Research Partnership with Developing Countries
A Programme funded by Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)

Understanding habitats, housing and social changes in post-disaster traditional and relocated rural settlements in India

The research aims to contribute to a better understanding of the social and environmental impacts of post-disaster reconstruction in India. Social scientists and architects have long recognized that built environments are a mirror of the culture and society that produces them, and that its forms and spatial arrangements are influenced by a multiplicity of socio-cultural and ecological factors. People both create, and find their ways of life influenced by the built environment. These considerations raise questions about the consequences of rapid and drastic changes following natural disasters, which not only destroy people's homes, but also disrupt locally controlled building processes. In fact, following disasters reconstruction is routinely taken over by external agencies and entails dramatic changes in settlement locations and morphologies, housing designs, building materials and construction technologies. These changes may have profound consequences on social organization, livelihoods, and housing processes. This interdisciplinary research project aims to assess the socio-cultural appropriateness and sustainability of post-disaster built environments by focusing on three interlinked themes: i) The impact of changes of the built environment on communities' social organization, livelihoods, and overall wellbeing; ii) The patterns of evolution and transformation of traditional and relocated settlements and their implications in terms of disaster risk reduction; iii) The economic viability and environmental impact of different housing and settlement typologies. These issues will be addressed through an interdisciplinary approach; multi-sited case studies will be conducted in three regions of India whose traditional built environment has undergone drastic changes in relation to resettlement and reconstruction projects following some of the country's most severe disasters in recent decades: the 1993 earthquake in Maharashtra, the 2001 earthquake in Gujarat, and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in Tamil Nadu. The project will be carried out over a period of three years. Empirical research will be conducted in both relocated and traditional settlements by a team of social scientists and architects with various specializations. The research will contribute to advance the scientific knowledge on the dynamic inter-linkages between socio-cultural factors and the built environment, and is closely linked to the development of an academic curriculum on related topics. The project will further lead to a better understanding of the long-term impacts of post-disaster reconstruction and their implications for sustainable development and disaster risk reduction.

Contacts

Roman Rudel
Applied Sustainability of the Building env.
Dipartimento Ambiente Costruzioni e Design
University Applied Sciences Sout. Ita. SUPSI
Via Trevano
CH-6952 Canobbio

Dr. Kiran Joshi
Chitkara University
Dainik Bhaskar Building
IN-160014 Chandigarh