Houses are often significantly damaged during disasters, due in part to poor housing design and construction practices. Post-disaster, organizations and governments often aim to “build back better”, using safer designs, but little research has been done to understand how households perceive the safety of their shelters. This study examines household perceptions of post-disaster housing in terms of performance in future (hypothetical) typhoons or earthquakes, and factors that influence those perceptions. We hypothesize that household perceptions of the risks to their house will influence modification and maintenance actions. To investigate housing perceptions, we surveyed 41 respondents from a single community who had received housing assistance following Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. We used correlation and regression analysis to analyze perceptions and how they were influenced by gender, education, income, prior knowledge, and satisfaction with the house. Results show that households perceive worse performance during typhoons than earthquakes, and men, on average, perceive worse performance than women. Prior knowledge about construction and satisfaction were found to be significantly correlated with perceived performance, with greater prior knowledge relating to worse perceived performance, and more satisfaction relating to better perceived performance. Future work will continue to investigate these relationships and the relationship between perceived performance and actions households take to modify or maintain their house.
Venable, C., Javernick-Will, A., and Liel, A. (2018). "Built Back Better? An Analysis of Perceived Performance of Post-Disaster Housing." Engineering Project Organization Conference. Brijuni, Croatia.