perspectives, extending and outsourcing the response, as well as collaborative development and furthering the humanitarian causes (Hosein and Nyst, 2013; Alexander, 2014b). Social media are beginning to change the way in which humanitarian interventions are carried out. For example, within the social media context, calls for action and aid come across as requests and heart-warming appeals, rather than direct orders. This approach results in a bigger response and deeper involvement. Furthermore, most organisations now share information over social media, which makes them work as a team rather than as competitors during a crisis (Yates and Paquette, 2011).
Opportunities and obstacles to adopting IT in the aid sector
The majority of the advanced technologies which are being used in humanitarian aid have fused the physical, digital and biological worlds and the use of technology can question the concepts of war and peace, ethics and human rights (Kleinau, 2015).
A critical review of the literature on humanitarian aid suggests that technology gives humanitarian agencies unparalleled access to war-hit communities (Felter, 2018; Ben Ramalingam, 2016; Jason Susim, 2019; Chaudhri et al., 2019; Arnold et al., 2018; Wilson and Jumbert, 2018; Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, 2011; Gilman, 2014; Lüge, 2014; Comes, 2016; Sandvik et al., 2014). A similar finding was made by the Scientific Foresight Unit and the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) (European Parliamentary Research Service, 2017, 2019). This has ensured the timely and efficient delivery of aid to war-torn areas (Benrós et al., 2011; Daher et al., 2015; Downs, 1987).
Despite the obvious advantages, there are some drawbacks to using technology for humanitarian aid (Bortnick, 2010; Daher et al., 2015; Sandvik et al., 2014) and there are a number of criticisms of their use (O’Driscoll, 2017). For example, using surveillance tools like UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) can give rise to ethical and political challenges if the information collected by humanitarian agencies finds its way to one or other faction in a conflict, and might then be used to threaten communities, governments or individuals. This possibility has led to discussions about how the process of gathering humanitarian data could be improved and strengthened (Oldham and Astbury, 2018; Anema et al., 2014). Suggested solutions include a code of conduct for the collection and use of information, training aid workers to use data ethically, and involving the affected communities in how they would like their data to be used and stored (Chang et al., 2011). However, UAVs can help aid workers get a quick overview from above, thanks to their high-resolution, cost-effective insights. Humanitarian drones are today being employed across a range of sectors, by organisations as diverse as The World Bank and Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining. (Soesilo et al., 2019 & 2016), and the use of UAV drones in humanitarian action is a rapidly emerging field (Dowson, 2018; Tasevski, 2018). Kalkman (2018) carried out exploratory research into humanitarian aid agencies’ use of technologies during post-crisis rehabilitation and found that the use of IT had significantly increased in these areas. It was concluded that technology must not be treated as a neutral fix since it can leave political aftermath if used incorrectly (Raghad and Dave, 2016). It has also been shown that using excessive technology during humanitarian aid activities could result in the domestic and international aid personnel growing distant from the communities they are helping (Carrasco and O’Brien, 2018). The conclusion drawn was that if internet tools are to be used in the development of emergency response systems, then factors such as the accessibility, accuracy, validity, feasibility and scalability of the proposed methods should be carefully assessed, especially when applying them in resource-poor settings (Bartell et al., 2006).
Similarly, despite the positive impact of using social media for humanitarian aid, there is further potential for negative aspects, such as the dissemination of rumours promoting hate and terrorism, facilitating terrorists and undermining the authority of the aid organisations (Kabra et al., 2015). This has prompted an argument about the ethics of using social media during aid activities, but even though there are some clear risks, such as the possible violation of privacy and security, most people view the social media as a good way to uncover corruption and malpractice during aid activities (Alexander, 2014b; Cheng, 2018). Even so, ethical warnings must be heeded to make sure that social media practices are not misused (Hammon and Hippner, 2012).
Others have concerns such as improper or inadequate implementation, as well as potentially high costs of maintenance for complex IT systems. Moreover, it is possible that the proposed technology might not fit (Bond, 2011) with the technology preferred by aid workers, consequently causing more harm than good since the aid actors may be untrained or unprepared to handle such solutions. Moreover, this lack of expertise in the aid sector could lead to a compromise in data and deliverables. It has also been observed that aid workers can have issues with the rapid evolution and development of information technology (Belliveau, 2016). The opportunities are clearly far greater than the obstacles, and the main obstacle in most situations is the lack of information, skills and appropriate tools, which can be mitigated by developing easy-to-use non-specialist tools and providing proper training.
The use of IT-based simulation techniques for shelter design
Predicting future performance and providing feedback when designing real-world systems or products is the key purpose and primary advantage of simulation activities (Ouyang, 2014). Prior to actual construction or production, simulation allows stakeholders to determine the efficiency of a product or system (Antonelli et al., 2018) and enables designers to investigate problems in a wide range of scenarios (Zhu et al., 2017). This is equally true in building design (Kotireddy et al., 2018; Kneifel and O’Rear, 2017; Nguyen et al., 2014). In some cases, however, generating high-quality simulation models can be very expensive, might take too long or might require a lot of information.
The performance of various types of shelter was analysed by Cornaro et al. (2015) by simulating the thermal properties of different materials and they concluded not only that shelters can be made more comfortable in terms of indoor temperature, but that they can be also made more sustainable in terms of embodied energy, embodied carbon and energy use in general if customised optimization and simulation techniques are used. The building-oriented thermal performance simulation tool ‘Energy-Plus’ was used by Attia (2014) to analyse the thermal performance of an emergency shelter and various solutions were suggested for improving internal environmental conditions.
Obyn et al. (2014) suggested that using IT-based simulation packages during various stages of shelter design would help the resulting designs to perform better and ensure the thermal comfort and privacy of the occupants. They studied the difficulties in achieving a realistic thermal model of lightweight structures, taking into account the air permeability of fabrics, their light transmission and the overlapping of several elements. A model of the UNHCR standard family tent was created for that study, again using Energy-Plus, enabling an objective assessment of the performance of that shelter in a wide range of contexts. Similarly, the thermal performance of Bedouin tents was assessed and improved using computational simulation by Attia (2014) and that of emergency shelters in extremely cold artificial environments by Ashmore et al. (2003).
There are, however, some barriers to adopting computer-based architectural solutions (Chu et al., 2014). These include the lack of availability of resources and information, cost fluctuations, corruption, socio-economic complexities and the cultural standards of the affected communities in post-disaster construction contexts. Even though simulation software packages cannot address the majority of these barriers themselves, such tools can nevertheless help designers and stakeholders to plan risk-mitigating measures and test those measures at the design stage. The cases briefly described above show that thermal performance is an issue which needs closer examination to determine whether computer simulation can contribute to its improvement.
IT-based simulation for optimising and predicting thermal performance
Al-Ghamdi (1993) studied thermal comfort in the temporary shelters of pilgrims in Mecca and suggested that the cause of most thermal discomfort was poor ventilation and high relative humidity, which reduced occupants’ ability to cool down. Which highlights the need for thermal modelling and simulation before the shelters are manufactured.
Susanti (2015) found that PMV (predicted mean vote) and PPD (predicted percentage dissatisfied) overestimated the comfort level of the tents that were studied. A similar issue was highlighted by Albadra et al. (2017) in a multidisciplinary study undertaken in refugee camps in Jordan, in which it was found that the surface temperature of a white cotton tent can reach 55 °C and that even the use of a ventilated courtyard had no significant impact during the mid-day period (Al-Hemiddi and Al-Saud, 2001). Knight (1988) investigated the thermal loads associated with a bush fire and predicted that bushfire reflective tent shelters can maintain an internal temperature 40 °C lower than the outdoor temperature for several minutes, which can play a significant role in saving lives in the case of a fire. In real life, however, ‘several minutes’ is not long enough. An interesting finding was that the survival of a single occupant in a reflective tent is limited by rises in mean body temperature, whilst multiple occupants can survive slightly higher intensities, with the limiting factor being an excessive rise in air temperature (Taylor et al., 2015). The reflective quality of the fabric could, therefore, be useful for producing safe refugee shelters in hot climates.
Given that most displaced families in refugee shelters and informal settlements cook inside their shelters, they face serious risks of fire, and this makes research efforts to address the issue highly relevant. A study of Palestinian refugee shelters showed that the significant thermal discomforts experienced by occupants in summer and in winter were mirrored in the PMV calculations (Saleh, 2011); it has been found that PMV overestimates in warm conditions and underestimates in relatively cool conditions (Fosas et al., 2018; Saleh, 2011; Humphreys and A, 1976; De Dear and Brager, 1998). A series of architectural strategies have been applied to shelter design using computer simulation techniques, resulting in significant reductions in overheating (Fosas et al., 2018). The comfort band found using logistic regression ranged from 28.4 °C to 17.2 °C, suggesting significant adaptability of refugees, but still well outside the temperature range found on site. In such settings, natural cross-ventilation alone will not be sufficient for achieving summer comfort. A shelter solution that successfully includes insulation, and possibly thermal mass, seems more important (Albadra et al., 2017). The thermal conditions inside a temporary shelter were assessed by Crawford et al. (2005) using ESP-r simulation software. They investigated casual gains from both occupants and solar radiation and concluded that the use of such sophisticated techniques and the required materials would only be possible in limited numbers of locations. The validity of these results was, however, limited by the lack of measures to assess accurately the air infiltration values.
As this review of the literature has shown, the use of IT-based engineering/architectural simulation packages by researchers has been evidenced to some extent. However, there is no documented case of aid workers using IT simulation tools. Additionally, the literature review suggests that in at least one field, namely the thermal performance of shelters, simulation has an important role to play.
