سارا مسگری هوشیار

Severe earthquakes always disrupt people's lives by damaging the residential sector. In the process of disaster resettlement, after the emergency, shelter phase in the first weeks until permanent housing usually, takes one to two years, temporary housing is needed to resettle people and return them to normal life. Despite the effective role, this period has played in the process of community recovery. In past experiences especially urban disasters, have often been neglected and accompanied by economic, social, and environmental challenges.
The purpose of this study is to present a model of temporary housing through a comprehensive and systematic view of the constituent dimensions and its influencing factors. For this purpose, with the exploratory approach, and the qualitative method of the Grounded Theory, the temporary housing process in Sarpol-e zahab was studied simultaneously during the year and a half of the November 2017 earthquake. Research data were collected through participatory observation and in-depth semi-structured interviews with 78 key informants including officials, experts, local informants, and people. Theoretical and purposeful sampling continued until theoretical saturation and data were analyzed by MaxQDA software in three stages of open, axial, and selective coding, extracting 33 axial issues and selecting the core issue as "Transitional settlement”, the final model is presented.
The findings of the study indicate that the topic of post disaster temporary housing is an easy and hard issue that, despite the prevailing assumption, has many complexities. The main challenge of "temporary housing" is related to its clear definition. The use of the word "housing" restricts the subject of physical dimension, during the period. The psychological, social and economic recovery of the affected is less addressed and the term "temporary" makes it less attentional. Therefore, the model of "transitional housing" seeks to better understand it by explaining the components of temporary housing and the factors, which affecting it. From a systemic perspective, the temporary accommodation process consists of the dimensions of "policy, planning and management of transitional settlement, designing and implementing temporary housing, and dismantling" that affected by three categories of "disaster conditions", "context characteristics" and "Intervening systems" such as "safety culture, crisis management system, emergency and permanent housing, donors, insurance, media and economic and political pressures". According to the results, the most fundamental strategies to improve future programs are to adopt a holistic and process-based approach transitional resettlement (from emergency to permanent) and pre-disaster planning in preparation phase that can enhance recovery and resilience of the community.

After any destructive disaster, emergency shelter is provided in the first few weeks. However, it takes more than one year the permanent housing to be prepared. So, in the meantime, "temporary housing" is provided to help people resume their life and routines. However, despite the effective role this period has played in the process of community recovery, in experiences especially urban disasters, have often been neglected and accompanied by economic, social, and environmental challenges. Researchers often attribute these challenges to the lack of pre-disaster planning and an appropriate model. Therefore, this study aims to present a temporary housing model based on the case study of Sarpol-e Zahab. Sarpol-E Zahab, located in the west of Iran, is the nearest city to the epicenter of 7.3 Richter earthquake on November 12, 2017, which suffered from 8316 residential units destroyed, and 11475 units semi-damaged. The government through two strategies of granting containers and rental assistance provided temporary housing. At the same time, large groups of charities, NGOs and some celebrities mobilized, and various plans were proposed by specialists. In addition, many affected households began to build shelters using salvaged or indigenous materials. Due to the complexity of urban issues, large number of population and tenants in Sarpol-e Zahab, the fear of frequent aftershocks, and the timeliness of reconstruction, this experience had many challenges and also worthful lessons to be learned.

Most previous studies were conducted after several years, examining a particular aspect, using deductive approach based on existing theories. Inversely, this research aims to study the subject coincidence with temporary housing period after 2017 earthquake in the city of Sarpol-e Zahab. It applied a systematic approach and qualitative-exploratory method of grounded theory, investigating from the perspective of different key informants to present the complexities of the temporary resettlement process in a model. Data were collected through extensive field studies and direct participatory observation of all temporary camps, and in-depth semi-structured interviews with 78 key persons including 13 officials, 19 experts, 40 local households, and 6 informants. The Theoretical sampling was done purposefully, and ended with theoretical saturation. The process of data analysis was done by MaxQDA software in three stages of open, axial, and selective coding, extracting 33 axial issues and selecting the core issue as "Transitional settlement”, the final model presented (Fig.1). To achieve the reliability of research, audit techniques and continuous data comparisons were used during investigation and analysis. In addition, procedures and contents were shared with some participants and experts to be reviewed, controlled and refined.

The finding argues that the issue of “temporary housing” is an easy and complicated issue, and unlike the prevailing notion, it is not merely about providing a shelter, but there are many factors to address. The basic challenge seems to be related to its clear definition. The use of term of "housing" has often limited it to provision a house, and less attention has been given to psychological, social, and economic recovery of affected community. On the other hand, the word "temporary" makes this step inessential, as unlike emergency and permanent housing, it has not been addressed in the system of policy-making, planning and post disaster housing. While, based on findings, the temporary housing process is comprised of different components of "policy-making, strategies, financial aspect, allocation management, relocation, planning and design of temporary settlements, providing temporary housing, services and infrastructure, and dismantling". In addition, it is affected by three categories of factors: "disaster conditions", "contextual characteristics" and "intervening systems".
 
Fig. 1. Grounded Model of Transitional Settlement (Authors, 2019)

The concept of "transitional settlement" aims to emphasize the need to shift from temporary housing to residential complexes including housing, services and infrastructure, public spaces, and the diverse and changing needs of affected community during transitional period. The concept of “settlement” encompasses both strategies through management (such as granting rent assistants) and engineering (such as housing provision) for transitional housing. The word "transitional" also emphasizes the interrelationship between emergency, temporary and permanent resettlement measures. Based on findings, the most important suggestions to improve future plans are adopting a holistic and process-based approach to the issue of post disaster resettlement (from emergency shelter to permanent housing) and pre-disaster planning in the preparedness phase in order to promote community recovery and resilience.

In most post-disaster programs, the policy of relocating all or part of the settlement is considered as an appropriate solution due to the risk reduction or facilitating and accelerating reconstruction. However, various experiences suggest that the displacement of habitats has usually added to, rather than solving problems. The purpose of the present paper is to investigate the challenges of displacement of settlements according to the case study of Ardabil villages’ reconstruction after the 1996 earthquake, study its various consequences and the effectiveness of risk reduction measures through residential relocation and resistant housing reconstruction, and provide solutions to increase the success of such policies.
The present study is descriptive-survey in terms of the nature that was conducted using a mixed quantitative and qualitative research method during one year through conducting extensive desk research, reviewing literature and documents, as well as visiting the region at several times. Data was collected through questionnaire, and free and in-depth interview, interview with the villagers, free observation and taking photos and sketches from villages; a survey of housing units and extensions were done through survey and field study. The spatial domain of the research was consisted of 10 villages relocated in the area of ​​severe destruction, around the city of Sarein, Jurab and Golestan villages in the center of the earthquake, and three partially relocated villages were considered as the control group.
Findings: The urgency in reconstructing the earthquake affected villages to deal with the cold climate of the area caused the location of new villages to be selected without conducting comprehensive climate, economic, social and environmental studies. As time goes on, there are several challenges that local people sometimes think of using their capacities. But in general, the relocation of the habitats did not reduce the vulnerability, so that it continues to be built in the old part of villages at risk.
The most important strategies for success in the post-disaster reconstruction process and in particular, relocation of the settlements which could be outlined are: "conducting pre-disaster recovery planning for the country's most vulnerable areas, carrying out comprehensive economic, social, cultural, environmental and physical studies in the areas at risk, utilizing specialists from different areas of disaster studies in the reconstruction process, utilizing the participation of the disaster affected community in the process of reconstruction of the settlement including site selection and neighborhoods, solving the problem of land ownership, using indigenous knowledge, and providing different housing options according to the regional architectural patterns and family size.

The concept of "house" as a family residential center has been treated differently in various times and places depending on resident's expectations and responses. Meanwhile, rural housing not only is a place for living, but also provides necessary spaces for work and production, all gathered in a certain area. However, in the historical village of Abyaneh the concept of house, locally called "Kaya", totally differs from the general understanding of familiar mentioned rural housing. Thus the Kaya is not just a closed and bounded area within four walls. Rather for Abyanehians, house is not merely a room for dwelling, sleeping, cooking, settling, entertaining guests and setting necessities of life, but in fact a combination of some spaces dispersed among or even around the village. Abyanehian families make their bread in the public bakery. They store their equipment, supplies and foodstuff in a room far from their residence. Their fireplace may be located out on the side of alley. Their animals are kept in a shelter in some other part of the village. The farming equipment and husbandry requirements, timber and firewood are stocked in a hand-excavated space called "Kande" on a mountain slope, out of the village. Thus a “combination” of all of these different spaces means the “house” for them.In other words, the group of these detached and spread spaces among the village which belongs to a family forms the "Kaya" or house. From this point of view, an Abyanehian family wherever posses or builds a new space, is expanding his house. This life style has established a most complicated law and regulation system of ownership in the village, which is still ongoing and alive.In this article the concept of "house" is described through considering the life style of abyanehian people, their daily activities and spatial needs. For this purpose, a very precise plan was surveyed from the village's fabric and its different functions. Also plans of more than 60 residential units and some building blocks were provided. At long last, the concept of "house" has been inspected by verifying people's life and various spaces of their houses. Understanding the concept of Abyanehian house leads to have a right perception about this special and complicated type of settlement and its specifications. This might be helpful in probable future physical interventions not only in this village but also in other rural settlements.