Supervisors: Dr. Carmen Mendoza Arroyo, Prof. Esther Charlesworth and Dr. Apen Ruiz Martinez (Project 1).
Project 1: Gender-based post-conflict urban reconstruction
Gender shapes how communities, institutions and livelihoods are organized, as such, the project will research on how conflict and migration impact differently men and women.Moreover, a gender perspective is an invaluable tool in the elaboration of design policies and coping strategies that engage with sites and communities disrupted by conflict, especially urban environments. The project will delve into the fact that most recovery is developed by families and local communities, and that in such scenario’s women are major, but usually invisible actors that have a practical knowledge of the functioning of homes and urban needs. In this sense, the objective is to explore existing gender roles in post-conflict communities and include the experiences of women to successfully design long term urban strategies and recovery plans that tackle collective health and well-being.
Project 2: Assessing and measuring the non-shelter impacts of the design of shelter and settlement reconstruction projects
This project will develop a multi-sectoral evaluation framework for assessing the sustainability and resilience of shelter and settlement and reconstruction projects. This is a key research challenge for non-academic partners; indeed, the entire disaster and displacement sectors has no such integrated assessment method at the present time. Specific objectives are:To undertake a meta-analysis of literature on current assessment tools and reviews of the evaluation processes, tools and data sets used by displacement agencies.
To critically assess existing approaches to evaluating shelter and settlement projects (e.g., Arup’s City Resilience Index, WHO Quality of Life Assessment tool) to integrate sustainability and resilience considerations.
To develop criteria and indicators for a comprehensive, both quantitative and qualitative, and community-wide (cf individual person/family) approach to evaluation, and validate the new, but draft, evaluation framework.
To apply the draft framework in post-hoc evaluations of a sample of shelter and settlement and reconstruction projects, and revise the framework in the light of findings
To develop guidelines for the flexible adaptation and use of the evaluation framework in future projects.
Project 3: Community-based design for disaster resilience
Resilient design is central to climate change adaptation and disaster mitigation as well as to ‘building back better’ after a disaster. Through a multidisciplinary framing, the project will draw upon resilient design principles to investigate how communities can work collaboratively to design and construct disaster resilient landscapes through nature-based solutions and/or in strategies for post-disaster reconstruction that redresses the original sources of vulnerability.