Abstract

Reconstruction of shelter and settlements following disasters has remained a challenging task for humanitarian agencies, governments and the people affected. In recent years shelter recovery has become particularly daunting in terms of scale and complexity. The website of the United Nations (UN) Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) provides detailed data for each event; see www.reliefweb.int. The Haiti earthquake in January 2010 destroyed 97,000 homes. The 2008 Sichuan earthquake in China saw more than 5 million people homeless. In 2004 some 470,000 houses were destroyed by the Indian Ocean tsunami. In Myanmar 375,000 houses were damaged by Cyclone Nargis in 2008, while 200,000 houses were lost due to the 2005 Pakistan earthquake. In 2010 some 188,000 houses were destroyed in the earthquake in Haiti.