Joao Rocha Graduation Report

Graduation Project: Design of a Disaster Preparedness Solution for the Base of the Pyramid

Make Yourself ReadyThe Design of a Disaster Preparedness Solution for the Base of the Pyramid Technische Universiteit Delft - Industrieel Ontwerpen

João Landeiro Negrão Silva Rocha 1401971

Delft, 2010

João Rocha | TU Delft, Industrial Design Engineering, IPD2

João Landeiro Negrão Silva Rocha 1401971 Integrated Product Design MSc Programme 2010

[email protected] 00351 911 948 596


13 Introduction

15 1. A Primer 19 2. Introduction 20 3. For who is this Project? 21 4. What is the result of this project? 22 5. Approach 5.1 Research 23

5.2 Product 24

5.3 Implementation 25

26 6. Reading this report

29 Context 30 1. Introduction 30 2. Need for Solutions 30 3. Challenges at the Base of the Pyramid 30 4. Adequacy of Disaster Preparedness solutions

31

A - Disasters

33 1. Definitions 34 2. Research Boundaries 35 3. Origin of Natural Disasters 36 4. Considered Types of Natural Disasters 37 5. Disaster Occurrence 38 6. Disaster Consequences 6.1 Infrastructure Consequences 39

6.2 Social Consequences 40

6.3 Economic Consequences 41

42 7. Conclusions

45

B - Base of the Pyramid

47 1. Introduction 48 2. Who is the Base of the Pyramid 51 3. BoP Disaster Preparedness 52 4. When Disaster Strikes 53 5. Disaster Risk Reduction 54 6. Conclusions

Table of Contents


57 C - Disaster Preparedness

59 1. Disaster Management 60 2. Cycles in Disaster Management 2.1 Mitigation 61

2.2 Preparedness 62 2.3 Response 63

2.4 Recovery 64

65 3. Preparedness as Project Focus 66 4. Typical Preparedness requirements 4.1 Equipping 67

4.2 Planning 67

4.3 Staying Informed 67

68 5. Disaster Preparedness and the Base of the Pyramid 70 6. Conclusions

73 Techniques 74 1.Introduction 74 2. Four Basic Areas

75 D - Shelter

77 1. Importance of Shelter 78 2. Approach 79 3. Expected Conditions 3.1 Urban Setting 79

3.2 Social Rearrangement 80

81 4. Requirements 82 5. Coping Stragegies 83 6. Shelter Elements 84 7. Cover 86 8. Unions 87 9. Operating Costs 88 10. Conclusions

91 E - Water

93 1. Importance of Water 94 2. Approach 95 3. Expected Conditions 3.1 Urban Setting 95 3.2 Water Supply Condition 95 97 4. Requirements 98 5. Water Treatment Principles 100 6. Selected Water Treatment Techniques 101 7. Boiling 102 8. Chemical Desinfection 8.2 Chlorine Treatment (Bleach) 103

8.2 Tincture of Iodine (Iodine) 104

105 9. Solar Disinfection (SODIS) 106 10. Water Storage 107 11. Sanitation and Hygiene 108 12. Conclusions

111 F - Cooking

113 1. Importance of Cooking 114 2. Approach 115 3. Expected Conditions 3.1 little available 115 food for consumption

3.3 poor cooking 115 conditions

116 4. Requirements 117 5. Coping Strategies 118 6. Rocket Stove 120 7. Conclusions


123 G - Communications

126 1. Importance of Communications 127 2. Radios as means to communicate 128 3. Approach 129 4. Type of Radio 130 5. Suggested Instituitions

5.1 Lifeline Energy 130

5.2 Send a Radio 130

5.3 Ears to our World 130

5.4 Farm Radio International 130

131 6. Conclusions

135 Education Package

1. Introduction 136

137 H - Education Approach

139 1.Introduction 140 2. Educational Approach 2.1 Teaching Product Making Techniques 141

2.2 Teaching Educational Techniques 142

143 3. Teaching Disaster Preparedness 3.1 Organize 143

3.2 Research 144

3.3 Plan 144

3.4 Make 144

3.5 Educate 145

4. Tools for the Educator 146

4.1 Cultural Assessment Questionnaire 146

4.2 Education Conditions Questionnaire 146

147 5. Supporting Theories 5.1 Cultural Dimensions 147 5.1.1 Collectivism 147

5.1.2 Power Distance 148

5.1.3 Future Orientation 148

5.1.4 Gender Egalitarienism 148

5.1.5 Humane Orientation 148

5.1.6 Assertiveness 149

5.1.7 Uncertainty Avoidance 149

5.1.8 Performance Orientation 149

150 5.2 A Model for Learning 5.2.1 Students Characteristics 151

5.2.2 Education Characteristics 151

5.2.3 Education Context Characteristics 151

5.3. Experiential Learning Theory 152

5.4. Kolb's Learning Styles 153

5.4.1 Assimilating 153

5.4.2 Converging 153

5.4.3 Diverging 153

5.4.4 Accommodating 153


157 I - Designed Manuals

159 1. Introduction 160 2. Make Yourself Ready 2.1 Section 1, introduction 160

2.2 Section 2, How to make a cooking stove 161

2.3 Section 3, How to make shelter 161

2.4 Section 4, How to treat water 162

2.5 Section 5, How to get a radio device 163

164 3. Educator's Guidebook 3.1 Section A, Introduction 164

3.2 Section B, Method 165

3.3 Section C, Disaster Preparedness 166

3.4 Section D, Education 167

3.5 Section E, Your Community 167

169 4. Information Accessibility 4.1 Language 169

4.2 Layout 169

4.3 Visuals 170

44. Questionnarire Design 171

175 Project Evaluation177 1. Future Recommendations

1.1 1.1 Further Testing of Techniques and Presentation 177

1.2 Strategies for Distribution of knowledge 177

1.3 Open-source and Crowd-sourced contributions 177

178 2. Results 178 3. Process

179 4. Reflection


This project was my biggest academic endeavour so far and it clearly changed me. There are too many people to thank for their support, insight and or just fun.

Friends I shared a break with; colleagues that kept their interest high; a client that asked me to see the bigger, more interesting picture and a supervisory team that was always there.

However, the biggest thank you note of all goes to my parents. For this gift, for their love and support and for making an effort to keep up with the wandering wishes of a young designer-to-be.

There are also some people that perhaps even unaware of this, kept me motivated, inspired or just sane. They deserve a special mention:

Fabrício Astúa, Juan de Borja, Madeleine Borthwick, Henri Eskonen, André Jerónimo, Tomas Nielsen, Iñigo Olazabal, Dinis Ramos, Ricardo Schoonewolff, Richard Verdoorn and Matjaz Zaccaria.

Obrigado!

João, 2010

Acknowledgements


Lard Breebaart, owner of Larddesign, was the Client of this project. As a designer, he is very interested in mobility solutions for the urban context. This is the reason we started working together in the first place, when the project was focused on technical clothing for rescue workers.

Lard's inquiring attitude and constant curiosity were central to the current project focus. Lard pushed me to look deeper into what happens in a Disaster and welcomed what this project has come to be.

As a project client, I would say that he struck a fine balance between allowing me to explore and pressing me with the difficult questions that lead to better work.

Ir. Lard BreebaartProject Client

Ir. Iemkje RuiterChair Professor

Ir. Henk KuipersProject Mentor

Professor Iemkje Ruiter, from the Applied Ergonomics and Design sec-tion of the Department of Industrial Design, was the Chair Professor of this project. I initially asked her to be my chair professor because I was expecting a big focus on traditional ergonomics and anthropometry. The project changed in the meanwhile, but Professor Iemkje Ruiter was very welcoming of the new directions it was taking.

Never limiting me on what I though it was pertinent to work on, Professor Ruiter displayed a very motivating interest and curiosity in this project. Although officially, she was this project's Chair Professor, the degree to which she followed it showed a much bigger involvement

Professor Henk Kuipers is also from the Applied Ergonomics and Design section of the Department of Industrial Design.

I had already had Professor Henk Kuipers as a mentor, during the Integral Design Project, where I liked his pragmatic approach combined with an eye for the underlying questions of a project.

Professor Henk Kuipers was also very welcoming to the changes I gradu-ally introduced in the project, showing an encouraging level of confidence in my work.


This project was the design of educational material that teaches popula-tions in the Base of the Pyramid how to make their own Disaster Pre-paredness supplies.

However, for techniques to be adopted, the mere giving of technical instruction documents is not enough. It is necessary that there is a more directed approach, appropriate to the considered community and its specific cultural characteristics.

This project has two parts:

The design of a technical instructions manual, teaching the making of supplies for Disaster Preparedness

The design of an educator's resource to guide non-specialists in establishing Disaster Preparedness education initiatives in their community.

This project in 100 words


Introduction A Primer; Introduction; For who is this Project;

What is the result of this Project; Approach; Reading this report

A wide reaching project requires clear explanation of objectives and methods.

In this chapter, a complete overview of Project areas and associated

approaches can be found.

If you have just 10 minutes to read this report, this is the right section to

spend them.


1. A PrimerThis project started out as something completely different.

In the beginning, it was about the design of technical clothing for rescue teams. But as the research went on, I found myself drawn to other fields where I believe Design can participate.

I became aware that Disasters are hap-pening more frequently, more violently and more people are becoming victims of a cycle of poverty and disaster.

Product design seemed unfitting to address these problems and I started questioning what other ways I had at my disposal.

This project was born out of the realization that my contribution as a Designer of this day and age, is not limited to products and physical reali-ties.

It evolved until what it is today, an educational package to teach tech-niques for the making of products. These products can be used for Disas-ter, hopefully making a difference in people's lives.


What happened since I started this project12 jan 2010 - 11 August 2010

78 Natural Disasters(some multiple disasters)

15 landslidesor avalanches

16 storms

32 floods

10 earthquakes

DPR Korea: Floods - Aug 2010DR Congo: Floods - Jul 2010Pakistan: Floods - Jul 2010Sudan: Floods - Jul 2010Typhoon Conson - Jul 2010India: Floods - Jul 2010Hurricane Alex - Jun 2010Brazil: Floods - Jun 2010Panama: Floods - Jun 2010West Africa: Floods - Jun 2010Myanmar: Floods and Landslides - Jun 2010Bangladesh: Floods and Landslides - Jun 2010Kyrgyzstan: Mudslides - Jun 2010Afghanistan: Floods - Jun 2010Tropical Cyclone Phet - Jun 2010Ecuador: Tungurahua Volcano - May 2010Philippines: Floods and Landslides - May 2010Central America: Tropical Storm Agatha - May 2010Guatemala: Pacaya Volcano - May 2010DR Congo: Landslide - May 2010India: Cyclone Laila - May 2010Central Europe: Floods - May 2010Sri Lanka: Floods - May 2010Azerbaijan: Floods - May 2010China: Floods - May 2010Gabon: Severe Local Storm - Apr 2010Afghanistan: Earthquakes - Apr 2010China: Earthquakes in Qinghai Province - Apr 2010Colombia: Floods - Apr 2010India/Bangladesh: Severe Local Storm - Apr 2010Tajikistan: Floods - Apr 2010Indonesia: Floods - Apr 2010Brazil: Floods and Landslides - Apr 2010Mexico: Earthquakes - Apr 2010

Peru: Floods and Landslides - Apr 2010Russian Federation: Floods - Mar 2010Solomon Islands: Cyclone Ului - Mar 2010DR Congo: Floods - Mar 2010East Africa: Floods - Mar 2010Latin America: Dengue Outbreak - Mar 2010Fiji: Cyclone Tomas - Mar 2010Kazakhstan: Floods - Mar 2010Madagascar: Cyclone Hubert - Mar 2010Southern Africa: Floods - Mar 2010Serbia: Floods - Mar 2010Haiti: Floods and Mudslides - Mar 2010Chile: Earthquake - Feb 2010Madeira: Floods and Mudslides - Feb 2010Caribbean: Drought - Feb 2010Pakistan: Avalanche - Feb 2010Cook Islands: Tropical Cyclone Pat - Feb 2010Ecuador: Floods - Feb 2010Afghanistan: Floods and Avalanches - Feb 2010Mexico: Floods and Landslides - Feb 2010French Polynesia: Cyclone Oli - Feb 2010Solomon Islands: Floods - Jan 2010Egypt: Floods - Jan 2010occupied Palestinian territory: Floods - Jan 2010Haiti: Earthquakes - Jan 2010Mongolia: Dzud - Jan 2010Montenegro: Floods - Jan 2010Bolivia: Floods - Jan 2010India/Nepal/Bangladesh: Cold Wave - Jan 2010Pakistan: Landslides and Floods - Jan 2010Solomon Islands: Earthquake - Jan 2010Tajikistan: Earthquake - Jan 201

greenlightmeeting


this is an opportunity for design


2. IntroductionDisasters are increasing in impact. Hydro-Meteorologic Disasters are in-creasing in frequency and potency due to Climate Change. Geophysical Disas-ters, albeit unaffected by Man, have resulted in harder hitting catastrophes.

The reasons for this are many and in some cases, intertwined, but many of them have very little of "Natural" to them. Climate Change, exploding urban populations, poor construction standards, government corruption and poverty, all play a part.

An earthquake in a desert will not result in a Disaster, but assume it takes place in a modern-day slum city with an immense population density, low access to utilities and absent or incapable government and the very same physical phenomenon will spell tragedy. A quick look at recent Natural Disasters will show that their impact is much stronger in the situation de-scribed above (e.g. compare Haiti 2010 and Chile 2010 [1].

Furthermore, in Disaster situations, the poor communities suffer the most. Besides generally poor quality of housing, the lack of space leads the poorest to often threatened land plots (e.g. in hills, valleys or exposed shore lines).

Poor people are also often uneducated and incapable of preparing for Disaster should they recognize the need or the

ily adaptable to specific realities and needs. For this adaptation, it provides assessment tools for the inexperienced.

Traditional Disaster Preparedness solu-tions tend to include knowledge and technologies to aid in different areas of human survival. Typically they in-clude first aid, water, shelter, food and energy/communications. This project is no different and diverse solutions are included in it. As the goal is to gather an easily adoptable Disaster Pre-paredness solution, not all presented improvements were developed from scratch.

Some improvements advanced by this project (e.g. water treatment) are based on the tailoring of existing knowledge, adapted to the experi-enced educational level of BoP popula-tions. Others (e.g. shelter) are present-ed as new technical capabilities to be taught to threatened communities.

opportunity. Lastly, poor communities also tend to be part of marginalized groups (e.g. ethnic or religious minorities) and while already neglected in the Pre-Disaster context, their situation quickly degrades after a major disruption takes place.

It is admitted that the listed aggravat-ing conditions are complex and not liable to be effectively addressed in a Graduation Project, so I set myself for something different.

As there's very little (an euphemism) that I can do to prevent the occurrence of Disaster, I've decided to design for the Post-Disaster situation. Several facts are influential for this:

Most Disasters leave survivors

After a Disaster, basic services are interrupted and livelihoods have to adapt

Assistance, even if quickly mobilized, takes time to arrive and deploy

The results of this project are directed at the Base of the Pyramid populations in the most Disaster stricken regions. It places great focus in simple technologies and knowledge made available and accessible to those in need.

While it is at the present, geographi-cally and culturally uncharacterized, its proposes solutions that are eas-

A few challenges are in place for this project:

- Disaster Preparedness has been tra-ditionally difficult to implement, even in affluent regions. [2]

- Differences in social, cultural and economic models create difficult con-ditions for the implementation and adoption of new or foreign technical knowledge.

- Diverse solutions types are brought together. This leads to difficult grouping of solution/implementation strategy.

- My contact with the BoP reality is done by proxy, contacting people with direct experience with it and reading on the issue. A more direct experi-ence would be beneficial, but it is, at the moment, impossible.


3. For who is this Project?This project is destined to help BoP populations, thus results are shaped by the characteristics of this group (e.g. income, household, education level, social structure, etc).

At the same time, said populations are deemed to be unable to directly access and use the information provided by this project. Some qualified interven-tion is necessary to adapt and teach the future users of the presented solu-tions.

This intervention need not be external or foreign, but simply educated and minimally qualified to guide a commu-nity in education efforts. This means that the educators are the ones that will have direct access to the solutions proposed in this assignment. Tailoring the information to be useful for the educators becomes extremely impor-tant.

In short:

Technical solutions were chosen based on their adoption potential by the threatened communities.

Presented material is edited to be of best use to the community trainers.


4. What is the result of this project?The results of this project are educational resources for threatened communities to make their own Disas-ter Preparedness supplies at little or no cost.

Techniques were tested and presented and strategies for the teaching of said techniques are also included.

Besides the supply of technical guide-lines, this project aims to support the education efforts that will transfer said technical knowledge to the popula-tions.

Project Results

EducatorsBooklet

InstructionsBooklet

CookingStove Water

Treatment

Radio

to make


5. ApproachThis assignment tackles the problem of deficient Disaster Preparedness in BoP populations from a technical and systemic point of view. This called for a plural approach to the problem.

I recognize three different areas with defined approaches:

Research

Product Design

Implementation Plan

Approach Outline

Research

Product Implementation

DisasterPreparedness EducationKit

Disaster Preparedness Supplies

Context & Methods

Instructions and Education Material

Education Strategies


5.1 Research

Humanitarian Design and Design for Emergencies are popular topics. It is not uncommon for students and designers to try to tackle such prob-lems as shelter, water access or food security. Unfortunately this does not always lead to actual application in the field and long-term adoption.

For this project, I wanted to overcome such familiar problems. The used approach reflects this consid-eration and aims at reaching actual improvement of living conditions for those who survive Disaster.

On a macro-scale, my research ap-proach is hinged on the identification of context of application and on imple-mentation methods. "Context" includes Disaster and Effects, Threatened Populations and Disaster Preparedness practices. "Methods" is related to Com-munity Education methods that can be used to empower those who will teach

in the BoP communities.

Disasters define the physical and ma-terial environment where this project is expected to see application.

BoP Populations are the target user group, with its characterization, needs and capabilities.

Disaster Preparedness knowledge illustrates what are the common views on Disaster Preparedness

The presented approach considers that in most incomplete design proposals on the topic fail due to an incomplete understanding of what are the real problems to be solved and/or the social, cultural and economical charac-teristics of the target group.

Research Approach

Research

Context Methods

Disaster Preparedness

Disaster & Effects

Base of the Pyramid

Education


5.2 Product

More related to the topic of Disas-ter Preparedness, my plan is one of simplification of requirements. Existing research identifies Preparedness requirements as a factor that can negatively influence the adoption of Disaster Prepared-ness behaviors [3]

This simplification is pursued through two principles:

- Reduction of material requirements (reducing perceived complexity)

- Reduction of costs (increasing accessibility)

This is also beneficial for the education efforts.

These reflect basic human needs of protection from elements, safe drink-ing water, food provision and commu-nications to be on the alert for assis-tance efforts.

Not all areas are best served by Prod-uct Design because not all are liable to be addressed by the BoP populations. Communications, requiring a radio, are an example of an area where people will no be able to produce their own Preparedness supplies.

Besides the simplification of access to Disaster, I have divided the general Disaster Preparedness require-ments in four areas:

Shelter

Water

Cooking

Communications

Water treatment is another area where one does not see Product Design per se, but useful treatment instructions. The reason for this is the belief that the knowledge of water treatment is more useful and flexible than set solu-tions for the carrying and storing of water.

First Aid is not included because it is deemed as too complex to improvise upon and too expensive to stock up.

Product Approach

Product Design

Shelter Water Cooking Communications

ShelterTechniques

ShelterMaterial

SanitationGuidelines

TreatmentTechniques

StoveMaking

ProcurementSuggestions


5.3 Implementation

It is by now understood that educating and empowering communi-ties as vulnerable as the Base of the Pyramid can not be achieved by the typical methods of Product Design.

With this in mind, I followed a three tiered implementation approach for this project:

Simplify access to Disaster Prepared-ness resources Simple technologies that BoP populations can put together and use

Equip Disaster Preparedness educa-tors for the teaching of threatened communities Education material that institutions can resort to when educating communities

Help institutions and individuals in setting up education initiatives Guidelines in establishing education strategies

Implementation Approach

Implementation

Equipeducators

AdviseStrategies

Simplifyaccess

ReducePreparedness Requirements

EducationalMaterial

CommunityEducationGuidelines

DIYPreparedness

Supplies


6. Reading this reportThis report is further divided in three main sections, corresponding to:

Context (Disasters; Base of the Pyramid and Disaster Preparedness)

Techniques (Shelter, Water, Cooking and Communications)

Education Package (Education Approach and Designed manuals)

The sections are, as much as possible, self enclosed, which means that one can choose which area is more inter-esting to focus on and learn about it.

The idea behind it was to ease future reference by eventual students/teachers, interested in using this project as a structure for Disaster and BoP projects.

Besides this, the customary Conclu-sions and Evaluation and Appendixes are present, towards the end of this volume.

Graduation Project: Design of a Disaster Preparedness Solution for the Base of the Pyramid References

[1] Slate Magazine, 2010. Article on Chile's Earthquake - "Shaken, but not broken". [Online] available at: http://www.slate.com/id/2246336/ [Accessed 05/03/2010]

[2] Paton, D. 2003. Disaster preparedness: a social-cognitive perspective. Disaster Prevention and Man-agement, 12 (3) pp. 210 - 216

[3] McClure, J. et al. 2009. Framing effects on prepa-ration intentions: distinguishing actions. Disaster Prevention and Management, 18 (2) pp: 187-199

Context Disasters Page 31 Base of the Pyramid Page 45 Disaster Preparedness Page 57

1. IntroductionTo better understand what is the expected context of application of any eventual Disaster Prepared-ness solution, I decided to study its three main components:

Situation

Target Group

Products

In this project, it meant the study of Disasters, their occurrence and effects; the study of the Base of the Pyramid and its characteristics and the study of Disaster Preparedness and its functions.

Comprehending these confirmed the need of Disaster Preparedness solutions that are easy, accessible and adaptable.

2. Need for SolutionsLooking at Disaster Data, it be-comes evident that Disasters are more common, more destructive and basically changing.

Not only the hazards are often in the developing world, their conse-quences, by virtue of worse infra-structure in general, are also more damaging in those regions.

The tendency is for Disasters to continue on a raise and there is a need for simple solutions that people everywhere can adopt.

3. Challenges of the Base of the PyramidThe poorest people on the planet are, admittedly unfairly, the most common victims of Disaster. This happens not only because of their geographical location but also be-cause of their living conditions.

If Disaster occurrence depends mostly on Nature, the effects of Disaster are compounded by popu-lations that do not know how to prepare, are often not are of all the risks they live under and cannot afford to mitigate their risks or pre-pare for Disaster.

4. Adequacy of Disaster Preparedness solutionsDisaster Preparedness, by simply placing a focus on continuation of life as normal as possible after a Disaster, implicitly hinges on the duplication of everything that one needs to live in normal circum-stances. This means extra material and supplies that are more often than not, outside the reach of those who need them the most.

The complexity of Disaster Pre-paredness as it is usually suggest-ed does not seem to match realistic goals. This results discouraging and means low adoption of Disaster Preparedness measures.


Disasters Definitions; Research Boundaries; Origin of Natural Disasters;

Disaster Occurrence; Considered Types of Natural Disasters; Disaster Consequences; Conclusions

When proposing solutions to in-crease Disaster Preparedness of

populations, it is important to understand Disasters, their types,

origins and consequences.

In this light, the following chapter is concerned to character-

izing natural hazards and disasters and clarifying assumptions.

It is helpful in identify specific needs and opportunities for

Product Design


The definition of “Disaster” is therefore related with the concept of “impact”, how an event affects other systems. Depending on a myriad of factors, the same event (e.g. an hurricane) can result in a disaster or not. It all depends on how much it affects the context where it takes place.

EMDAT also distinguishes two ge-neric categories of disasters: Natu-ral and Technological [A3]

Natural Disaster

When a disaster is caused by na-ture and has no direct human influ-ence, it is classified as a Natural Disaster. Some Natural Disasters, although not directly controlled by human interference might be the result of artificial interaction with nature. Global Warming has been linked to an increase of certain

1. DefinitionsThe following definitions clarify some common terms throughout this project.

Hazard

A source of danger or risk is an “Hazard”. In itself it has not effect and should not be mistaken as a disaster. As an example, an active Volcano can be an hazard for the nearby population, but it does not become a disaster until it directly affects said population [A1].

Disaster

The Centre for Research on the Epi-demiology of Disasters (CRED) has defined “disaster” as:

“(…) situation or event, which over-whelms local capacity, necessitating a request to national or interna-tional level for external assistance (definition considered in EM-DAT); an unforeseen and often sudden event that causes great damage, destruction and human suffering”. For a disaster to be entered into the database at least one of the following criteria must be fulfilled:

10 or more people reported killed.

100 people reported affected

Declaration of a state of emergency

Call for international assistance[A2]

types of Natural Disasters [A4]. This can mean that some Natural Di-sasters are more or less indirectly affected by human action (e.g. pollution, construction, mineral and forest exploration, among others).

Technological Disaster

A disaster is classified as Techno-logical when it is the direct result of technological (human) actions. Armed conflicts and disturbances often create conditions for situa-tions classified as disasters. Other examples are building collapses, in-dustrial, transportation and nuclear accidents [A5].

Source: EMDAT - International Disaster Database, 2010

Technological

Disaster Category/Effect Matrix

Natural

Disruptive

Destructive

War

ChemicalSpill

ExplosionBuildingCollapse

Building Collapse

Chemical SpillCommunicationBreakdownTransportationHalt

ExtremeTemperatureEpidemicFamineInfestation

EarthquakeTsunamiVulcanicActivity

Flood

StormSlide


2. Research BoundariesThe abundance of knowledge on the topic of Disasters prohibits a complete depiction of the topic. For this project, the boundaries of Disaster description are drawn at "Natural Disasters", "Structurally destructive Disasters" and the char-acterization of origin mechanisms, frequency and geographic distribu-tion. Disaster effects, although vari-able with context can be described in a general way.

Limiting this section to Natural and Physical Destructive Disasters helps focusing the efforts to Disaster oc-currences that can be forecasted with a certain degree of confidence. Also, it is more adequate as back-ground research for a product that is expected to be used during ma-jor disruptions, probably provoked by structurally damaging Disasters.

Excluding War, Natural Disasters are the most damaging Disasters.


3. Origin of Natural DisastersSeveral classification systems exist to organize all the known Natural Disaster types. One of the most comprehensive encompasses 5 main Generic Groups that are further divided up to 12 Disaster Types and more than 30 Disaster Sub-Types. This system is the one used by EM-DAT, the International Disaster Database of CRED [A6].

For this study, a more concise classification system is used, one that focuses on the most common events. Also, given the general nature of this research, a general overview is considered to be more useful than a in-depth specialist analysis.

The used system is the one used by the United Nations’ International Strategy for Disaster Reduction [A7] on its compiled disaster statistics from 1991 to 2005 [A8]. These sta-tistics are focused on the 1991 to 2005 period, but in fact consider the whole period of 1900-2005, providing a much useful overview of statistical information on Natural Disasters. 2005 is the latest year in the compiled information.

According to UN International Strat-egy for Disaster Reduction, Natural

Disasters can be of three main ori-gins that contain most of possible occurrences:

Hydro-Meteorological

Geophysical

Biological

Of these three origins, only the first two will inform the design process. Biological Disasters are not struc-turally destructive.

Hydro-Meteorological Origin

Disasters of Hydro-Meteorological origin include disasters created by: “(...) deviations in the normal wa-ter cycle and/or overflow of bodies of water (…)” [A9] as well as disas-ters “(...) caused by short-lived/small to mesoscale atmospheric processes (in the spectrum from minutes to days)”[A10]. Also included in this definition, are Climatologi-cal disasters, distinguished from meteorological disasters in the time scale, that ranges from seasons to decades [A11].

As a rule of thumb, it can be said that weather related disasters have an hydro-meteorological origin.

Geophysical Origin

All Disasters that originate from Earth's internal physical processes have a geophysical origin. These processes take place under Earth's surface and while their conse-quences are often visible, influenc-ing these internal interactions is, for the most part, outside human reach [A12].

Biological Origin

Disasters have a Biological Ori-gin when they are caused by the exposure of living organisms to germs and toxic substances [A13]. This relates mostly with outbreaks and epidemics of diverse nature (Virus, Bacteria, Parasite and Prion infectious diseases). Also, highly disruptive or destructive interaction between living organisms can be a considered a biological disaster. An insect infestation or destructive animal stampede can both be Natu-ral Disasters of biological origin. Besides direct human contamina-tion, biological disasters can affect human populations by reducing or eliminating food/income sources such as crops or cattle.

Disasters of Biological Origin are not considered for this project.

breathing; food; water; sex; sleep;homeostasis; excretion

of: body; employment; resourcesmorality; family; health; property

Source: EMDAT - International Disaster Database, 2010

Disaster Types

Flood

NaturalDisasters

Slide

Storm

ExtremeTemperature

Drought

Wildfire

Earthquake

Geo

logi

cal

Biol

ogic

al

Tsunami

VolcanicActivity

Avalanche

Subsidence

Famine

Epidemic

InfestationHyd

ro-M

eteo

rolo

gica

l


4. Considered Types of Natural DisastersOf the 12 recognized main types of Natural Disasters, the highlighted 6 are described.

Minor differences in Disaster sub-type were ignored to create this indicative account. For full descrip-tion of all main and sub-types of Natural Disasters, consulting the Classification section of the EM-DAT website is recommended. This description is accessible at:

Http://www.emdat.be/classification.

World Disaster Occurence1991-2005

insect infestation

epidemic

drought

wild�re

extremetemperature

volcano

earthquaketsunami

slide

windstorm

�ood

HydroMeteorological

Biological

Geological

1900 190

3190619091912

1915 191

8192119241927

1930 193

3193619391942

1945 194

8195119541957

1960 196

3196619691972

1975 197

8198119841987

1990 199

3199619992002

2005

0

50

150

250

350

450

Biological Geological Hydro-Meteorological


5. Disaster OccurrenceLooking at available information on Disaster Occurrence and effects, it becomes clear that Hydro-Meteoro-logical Disasters are the most com-mon, being more than three fourths of all reported Disasters.

Biological Disasters are also com-mon, but create less damages, an indication that they are not physi-cally destructive.

A closer look shows that within Hydro-Meteorological Disasters, Floods and Storms are the most common occurrences.

Both Disaster types kill relatively few people (when compared with volcanoes, for instance), but affect vast numbers.

Source: UNISDR 2005, from data on EMDAT 2005

World Disaster Effects1991-2005

epidemic drought volcano earthquaketsunami slide windstorm �ood

Killed People(960 502)

23%

7%

12%

0,1%

1,3%

43%

12%

Economic Damages(1192,95 .2005 US$ billion)

37%

0,08%

9%

22%

1,3%

30%

Affected People(3 470 162 961)

58%

12%

0,08%

1,3%0,07%

27%

0,4%


6. Disaster ConsequencesFor the scope of this project, Di-saster consequences are of major importance. They characterize bet-ter what hardships must survivors face. Also, with a broader sociologi-cal perspective, it is interesting to understand how survivors react and re-organize at several levels. A thorough description of such condi-tions follows.


6.1 Infrastructure Consequences

In an Urban setting, the prime example of a constructed environ-ment, Disaster consequences have the potential to be heavier than its less populated counterparts. The Population Density of cities is invariably higher, which means that the space must be shared by more people. The increased population density many times implies multi-story buildings, which pose added Disaster risks should they col-lapse. Even if there are no victims of building collapse (an unrealistic scenario), the decrease in usable space leaves survivors with very little or no space where to live.

The physical destruction in urban settings is not limited to living spaces. Industrial areas are also hit, creating two sorts of problems:

disappearance of jobs, which af-fects recovery and potential indus-trial contamination. Basic services' facilities such as Law Enforcement, Traffic Control, Waste Management and Medical Services might also be impaired, posing immediate and long-term consequences.

It was previously indicated that cities demand plenty of resources (e.g. water, food, fuel, materials) yet generate very little of those. Cities must be constantly supplied and if the supply disappears or is hardly hit, their living conditions quickly degrade. As these resources rely on transportation routes, should the routes be affected (e.g. downed bridges, flooded roads, broken pipelines), the supply is halted.

Where in rural areas food produc-tion and nature's proximity might alleviate the needs of a suddenly hit population, a city is a much less forgiving environment.


6.2 Social Consequences

As the artificial living space is changed by the Disaster's occur-rence, the social ties that lie within are also changed. What is worth mentioning is that Social Conse-quences tend to be less negative that most of imagine. In spite of commonly accepted predictions of Mass-hysteria, Disaster situations tend to foster pro-social behavior, especially visible within pre-Di-saster groups (e.g. family, neigh-bors, household) [A15]. The degree to which community cohesion is maintained before, during and after a Disaster is related to the severity of said Disaster. The "sweet spot" is located at a "medium severity" that is enough to alert for danger but low enough to allow for altruistic behavior [A16]. Looting and pillaging do occur but are not the norm.

The Pro-Social Behavior that can be witnessed after a Disaster takes several shapes at different times. When a Disaster Forewarning is present, people might cooperate to minimize effects of impending catastrophe (e.g. building sandbag dams, helping with evacuation). During the Disaster (e.g. Flood) Pro-Social behavior is also observed. After the Disaster, Pro-Social Behav-ior can be observed in the sponta-neous formation of neighbourhood watches [A17], informal search and rescue and building/clearing efforts.

These are the effects on a medium, geographically limited and, in a way, fragmented scale. Social Con-sequences are different for an in-dividual, a family, a neighbourhood and a city. At the beginning of the spectrum, the sense of belonging, the increased flexibility and agil-

ity of social units allows for some swift adaptation. As the scope of what is "community" enlarges, it becomes harder to maintain social cohesion and some fragmentation is observed.

Socially speaking, cities are more vulnerable to Disaster than rural ar-eas. The potential for tension situ-ations is significantly higher just as strong community bonds exist in smaller networks.


are not the full picture of what is Economic recovery.

ported. Agreements cannot be fulfilled and often penalties ensue. This goes to say that the economic impact of a Disaster is beyond the recovery cost, also including lost financial momentum. Especially with developing nations, this can take several years. As an example, it is believed that hurricane Mitch delayed Nicaragua's development by 20 years [A18].Economy often acts as some sort of middle layer be-tween other human issues (politics, education, society, etc). Producer and Product of a society's status, it is often managed (or steered) in a slow, reactive way.

Stable, long-term economic growth takes time and favorable conditions to sprout. When a Disaster disrupts a region's economy, the reaction to that event is often slow. Dona-tions and immediate financial help

6.3 Economic Consequences

The Physical and Social impact of a Disaster can be manifested on large scale economic terms, usually re-gion or country-wide. The destruc-tion of infrastructure, the halting of industrial activity and immediate assistance needs seriously hamper normal Economic development.

Amid all the consequences of Disaster, Economic consequences might be the longest to wane or to be fully repaired. This is due to two main factors: Economy's dynamic nature and Economy's traditionally large inertia.

Economy is generally regarded as a dynamic reality, where growth is the goal. As most of a nation's economic system relies on such a growth, should it disappear, said country finances are left unsup-


7. ConclusionsFirst, one can say that recorded Disaster frequency is increasing [A14].More Disasters happen and when they happen their effects are stronger than before. This means that there is a current need (likely to increase) of Disaster assistance efforts. Such efforts can happen in many fronts and I propose Educa-tion and Product Design as one.

There are several Natural Disas-ter types that have potential for widespread impact. Their effects cannot usually be completely cancelled and their consequences carry enough momentum to affect regions in the long term. Assistance in Major Disaster situations is dif-ficult and the variety of potential sources of Disaster calls for flexible and scalable initiatives. However

specific, many Disaster conse-quences are common across differ-ent locations and types of Disaster (e.g. loss of potable shelter, water, plenty of wounded, etc). Also given the impact of Climate change in Hydro-Meteorological Disasters, a region's Disaster profile is likely to change with time. A balance be-tween highly specialized Disaster Management approaches and more generic improvements is necessary.

This project is concerned with the basic generic requirements, closely related with minimum human sur-vival needs.

As one can see, Disaster Conse-quences are more complex and widespread than the physical harm-ing of populations and destruction of buildings. Disaster consequences change the way people behave and

seriously affect a region's devel-opment. Any suggested Design solution should consider these two facts. In the present project, I aimed at addressing social conse-quences by using household/family as the social unit of reference. As for future development aspects, I try to empower Disaster survivors through the teaching of simple techniques that require little invest-ment and can be used for other scenarios outside a catastrophe.

Future Natural Disasters cannot be avoided, but early preparation can reduce their negative impact

For more information on used data on the topic of Disaster, please consult Appendix C.


[A1] Canadian Center for Occupational Health and Safety, 2010. OSH Answers - Hazard and Risk. [Online]. Available at http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/hspro-grams/hazard_risk.html [Accessed 20/04/2010]

[A2] EMDAT - International Disaster Database.2009. Explanatory Notes - Criteria and Definition. [Online] available at: http://www.emdat.be/explanatory-notes [Accessed 08/02/2010].

[A3] EMDAT - International Disaster Database.2009. Explanatory Notes - Classification [online] available at: http://www.emdat.be/explanatory-notes [Accessed 08/02/2010].

[A4] ADPC - Asian Disaster Preparedness Center. 2008. Asian Disaster Management News, May-Aug. [Online] available at: http://www.adpc.net/v2007/IKM/ONLINE%20DOCUMENTS/downloads/2008/Oct/news-leter%2027%20Oct%2008%20(1).pdf [Accessed accessed 08/02/2010]

[A5] EMDAT - International Disaster Database.2009. Explanatory Notes - Glossary. [Online] available at: http://www.emdat.be/glossary/9#letterd. [Accessed 08/02/2010].

[A6] EMDAT - International Disaster Database.2009. Explanatory Notes - Classification. [Online] available at: http://www.emdat.be/classification. [Accessed 02/02/2010].

[A7] United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. 2009. Home Page. [Online] available at: http://www.unisdr.org/ [Accessed 02/02/2010].

[A8] United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. 2009. Disaster Statistics 1991 - 2005. [Online] available at: http://www.unisdr.org/disaster-statistics/introduction.htm [Accessed 02/02/2010]

[A9] EMDAT - International Disaster Database.2009. Explanatory Notes - Glossary - “Hydrological”. [Online] available at: http://www.emdat.be/glossary/9#letterh [Accessed 02/02/2010].

[A10] EMDAT - International Disaster Database.2009. Explanatory Notes - Glossary - “Meteorologi-cal”. [Online] available at: http://www.emdat.be/glossary/9#letterm [Accessed 02/02/2010].

[A11] EMDAT - International Disaster Database.2009. Explanatory Notes - Glossary - “Climatologi-cal”. [Online] available at: http://www.emdat.be/glossary/9#letterc [Accessed 08/02/2010].

[A12] EMDAT - International Disaster Database.2009, Explanatory Notes - Glossary - “Geophysical”. [Online] available at: http://www.emdat.be/glossary/9#letterg [Accessed 02/02/2010].

[A13] EMDAT - International Disaster Database.2009, Explanatory Notes - Glossary - “Biological Disasters”. [Online] available at: http://www.emdat.be/glossary/biological-disasters [Accessed 02/02/2010].

[A14] IFRC/RC International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, 1999, World Disasters Report

[A15] Quarantelli, E. 1999. University of Delaware Disaster Research Center. Disaster Related Social Behavior: Summary Of 50 Years Of Research Findings

[A16] Chang K. 2009. Community cohesion after a natural disaster: insights from a Carlisle flood Disas-ters, Disasters; 34, 2 26 October 2009, 0361-3666

[A17] Slate Magazine, 2010. Article on Chile's Earth-quake - "Shaken, but not broken". [Online] available at: http://www.slate.com/id/2246336/ [Accessed 05/03/2010]

[A18] IFRC/RC International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, 2000, World Disasters Report - "Nicaragua needs a break"


Base of the Pyramid Introduction; Who is the Base of The Pyramid; BoP Disaster Preparedness;

When Disaster Strikes; Disaster Risk Reduction; Conclusions

The target group for this assignment are the poorest people in the world, commonly addressed

as the Base of the Pyramid.

Such name illustrates the disproportion between population and wealth distribution, with BoP being the largest segment of the population with the least wealth.

In this section, an operative description of general

characteristics of the BoP is given, as well as an indication of what

have been the challenges in implementing Disaster Risk

Reduction initiatives.


1. Introduction"BoP populations" is a term not directly exchangeable with "poor" or "vulnerable communities", but it is true that the most affected by Disaster are usually part of the BoP group. For the remaining of this project, the Disaster threat-ened populations will be addressed as the "BoP". The most important concept that I borrow from the general BoP characterization is the low income (people living with less 2 $ US/day [B1]). Although the term is often used to present untapped eco-nomic possibilities, it will be used mostly as a socioeconomic label.

The characteristic low income is the main driver for hardship face by BoP populations. Lack of income leads to little opportunity for free-choice, which in turn can result in exposure to weather and political volatility, forced migration, low liv-ing and working conditions or no access to healthcare and education. All of these contribute to higher exposure to Disasters and their ef-fects.

Source: World Resources Institute

Individual Annual Income2005 $US Purchasing Power Parity

4billionpeople

2billionpeople

0,5billionpeople

maturemarkets>20.000$

emergingmarkets3.260 to 20.000$

survivalmarkets<3.260$


2. Who is the Base of the PyramidDefining who is part of the BoP, besides the easy to understand economic indicators, can also be approximated through geographical markers.

The map on the left clearly shows that poverty incidence is somehow clustered around sub Saharan Af-rica, parts of Central and South East Asia and South America. These are also Disaster Prone Areas, as one can verify in the section "Disasters" of this report.

Source: UN Human Development Indices 2008

N/A

61% - 80%Over 80%

41% - 80%21% - 40%6% - 20%2% - 5%Under 2%

Percentage Population living on less than 2 $US:2009


There is some discussion on what defines the economic indicators for Base of the Pyramid groups. As this project requires some capacity from the target group, the poorest defini-tions are deemed to be to limiting and not realistic.

For such cases (e.g. population liv-ing on less than 1,25 $US/day ), the improvement of living conditions to a minimum of self-capacity is necessary to achieve, prior to any Disaster Preparedness efforts. In this light, the slightly more gener-ous situation of people living with less than 2 $US/day is the preferred situation.

It should be noted that the proj-ects's outcome can be applied to other income tiers. This means that less than 2$US is the lower bound-ary for application.Source: US National Bureau Of Economic Research, 2009

World Distribution of Income2006

East AsiaSub Saharan Africa South AsiaWorld OECDLatin America

120.000

100.000

80.000

60.000

40.000

20.000

0

50 US$ 500 US$ 5000 US$ 50.000 US$

people livingwith less than 2$ US/day

people thatcan benefit from project


Although generalizing too much has its disadvantages, there is a tendency to for BoP participants to share some characteristics. These manifest themselves in an absent or incapable government style and presence, usually pervasive cor-ruption, dependence on external aid and a mix of highly traditional social structures and mutating social conventions due to internal migrations and conflict. What this means for Disaster Preparedness is that, for the most part, centralized Disaster Management is not ca-pable of reaching and helping most Disaster victims. Also, victims are usually not in condition to fend for themselves.

Social structures in BoP countries tend to be highly hierarchical and sometimes rigid, with little op-portunity for social mobility. Social conventions usually contribute for this with a big focus on the mainte-nance of community ties, central to one's life. If ties are broken, one's place in society is jeopardized. This requests for extraordinary effort and drive for an individual's rise in society, critic and ostracization being the consequences for those who try and fail. What values are preferred in driving one's life can

change a lot across BoP regions, from being focused on simple familiar life to placing an empha-sis on personal success. The way cultures deal with uncertainty and long term goals is diverse across regions, but with BoP populations, there seems to be a relatively high structuring of life, routines and norms. These provide rules to deal with unforeseen situations and act as "instruction manual for life".

Summing up, one can generalize BoP cultures along the following dimensions, as described by Gert Hosteede [B2] :

High Power Distance

Low Individualism

Variable Masculinity

High Uncertainty Avoidance

Low Long-Term Orientation

In regards to Disaster Risk Reduction efforts, this means that BoP populations require approaches that respect social norms while involving the community. Prescrip-tive pedagogical approaches seem to be more fitting and the respect for tradition might require long and

iterative external education efforts.

Comparison of Typical Cultureof Developing and Developed Country

PowerDistance

Long TermOrientation

Masculinity

Individualism

High

Low

UncertaintyAvoidance

Estimated Cultural Dimensions of Developed CountryEstimated Cultural Dimensions of Developing Country


3. BoP Disaster PreparednessWhen BoP populations are affected by Disaster, they are usually unpre-pared (exceptions being commu-nities highly adapted to seasonal occurrences, like monsoons). There are several reasons for this. The most relevant are social, economi-cal and spiritual/religious. Socially speaking, BoP populations are highly exposed because they are

Supposing that Disaster threatened communities had the educational resources to identify and reduce Disaster Risks (and this can hap-pen, both with or without external help), commonly, they lack the eco-nomical capacity to implement any improvements. No funds exist for Mitigation (e.g. Earthquake Proofing houses) or for Preparedness (e.g. stocking up on food and medicine).

not equipped with the knowledge to predict and plan for Disaster, even if they have faced it before. Unable to react for themselves, communities are left unprotected. Governmental or external assis-tance could perhaps help in this, but in reality, many times it is not adequately deployed.

Most times, people are dependent on themselves and external aid.

Finally, tradition, religion and spiri-tuality can take a part in the low Disaster Resilience of populations. Diverse views of one's control over his/her life can lead to fatalist out-looks on life and Disaster. People might feel that whatever happens, had to happen and there is little an individual can do to improve his/

her situation.


4. When Disaster StrikesDisasters, even of Natural origin can be amplified or subdued by artificial conditions. In the case of BoP populations and their living spaces, such conditions are typi-cally very bad. Poor construction, unplanned urban development, low access to water, sanitation power and communications, all create an adverse scenario.

An example: if a flood happens in an urban slum, it only adds to already present misery. Assuming that nothing could have been done to prevent the flood (and this is not always the case), its effects are highly intensified by the artifi-cial factors that make up the living spaces of BoP populations.


5. Disaster Risk ReductionSince Disaster and their effects are highly dependent on existing conditions, many initiatives not directly related to Disaster can have a positive effect. Education, Health provision, Sanitation and Urban Planning, are all examples of this. To improve the big picture, it is essential to take an integrated approach.

The resurgence of community based development initiatives (e.g. education, health, finance, com-merce and communications) helps communities to become more self-sufficient at all levels. Such strate-gies have been used for Disaster Risk Reduction.

These have shown considerable success, especially for popula-tions that are outside the reach

of governmental assistance. Com-mon educational approaches target school children and women, often resorting to community leaders, clergy and school teachers as pro-viders of training and knowledge.

Efforts to reduce Disasters have been made at several levels, from high level international political compromises to grassroots move-ments that aim at educating com-munities.

It is the second case that has direct relation to this Project.

The following 5 approaches are the most typically used by NGOs in Di-saster Risk Reduction initiatives:

Pressure authorities to improve living conditions and response to Disaster

Improve conditions prior to Di-saster (e.g. housing, sanitation, power and communications)

Empower communities with skills and education, including marginal-ized groups

Involve communities in Risk Iden-tification and Contingency Plan-ning

Supply material and educational resources both prior and post Disaster

[B3]

From this list, the last three are the most related with the approach of this project.


6. ConclusionsThe populations in the Base of the Pyramid make up the poorest, least educated people on the planet.

These are also the people, in the world, that are the most common victims of Disaster, due to their fra-gility and even geographic distribu-tion.

Their main limitations are chronic poverty and lack of access to healthcare and education, com-pounded by often shaky political backgrounds.

This target group has a strong need for Disaster Preparedness measures that are simple to understand, cheap to make and decentralized, away from slow and heavy govern-mental initiatives


[B1] Global issues. March 28 2010. Poverty Facts and Stats [Online] Available at: http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats#src1 [Bccessed] 20/05/2010

[B2] Geert Hofstede, Cultural differences in teaching and learning, International Journal of Intercultural Re-lations, Volume 10, Issue 3, 1986, Pages 301-320, ISSN

[B3] Benson, C. & Twigg, J. 2001.NGO Initiatives in Risk Reduction: An Overview, Disasters, 25(3): 199–215

Disaster Preparedness Disaster Management; Cycles of Disaster Management; Preparedness as Project Focus; Typical Preparedness

Requirements; Disaster Preparedness and the Base of the Pyramid; Conclusions

Disaster Preparedness, as way to reduce Disaster impact, is part of a

broader system of Disaster Management.

In this chapter, a general overview of Disaster Management is given

and the particular characteristics of Disaster Preparedness are

presented.


1.Disaster ManagementIn the professional community of people that work with Disaster prevention and response, there is a wide belief that a Disaster is defined by what happens before and after it. This means that to reduce Disasters and their impacts, it is necessary to consider all the prior effects, all the created effects and what effects it might have in

use this framework, just as people trying to reduce risks from wind-storms will.

Even the name “Disaster Manage-ment” implies that Disasters can be somehow controlled. This frames Disasters as events that can be af-fected by people's prior and poste-rior actions. [C2]

the future. This complete, circular approach to Disaster places a big emphasis on preventive action to create readiness for when Disaster strikes again.[C1]

Disasters can be very different from one another, and yet, this holistic method of organizing their preven-tion and response is used for virtu-ally all of them. People working to reduce Disaster from Tsunami will

Disaster Management is usually carried on by governments and development agencies. It can have different scopes, from a global perspective (e.g. United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction) to community-level initiatives (e.g. Istanbul's Neigh-bourhood Disaster Support Project - MAG [C3]).

In this project, I suggest a commu-nity-level implementation, due to simplicity and immediate effects. Its limited effect (it only affects the community where it is implement-ed) is compensated by the simplic-ity of its implementation.


2. Cycles in Disaster ManagementDisaster Management happens in a cycle. The phases of this cycle always follow the same order, but their division and duration are not usually clearly defined. An exam-ple: the actions taken after a Disas-ter, known as the “Recovery” phase tend to merge with the following

The 4 phases in Disaster Manage-ment are:

Mitigation

Preparedness

Response

Recovery

phase, named “Mitigation”. Also, although the order remains the same, different people and organi-zations are responsible for differ-ent phases, so there is an overlap between adjacent phases. [C4]

It is clear that in this cycle, there are two main periods: a pre-Disas-ter and a post-Disaster period. In the pre-Disaster period, one can find the Mitigation and Prepared-ness phases and in the post-Disas-ter, the Response and Recovery.

Disaster Management Cycle

Mitigation

Preparedness

Response

Recovery

Disaster Preparedness Sub Cycle

StayingInformed

Equipping

Planning

DisasterHappens


2.1 Mitigation

The mitigation phase is mostly fo-cused on the removal of the Disas-ter risk, usually with a long term scope. Examples of actions taken during the Mitigation phase are the creation of laws that prevent certain buildings in risky areas, the zoning of urban areas, [C5]moving of people out of danger zones and creation of committees and task forces that will manage new regula-tion and oversee their application.

Steps taken in Mitigation tend to have good effects [C6] as they re-move the danger from the living space of people or remove the people from the danger zone. How-ever, Mitigation is usually difficult because it requires committed ac-tion with a long term focus. Un-popular measures are often neces-

sary and politically it can be hard to defend. There are, obviously, good examples of Mitigation action, but it remains a difficult phase to implement correctly.

Mitigation measures are deeply contextual. This means a deep knowledge of socioeconomic fac-tors, combined, naturally with knowledge about Disaster risk.


2.2 Preparedness

Even the best mitigation measures cannot predict all the possibilities of Disaster. This means that there is always a need for effective re-sponse to possible calamities. This response is the result of efforts tak-en during the Preparedness phase. It is during the Preparedness phase that plans for response are drawn, equipment distributed and training overtaken. Also, people must stay informed about possible Disasters at all times [C7]

Preparedness is usually associated with creating conditions for good response in minimizing dam-age and impact on people's lives, namely survival. There are also other types of Preparedness, such as business (e.g. a bank) that plans what its own crisis response, asso-

ciated not with human survival but with business survival. This is not the focus of this project.

Preparedness is a very “democrat-ic” phase of Disaster Management, as it can be taken both by govern-mental and private institutions and families. Generally speaking, when families work for Preparedness, their objective is centred on the survival of the family members and the reduction of Disaster Damage.

Preparedness is a continuous process that only ends when a Disaster strikes. At that moment, depending on how well people and institutions prepared, the Response phase starts.


2.3 Response

Disaster response, as the name im-plies, is the reaction to a Disaster, with the objective of addressing the challenges and needs it creates. Police, Firemen and Civil Protection are the most visible players of this phase. During the Response phase, in reality, a lot of the assistance and relief to victims, at least during an initial phase, is given by the survivors. But, as assistance gets more complex (e.g. many people to rescue, need for government or foreign assistance supplies and know-how or just high technical complexity of rescue) civilian popu-lations are replaced by specialized public services.


2.4 Recovery

As the first efforts from the Re-sponse phase produce results, it is time to start thinking how to recover from the Disaster. This means both medium to long term recovery and heavily based of plan-ning of future developments. It is a good practice to include Mitigation efforts in this phase (e.g. plan the rebuild of a city, but with earht-quake-proof houses).

Recovery often means the creation of housing, the repair of infrastruc-ture or the rebuilding of businesses and agriculture.

The goal of Recovery is, quite clearly, the return to normality as fast as possible and preferably in a way that can avoid repetitions of Disaster.

Recovery measures depend on impact of Disaster and conditions previous to its onset.

One of the reasons why Recovery is important is to bring normality back and to avoid the creation of further emergencies (e.g. forced migrations or social unrest).[C8]


3. Preparedness as Project FocusIt is already known at this point, that Preparedness is the phase that I will focus my efforts on. The rea-sons for that are now presented.

First, it is known that all the pre-ventive efforts to reduce Disaster risk and impact are more effective and efficient that reactive mea-sures.

It is estimated that for every US Dollar spent in prevention, up to five can be saved in response. [C9]

This already makes it clear that the focus of this project should be on the preventive stages of Disaster Management.

Another reason why Disaster Pre-paredness was selected as a focus for the project was its accessibility.

Between Mitigation and Prepared-ness, the later is clearly easier to implement. Disaster Preparedness can be taken on by individuals and families and contributes to leave people more independent from centralized assistance efforts.

Good Disaster Preparedness can also have positive upstream effects. When communities are prepared, they tend to be more organized and easier to help. As a side effect, when authorities know that certain communities are ready for Disas-ter, they can focus their assistance efforts (after a Disaster) on those communities that are not as ready. This reduces the logistical burden on centralized assistance.


4. Typical Preparedness requirementsDisaster Preparedness on a fam-ily level has three main areas of action:

Equipping

Planning

Staying informed[C10]

Because Disaster Preparedness does not end until a Disaster hap-pens, these steps should be taken continuously up to that moment. On a family (or “household”) level, such steps are described ahead.

StayingInformedEquipping

Planning

Disaster Preparedness Sub Cycle


4.1 Equipping

In the context of Disaster Prepared-ness, equipping means getting a Di-saster Preparedness kit. Ideally, the contents of the kit should depend on the type of risk, but in practice, most kits contain the same sort of products. Most kits are made of supplies related with the immedi-ate survival of the users during the aftermath of a Disaster. Disaster Preparedness kits typically carry: material and supplies for:

Water treatment and storage

Cooking

First aid

Sanitation

Communications

Disaster Preparedness kits can be bought already prepared or can be put together by each individual, us-ing lists of recommended supplies.

4.2 Planning

Planning is the creation of contin-gency procedures to respond to possible future scenarios. For a family, this means identifying risks at home, work and play for each family member and selecting strat-egies to cope with such risks. Good

planning considers how will the family reunite if the Disaster catch-es them while separated, what are the roles of each one during an emergency and what are communi-cation and evacuation procedures.

Good planning includes the practice of techniques and procedures to be used after a Disaster. Examples could be the packing of emergency supplies, training coordination of separated family members without communications and evacuation routes.

Planning is inexpensive, but re-quires a level of risk awareness, availability and commitment that is somehow uncommon. [C11]

4.3 Staying Informed

Staying informed even in times of calm is necessary to know what are the ways that authorities will use to communicate an alert, how to identify alert levels and the mea-sures to be taken.

Staying informed also means know-ing techniques that are useful in prevention and response, such as first aid or switching off gas sup-plies.

Disaster Preparedness Kit recommendations

Water – one gallon per person per dayFood – ready to eat or requiring minimal waterManual can opener and other cooking suppliesPlates, utensils and other feeding suppliesFirst Aid kit & instructionsimportant documents & phone numbersWarm clothes and rain gear for each family member.Heavy work glovesDisposable cameraUnscented liquid household bleach and an eyedropperPersonal hygiene items including toilet paper, feminine supplies, and sanitizer and soapPlastic sheeting, duct tape and utility knifeTools such as a crowbar, hammer & nails,staple gun and adjustable wrenchBlankets or sleeping bagsHeavy duty plastic bags and a plastic bucket

Source: 72hours.org - The city and county of San Francisco

FlashlightRadioWhistleDust maskPocket knifeEmergency cashSturdy shoes, a change of clothes, and a warm hatLocal mapPermanent marker, paper and tapePhotos of family members and pets for re-identification purposesExtra prescription eye glasses, hearing aid or other vital personal itemsToothbrush and toothpaste

For the familyFor eachperson


5. Disaster Preparedness and the Base of the PyramidDisaster Preparedness despite be-ing the most accessible way for families to prepare for Disaster, is not widely adopted. In fact, it is noted that Disaster Preparedness measures have low adoption rates, even in affluent regions [C12]. It was observed that for poor communi-ties are even less prepared. The reasons for this lack of Disaster Preparedness measures by the poor communities are:

Lack of Information

Lack of Risk Awareness

Lack of Capability

Lack ofCapability

Lack ofInformation

Lack ofPreparedness

Lack ofAwareness

Disaster Preparedness and the BoP


Lack of Information

When people have no access to in-formation, they do not learn how to identify risks or how to prepare for Disaster. This also means having no access to real time warnings. Lack of information is the first barrier between people and Disas-ter Preparedness, but not the only one.

Lack of Capability

A final, but definite obstacle to peo-ple's adoption of Disaster Prepared-ness is their capability to change their conditions. Populations from the BoP, besides often having a lack of information and risk awareness, also lack the means to prepare. This means lack of money to invest in Disaster Preparedness, lack of social freedom to engage in Pre-paredness activities or even lack of a basic living conditions that would allow for a longer-term thinking.

A sub-set of lack of capability as an obstacle, is the perceived lack of capability that some marginalized communities may face.

A typical Disaster Preparedness kit can be a daunting investment, given all the recommended prod-ucts and their price. It is proven

Lack of Risk Awareness

Before people decide to invest their time and resources on Disaster Pre-paredness, they must recognize the risk they live with. This can be a challenge if people are uninformed about what risks are present in their area.

Besides recognizing a risk (e.g. on the path of a landslide), people must understand that they can change their likelihood of being a victim. Especially prevalent in some populations of the BoP (due to so-cioeconomic and religious reasons) is the belief that Natural Disasters cannot be avoided and their con-sequences are just fate. To fight off these beliefs is outside the scope of this project, but it illustrates another difficulty in implementing Disaster Preparedness

that people's adoption of Disaster Preparedness behaviors is nega-tively correlated with the perceived complexity of those behaviors.


6. ConclusionsFrom all the things that can be done in Disaster Management, Disaster Preparedness is the most accessible to families with little ex-ternal support. Despite this easier access, it still requires some com-mitment and investment, which can demotivate some people.

This points towards a direction of simplification of requirements for Disaster Preparedness. Reducing the complexity, on the basis that some Disaster Preparedness is bet-ter than none and complexity can be off-putting.


[C1] United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. 2008. World Conference on Disaster Reduc-tion [Online] Available at: http://www.unisdr.org/eng/hfa/docs/Hyogo-framework-for-action-english.pdf [Accessed on 19/04/2010]

[C2] see [C1]

[C3] Mahalle Afet Gonulluleri.2010. Website [Online]Available at: http://www.mag.org.tr/tur/mag.asp {Accessed 25/04/2010]

[C4] Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recov-ery. 2010. Phases in Disaster Management [Online] Available at: http://www.gfdrr.org/gfdrr/dm_phase_05.htim [Accessed 19/04/2010]

[C5] United States Federal Emergency Management Agency. 2010. Federal Insurance and Mitigation Ad-ministration (FIMA) [Online] Available at: http://www.fema.gov/about/divisions/mitigation.shtm {Accessed 28/04/2010]

[C6] see [C5]

[C7] San Francisco Department of Emergency Manage-ment. 2008. 72 Hours.org manual [Online] Available at: http://72hours.org/pdf/72Hours.pdf {Accessed 30/04/2010]

[C8] David A. McEntire. 2004. The Status of Emergency Management Theory: Issues, Barriers, and Recommen-dations for Improved Scholarship.

[C9] World Food Programme. 2010 . Disaster Risk Reduction [Online] Available at: http://www.wfp.org/disaster-risk-reduction [Accessed 30/04/2010]

[C10] See [C7]

[C11] Quarantelli, E. 1999. University of Delaware Disaster Research Center. Disaster Related Social Behavior: Summary Of 50 Years Of Research Findings

[C12] The Institute for Business & Home Safety, 2009.Vulnerable Populations [online]. Available at http://www.disastersafety.org/resource/resmgr/pdfs/vulner-able_populations.pdf [Accessed 16/03/2010]

Techniques Shelter Page 75 Water Page 93 Cooking Page 111 Communications Page 123

1. IntroductionBased on the previous research, the following criteria were established:

Simplify Disaster Preparedness requirements

Simplify access to Disaster Pre-paredness Access

I've simplified the requirements of Disaster Preparedness require-ments by reducing the list of basic material and to frame Disaster Preparedness as an activity more related with the acquisition of ma-terial supplies and basic technical knowledge, instead of the whole spectrum of measures previously presented in section E

This reduction accepts that the more complete Disaster Prepared-ness requirements better prepare people for Disaster. Their only drawback is that there complexity actually drives people away from adopting them.

2. Four basic areasFor the Disaster Preparedness solu-tion that I suggest, I've grouped the supplies and techniques in 4 areas:

Shelter

Water

Food

Communications

These areas correspond to the basic needs of people after a Disaster and while not complete to typical Disaster Preparedness standards, provide means for people to make a minimal Disaster Preparedness kit.

Practices from previous assistance efforts provide a glimpse of what professionals in Disaster Manage-ment believe it is more important in Disaster situations. To under-stand this, the assistance to the January 2010 Haiti Earthquake was studied and the accompanying graph was made. In it, one can see when each “Assistance Cluster” was activated. Non-Surprisingly, Health, Shelter and Non Food Items, Food, and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene were the first on the ground.

Cluster Activation in Haiti 2010 Earthquake Relief

Survival Operations Recovery

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

days after Disaster

No.

of C

lust

ers

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

Coordination

Shelter and NFIHealth

LogisticsFood Aid WaSH Educa on

ECT

Protection Camp Coordination &Management

Early RecoveryNutrition

Agriculture


Shelter Importance of Shelter; Approach; Expected Conditions; Requirements;

Coping Strategies; Shelter Elements; Cover; Unions; Operating Costs; Conclusions

After a Disaster, lack of food and water receive plenty of attention,

but a sometimes forgotten need is shelter.

People are very good at improvising shelter with available materials, but sometimes, even these are lacking

In this chapter, approaches and techniques for shelter are presented and explained


1. Importance of ShelterAfter a Disaster, traditional construction might be compro-mised, forcing the Survivors to arrange for new living quarters.

The capacity for building shelter relies on knowledge that most people in one way or another, have. But besides the practical and technical knowledge to build shel-ter, Survivors need shelter material.

Shelter is important not only for its protection functions, but also because of its psychological effect, of protection and a relative stability and dignity.


2. ApproachNot everything is destroyed after a Disaster. History shows that people are quick to take advantage of whatever means are available.

At the same time, it is unrealistic to assume that a Disaster scenario can provide for all Survivors. Also, Survivors might need relocate, leav-ing behind some of the improvised structures that protected them.

Shelter is a very cultural issue, and for different groups, it will be mean different typologies, features and capacities. Because of this I sug-gest an open approach, proposing adaptable procedures.

My approach is two fold: one of general knowledge that can be used regardless of specific type of shelter.

And one of technical knowledge to fabricate shelter materials and features.

Certain elements are common in shelters of different kinds (e.g. structure, cover, stakes, pitching lines) and I suggest alternative ways of achieving the same effect.

This is no replacement for tradi-tional typologies that are deeply ingrained and probably very well adapted to the local context. But can help survivors in making shelter without using more materi-als than necessary or under situa-tions where traditional typologies do not work.

It is the second side of my approach, the technical knowledge

for shelter fabrication, that I think holds more promise.

I believe it can effectively result in shelter-ready materials, but also, I think it can end up being a valu-able know-how for Survivors, even outside the frame of a Disaster. It might have other applications, be a commercial venture or just an inspiration for further improvement.

Aproach to Shelter

ShelterKnowledge

MaterialKnowledge

Tarp to Tarp

Tarp to Line

Makingwith ClothesIron

Makingwith Cooking Pan


3. Expected ConditionsAll Disasters are different, but there are some common points among many of them. Here are listed some

3.1 Urban setting

As introduced in the chapter "Di-sasters", cities present their own challenges, related with their population density, dependence on outside supply and lack of Nature's

If this has physical challenges per se, the social ones are also very relevant. Proposed shelter should acknowledge this and aim to ame-liorate such conditions through flexibility and privacy

The dependence on outside sup-plies means that Survivors will have to make do with whatever re-sources are already available, after the Disaster.

amenizing presence. When it comes to shelter, these aspects play a noteworthy part.

Population Density and the elimina-tion of Pre-Disaster shelter mean that space is at a premium and people will be closer together.


3.2 Social Rearrangement

Despite the debunking of Disaster Hysteria myths ( see section A "Di-sasters"), it is still expectable that Post-Disaster Conditions change some social dynamics, partially fueled by the likely halting of basic services.

One's Disaster Resilience is posi-tively correlated with belonging to Pre-Disaster groups [D1]. The relation between such groups affects social cohesion [D2]. Of these pre-Disaster groups, there is no better than fam-ily or household. [D3]

Because the social sphere is not static, shelter should be able to ac-commodate changing needs, taking the family as the basic social unit.

This means that any shelter sug-gestions should allow for flexible use and people's adaptation. This

is one more reason not to design a specific product.


4. RequirementsWith a drawn picture of what are the human needs concerning shelter, it is possible to list what is required from this area of the as-signment. Suggested shelter solutions must:

Provide shelter or means to achieve shelter, effectively pro-tecting users from weather and privacy invasion (minimum 1,6 m2; ideally 2,7m2 covered)[D4]

Be cheap, light and adaptable.

Guide users in making/adapting shelter to their needs

Teach users in shelter material fabrication techniques


5. Coping StrategiesThe suggested way for people to acquire enough Shelter material is to have families produce their own plastic tarp.

The suggested techniques are simple enough to be taken upon individually, but group making can also be very engaging and econom-ically efficient.

For families to make their own plastic shelter material, they would have to assess how much material they need.

To help such assessment, in the final educational solution, proposed by this project, there are indica-tions for this.

These are mentioned in previous

section, "requirements".


6. Shelter Elements:Shelter, regardless of what type it is, usually has the following ele-ments.

Stakes

Pitching lines (and adjustment)

Structure

Cover

of BoP populations and their daily experiences with poverty.

In this project, the following fea-tures are explored and given solu-tions for:

Cover

Connections

Openings/Closures

Connections

Openings/closures

This account illustrates what is nec-essary to achieve in terms of shel-ter production, within this project.

However, not all of the listed ele-ments will be re-designed for this project. I feel this avoids what would be a rather patronizing view

These elements combine the most adaptation potential with the fact that they are the least intuitive aspects of shelter making.

People all over the world have been making shelter in culturally appro-priate manners, fitting to local chal-lenges. Providing them with ideas on the listed components allows for more flexible shelter making.


7. CoverThe suggested cover material is easy to produce, scalable, and made from waste.

Besides being very inexpensive, making the shelter from waste might have collateral benefits of creating commercial demand for some types of refuse (e.g. plastic bags) and eventually create more

plastic sheeting, it cost me 15 Euro. This is not a lot by western stan-dards, but it is much more relevant for people that live with less than 2$ US a day.

I had heard about RagBag® through I. R. Siem Haffmans, who I met in a internship interview.

RagBag® produces bags and purs-es made from recycled plastic bags

revenue sources for impoverished populations. This deserves more study before any further claims are made.

For the cover material, I suggest using fused plastic bags, made into large patches of sturdy, water proof tarp.

At the beginning of this project, when I bought a 4m X 3m piece of

that are collected, selected, cleaned and fused together. [D5]

Siem told me that the specific technology used for the RagBag® material was patented, so I had to look elsewhere.

While researching for shelter solu-tions, I found Ruby Sprengle, a Product Design student from the University of Oregon. Unaware of RagBag®, she had also starting fusing plastic bags together with an clothes-iron, to create tarps that can be used as shelter. She calls it the UtilitQuilt. [D6]

I contacted her to know more about the process and was very happy to find out it is extremely easy.

Coincidentally, when I mentioned the idea to the Client of this project, he showed me his own experiences with the technique, this time using a T-shirt print press.


It was decided to try to improve on the technique, to make it acces-sible to virtually anyone.

In the process, it was discovered that similar results are attainable with a simple container where hot coals are put. Such container must have an heat resistant handle (I used an Wok) and can be pressed over the plastic bags.

A relevant aspect is that a movable recipient allows for very flexible use (as opposed with a press, for instance).

Because of the improvising nature of the explored techniques, figures on production output are ap-proximate. The heat needed for the process can shrink and deform the raw material, creating a fluctuation in sizes, output rates and costs.

The clothes iron method was also used, which is fairly simpler and gives better results due the faster heating up and easier temperature control.

This project describe both techniques, thoroughly tested by the author. The decision to use one technique over the other should be guided by what resources are available.


8. UnionsThe described cover making tech-niques allow for virtually any size and shape of cover material to be made, but this does not help ad-hoc modification of shelter.

For that purpose, I describe the following connections systems to connect different shelter tarps and pitching lines.

material. In this case, connecting different tarps allows for the mak-ing of larger pieces of shelter cover.

8.2 Connecting tarp and pitching line

Connecting pitching lines to tarps at the edge of those should be no problem and puncturing the mate-rial for this possibility does not reduce the sheltering function of

Like most of suggested solutions, these are simple implements, easy to understand and build upon, made from waste material.

Introduced here, these techniques are fully explained in Appendix D

8.1 Connecting different tarps:

When conditions call for a different use of existing material, it is use-ful to have ways of adapting said

the material.

Connecting the material to other components in the middle of the tarp, however, calls for a technique that does not permanently dam-age the shelter material. Any holes would reduce the water tightness of the material and should be avoided

For this I suggest a common camp-ing trick that requires minimal material.

8.3 Connecting tarp and tarp, temporarily

Although no set shelter configura-tion is suggested, the ability of closing a shelter can improve its quality and comfort. Openings/Closures diverge from connections in the sense that they allow for repeated cycles of operation.

An entrance done with this tech-nique might require several closing points, much like a shirt is closed by several buttons.

For each closing point, the follow-ing material is needed.


9. Operating CostsTo further understand what are the costs of producing shelter mate-rial, I estimated the starting invest-ments and running costs for both Plastic Bag Fusing Techniques.

The output rates already show an advantage of EPBF over FPBF, with the first having more than twice the output of the second, for the

Common resources

Regardless of employed technique, the garbage bags and oven paper were used. Although it is expected that the target users will not buy bags purposely for the making of shelter, an indicative price is given and the same happens for the oven paper:

same period

In all the experiments conducted, black polyethylene garbage bin bags where used to ease material procurement during the project.

The vast majority of plastic bags are made of polyethylene, so the results are relevant even if users resort to other types of bags.

15 bags = 1,65 Euro (1 bag = 0,11 Euro)

10m = 1 Euro (1 m = 0,10 Euro)

It takes roughly 3 bags to make a square meter of 2-ply shelter material:

3 bags = 0,33 Euro (1 m2 = 0,33 Euro)

The oven paper can be used sev-eral times. With the Fire Plastic Bag Fusing technique, 30cm last for around 3 m2 and with Electrical Plastic Bag Fusing, 60 cm (due to different covering methods) last for around 8 m2.

Oven paper with fire: 0,30 / 3 m2 = 0,1/ m2

Oven paper with iron 0,60 / 8 m2 = 0,075m/m2

Using Cambodia as an example of application and my results as a benchmark, I calculated the prices for 1 m2 of shelter material. It becomes very clear that electrical power is the most efficient way to produce shelter material.

Fire based production costs: EUR 0,46/m2

Electric based production costs: EURO 0,3395/m2

Estimation of Costs 1m² of shelter materialCambodia, 2010

RequiredResources

Material Costs(avoidable)

Cost ofResources

Cambodian GDP per capita: EUR 663

Operating Costs(fixed)

Plastic Bags + Oven Paper Energy

3/m2 0,022 kWh/m2

1,5 kg Charcoal/m20,1/m2

0,075/m2

�re

electricity

EUR 0,33EUR 0,002

EUR 0,12EUR 0,01

EUR 0,0075

�re

electricity


10. ConclusionsShelter material is very important for Disaster Preparedness, especial-ly if there is a possibility for people to stay away from home for several days. The typical cost of "regular" plastic sheeting was deemed to be too expensive for the BoP,

Luckily, the plastic bag fusing technique works rather well. Even more, it can be done with or with-out electricity.

This allows for families to make their own Disaster Preparedness supplies for shelter, fulfilling the simplicity criterion.


[D1] Chang K. 2009. Community cohesion after a natu-ral disaster: insights from a Carlisle flood Disasters, Disasters; 34, 2 26 October 2009, 0361-3666[D2] Rules of three

[D2] Quarantelli, E. 1999. University of Delaware Disas-ter Research Center. Disaster Related Social Behavior: Summary Of 50 Years Of Research Findings

[D3] Trost, Jan, ed; Hultaker, Orjan, ed. Family and disaster. Uppsala, International Library, Mar. 1983. p.43-62. (International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disaster : Special Issue : Family and Disaster

[D4] OXFAM. 1989. Plastic Sheeting - its use for emer-gency shelter and other purposes. [Online] available at: http://plastic-sheeting.org/ref/Plastic-Sheeting-revision3-1989-web.pdf [Accessed 22/03/2010]

[D5] RagBag. 2010. Website [Online] Available at: http://www.ragbag.eu/. [Accessed 13/04/2010]

[D6] UtilityQuilt. 2010. UtilityQuilt Blog [Online] Avail-able at: http://utilityquilt.blogspot.com/2010/02/beginning.html. [Updated 17/02/2010] [Accessed 13/04/2010]


WaterImportance of water; Approach; Expected Conditions;

Requirements; Treatment Strategies; Treatment Techniques; Water Storage; Sanitation and Waste Management; Conclusions.

In a Post-Disaster situation, Water deserves special attention.

Water supplies are very fragile against damage or contamination.

Water being so necessary for sur-vival, it is crucial to include in this project techniques to treat water.

In this chapter, these techniques are presented.


1. Importance of waterIt is a known fact that life requires water to thrive and humans specifi-cally need around 2 liters of water daily [E1] to survive. This number excludes water that is taken in the food, also very important.

The World Health Organization plac-es severe Dehydration at 2% loss of body weight due to fluid losses.

After this point, proper hydration balance requires more than simple fluid intake and asks for special-ized strategies. It seems clear that the best approach to the problem is to ensure a sufficient supply of potable water to avoid falling into a state of dehydration.

How much water is needed by an individual depends greatly on a number of factors such as gender,

age, exerted work and environmen-tal conditions.

Besides human hydration and cooking , water is also needed for hygienic and sanitary purposes. Es-pecially in a Post-Disaster situation, where basic services are interrupt-ed, there should be some attention to prevent the spread of disease.

For this reason, when considering water needs, some water must be factored in for personal hygiene and facilities management.

As water gets used it might require re-treating or proper disposal.

Source: World Health Organization - Water Sanitation & Health, 2002

Priorities in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene

Enough Clean Water

Basic Sanitation

Hygienic Behaviours


Household Water Treatment and Storage methods are simple, de-centralized approaches to water management. Their applicability is positively influenced by their low requirements and appreciable effectiveness in combating water-borne disease.

Widely advocated for non-Crisis situations, HWTS have the potential-ly to be used after Disaster affects water supply.

In some situations, populations might already be familiar with HWTS methods, which positively influenc-es their application after Disaster strikes.

It is important to note that fighting waterborne disease is much easier than to reverse chemical or inert contamination. HWTS techniques typically are not capable of ad-

dressing the second. Besides Water Treatment, Storage also takes an important role, more so in cases of biological contaminants. Biological contami-nants, due to their potential for growth, present the biggest threat to cross-contamination of previ-ously treated water.

Water Storage approaches hinge on two main principles:

1 - Identification of treated and untreated water and vessels

1 - Separation of treated and potentially untreated water and vessels.

More on Water Storage can be found in part 10. "Water Storage"

2. ApproachThere are several approaches that can be taken to address the issue of water supply to Disaster affected populations. For this assignment, Household Water Treatment and Storage (HWTS) was chosen for its scalability, focus on simple, easy solutions and implementation po-tential. The World Health Organiza-tion (WHO) states that HWTS:

1. Dramatically improves microbial water quality

2. Significantly reduces diarrhoea

3. Is among the most effective of water, sanitation and health inter-ventions

4. Is highly cost-effective5. Can be rapidly deployed and

taken up by vulnerable groups. [E2]

Type of

WaterSupply

AAvailableRResourcess


of reservoirs, sewer or industrial contamination of water reserves, among other often unforeseeable consequences [E3].

3.2 Water Supply Condition

Water supply can be unfit for hu-man consumption in more ways than one. It might be simply in-sufficient, be too saline or simply chemically and biologically contam-inated. For each situation there are steps to be taken that can improve the condition of the water supply.

3.2.1 Scarce Water:

If water is in short supply, the solution is to harness all pos-sible sources of water. Moisture is a possible source of water and can be created with fresh vegetation and water-based fluids (includ-ing urine). The general fact is that

water is present in many other-wise overlooked sources. It is the scarcity of water that leads to the tapping into alternative sources of water.

This project does not deal with the collection of water.

3.2.2 Saline Water:

Fresh water has less than 1 grams of salt parts per liter, above that limit and water becomes preju-dicial to consume. The increased salt contents require more meta-bolic work to be processed and in return, more water is consumed by the body, accelerating dehydration [E4].

Saline water can be distilled (or be filtrated through Reverse Osmosis) to remove the salt content.

This will not be covered in this project.

3. Expected conditionsThe impact of a Disaster is depen-dent on where it takes place and which system it affects. As a conse-quence of this specificity, it would not be accurate to draw a unique scenario with the expected condi-tions related to water supply. For this reason, this project is based on two different but equally extreme scenarios of water condi-tions following a Disaster.

3.1 Urban setting

Urban areas require plenty of re-sources but produce very little.

With water, the situation can be similar, especially if a Disaster has affected the infrastructure that ensures the water supply of the city. Such breakdowns could be interruption of water lines, leaking

Type of Urban Area

Inland Urban Area

Shoreline Urban Area


3.2.3 Contaminated Water:

Water Contamination poses a seri-ous problem in Disaster situations not only because it is a common occurrence, but also the character-istic uncertainty of Disaster effects makes it extremely hard to esti-mate which contaminants might be present. To further complicate mat-ters, not all contamination is easily addressed without complex, large scale and highly technical methods.

A complete list of possible generic contaminants follows [E5]:

Disinfectants Disinfectant By-products Inorganic Chemicals Micro-organisms Organic Chemicals Radio nuclides

Of this list, all but Micro-Organism contaminants need purification technologies not practical for small scale purification. Technologies such as reverse Osmosis, Activated Carbon, Kinetic Degradation Fluid, Sediment Filters and Iron Reduction Filters are not within reach for the target population.

Although the extent of the list, coupled with the amount of “un-treatable” contaminants might

appear discouraging, it is important to refer that not all these contami-nants are necessarily present in any given water supply.

Regardless of type of Urban area, in Disaster situations populations are advised to consider all available water supplies as contaminated or brackish , exceptions being intact pre-packaged supplies.

Primary Concern and Treatment

Primary Concern

Method Used

Giardia species, enteric bacteriaBacteria, Giardia species, some virusesAll enteric pathogens, inc CryptosporidiumUnpleasant taste plus microorganisms

DevelopingCountryTap Water

Developing/DevelopedCountryWater

clearsurface

cloudysurface

Choice of water treatment for types of water from various sources.


4. RequirementsThe preceding paragraphs draw a picture of what are basic water needs and possible Post-Disaster conditions in relation with the sup-ply of water. These help define the requirements for the selected water procurement and treatment tech-niques.

The suggested water procurement and treatment techniques must:

Result in an increase of available potable water supplies

Provide each person covered by Preparedness efforts with a mini-mum of 2 liters of drinking water, scalable to a full 20 liters, for consumption and hygiene

Guide the user in the evaluation of water sources

Remove or inactivate biological contaminants

Eliminate or reduce particulates

Use only cheap and easily attain-able, simple, generic materials

Require very little technical knowledge

Have application potential for off-Disaster periods.

Source: World Health Organization - Water Sanitation & Health, 2002

Water Treatment and Storage Requirements

Little orNo Water

Uncertain Watercondition

Unusable or Contaminated Water

Little technical know-how

No Specialized Treatment Supplies

No Specialized Analysis Supplies

2l - 7,5l consumption(person/day)

WaterNeeds

AvailableResources

Water Supply Condition

12,5lhygiene/sanitation

(person/day)


Contaminant Type: chemically reactive - vulnerable to chemical interaction

Chemically inert - not vulnerable to chemical interaction

Technical Complexity: required infrastructure and technical know-how to operate

Resource Availability: typical resource availabil-ity in civilian, non-technical groups

Operational Burden: operational requirements in terms of process supervision and operating costs

5. Water Treatment PrinciplesWater treatment techniques are based around two main principles:

Inactivation of contaminants or Separation of contaminants.

Where the first revolves around changing contaminants’ structure (killing biological contaminants or decomposing chemicals, for instance); the second hinges on physically removing contaminants from water.

Expectedly, the type of contaminant dictates what treatment techniques are appropriate and in some cases, a contaminant can be addressed by both treatment principles (e.g. Fil-tering, killing with UV light, killing with heat or chemicals for Giardia Lamblia Protozoa).

Inactivation of Contaminants

Affecting the structure of a con-taminant can be done through chemicals, microbes, heat and Ultra-Violet radiation. The same principle applies to all options; the contaminants’ chemical bonds are affected to a point that it effectively changes its properties and stops being a health concern.

Treating water through this princi-

ple requires that the contaminants themselves are liable to be affected by such action. In cases where contaminants are impervious to in-activation techniques (e.g. Radon, a radioactive water-soluble gas) they have to be physically removed from water altogether.

Advantages of Treatment through Contaminant Inactivation:

Effective on some contaminants that cannot be reliably removed from water

Typically requires simpler infra-structure than separation tech-niques

Disadvantages of Treatment trough Contaminant Inactivation:

Used additives might be ineffec-tive or harmful if incorrectly dosed

Additives might create unforeseen chemical and biological products

Additives might be sensible to en-vironmental conditions, changing their effectiveness

Typically require some reaction time

Water Treatment Principle

best suited forcontaminanttype

chemicallyinert

typicallylow

typicallyhigh

high

low

high

medium

technicalcomplexity

resourceavailability

Comparison Water Treatment Principles


Finally, distilling is based on the different evaporation conditions for different substances. As a sub-stance evaporates before others, it is separated from them. The evapo-rated content can be captured and condensed again for a more pure result. This is a known way of treat-ing water, that as it evaporates, leaves impurities behind. In drink-ing water matters, this also results in a pure water that has no miner-als, something that is surrounded by some controversy related to its effects on human health if it is the exclusive water source for extended periods of time.

Distilling does not remove contami-nants that have lower evaporation temperatures than water (e.g. Vola-tile Organic Compounds, harmful with long term exposures).

Separation of Contaminants

The physical removal of contami-nants is mostly done through filter-ing, but sedimentation/flotation and distilling can also be consid-ered contaminant removal tech-niques. In the case of filters, their porosity defines what contaminants are removed. Types of filters are Activated Carbon, Reverse Osmosis Membranes, Kinetic Degradation Fluxion and Sand (fast or slow) Filters.

Sedimentation/Flotation separation of contaminants is also possible and takes advantage of the me-chanical separation between water and contaminants as precipitates or as lower density floating depos-its. In either case, the deposits are physically removed from the treat-ment basins.

Advantages of Treatment through Separation of Contaminants:

Effective on some contaminants impervious to inactivation

Involve no use of potentially harmful additives

Tend to be faster operating that inactivation techniques

Disadvantages of Treatment through Separation of Contaminants:

Filter condition is crucial for effectiveness of filtering treat-ments

Typically require more complex infrastructure


6. Selected Water Treatment TechniquesWater being so important for sur-vival, it recommended that one has access to more than one method of procuring and/or purifying water. In this project, 4 techniques are suggested along with guidelines to help in the selection of the most fit for a given environment or situa-tion.

The requirements presented in section “4. Requirements” are the evaluation criteria that dictate the suggestion of the introduced techniques.

The techniques are:

Boiling

Chemical Disinfection

Chlorine

Iodine

Solar Disinfection

All techniques should be included in a basic water treatment cycle as pictured on the right.

Chlorine

Iodine SODIS

Boil


7. Boiling Boiling is a trusted method for kill-ing micro-organisms in water and has been widely used since ancient times. What is often misunderstood about boiling is its effectiveness, that is higher than what most esti-mations used to predict. A common misunderstanding is that water must be boiled for some time, which is unnecessary and in fact, wasteful.

Heating water up to 70˚C is enough to instantly kill all microbes poten-tially present in the water. Even lower temperatures can kill all pathogens, as long as there are maintained for enough time, as the graph on the left illustrates:

Boiling is the recommended meth-od by a few major organizations [E6] as an emergency water purifica-tion technique. It’s effectiveness in killing micro-organisms is only shadowed by its high resources requirement.

Bringing water to a rolling boil is useful in the sense that it clearly signals a known temperature that is above the instant pasteurization temperature (70˚C).

Besides that, the gradual raise of temperature up to boiling point (and afterwards, down to drinking temperature) means that water is likely to be above at an high tem-perature for some time (e.g. 15min

for 65˚C) becoming pasteurized.

Conclusion

Boiling is the surest way of inacti-vating micro organisms in water, on a household basis.

Largely used by several communi-ties, it still has some drawbacks, most especially its fuel needs and presented danger.

0,1

45

50

55

60

65

70

0,3 1 3

Time (hours)

Tem

pera

ture

(oC)

safezonesaffezone

vibriocholerae

entamoeba

taenia

ascarias

entericviruses

salmonella

shigella

Time/Temperature Chart

Source:Feachem et al. 1983


Despite the differences in effec-tiveness, both Chlorine and Iodine based water treatment techniques are described. Even less than per-fect purifying methods are better than no water treatment at all and the ubiquity of Chlorine based solu-tions is a strong reason to explain its use. Also noteworthy, there is evidence that long term drinking of Iodine-treated water can bring Thyroidal problems, problems to iodine sensitive persons, pregnant women and children. In fact, most references advise for the seeking of medical advise prior to starting to consume iodine treated water [E8].

8. Chemical DisinfectionAnother Contaminant Inactivation technique, Chemical Disinfection can be done several ways. For the context of emergency water pu-rification Iodine and Chlorine are the suggested disinfectants due to their effectiveness and availability for the non-specialist. Chlorine and Iodine are found diluted in bleach and first aid kits, respectively.

There is some confusion on ef-fectiveness of either method, with some sources claiming that Chlo-rine based treatments are more effective than Iodine based treat-ments. Most of collected evidence points otherwise and academic re-sources indicate that Iodine based treatments are more effective at disinfecting water than Chlorine based treatments [E7].


8.1 Chlorine Treatment (Bleach)

Chlorine (specifically Hypochlorite) is the major water disinfectant used for municipal water treat-ment and has no know toxicity or carcinogenic effects when used for water disinfection [E9].

In an Emergency context, Chlorine can be used to disinfect water with success rates superior to 99,99% [E10], if instructions for application, dosage and timing are followed.

Chlorine is readily found in house-hold bleach, a cheap and easily accessible supply. For water dis-infection purposes, non-scented, non-colour-fast bleach. Non-Chlo-rine Bleach is not appropriate for water purification.

Chlorine evaporates easily and is affected by sunlight, which is the reason why it is always sold

in opaque containers. Household Chlorine loses its potency and it is recommended that open bottles bleach to be discarded after 30 days [E11].

Murkiness, Cloudiness or extremely cold water affect treatment effec-tiveness for all chemical treatments and in the specific case of Chlorine, such water characteristics call for a doubling of the Chlorine dose [E12].

If the Chlorine in bleach concentra-tion is not known, recommenda-tions say to use 10 drops of bleach per liter.

Conclusions

Chlorine Based Water Disinfection is an acceptable method to inactivate water borne pathogens. It has an interesting combination of easy ac-cess, low impact on human health

and almost 100% effectiveness. Unfortunately the strong smell of Chlorinated water often faces rejec-tion by those who could benefit from it, although it is expected that during Post-Disaster situations people will be more flexible in their demands on water taste if clear health advantages are understood.

A known method of improving taste is to add instant juice powders to the water. Tea is also an option.


8.2 Iodine Treatment (Iodine)

Iodine is a more effective water disinfection chemical than Chlorine and under the right circumstances, will be effective at killing patho-gens at rates superior to 99,999% [E13]

In an typical household, Iodine can usually be found in the first aid cabinet as a 2% Tincture of Iodine preparation. Iodine is sensitive to light and this is why, like bleach, it also is packaged in opaque contain-ers.

Iodine can have harmful effects on the Thyroid, and general health of pregnant women and children. Even persons not especially sensi-tive to Iodine might develop health problems with continued drinking of Iodated water [E14].

General recommendations on

Iodine use point towards a careful consideration of advantages and disadvantages of Iodine as a water disinfectant, the seeking of medical advise prior to the resort to Iodine based water treatments and the limitation of the time such treat-ments are used.

For 2% Tincture of Iodine, the recommended disinfection dose is 4 drops per liter of water to be treated. Like with Chlorine, Iodine doses should be doubled if the wa-ter to be treated is murky, cloudy or very cold.

Conclusions

Iodine based water treatments should not be taken lightly, given their known impact on human health. Their effectiveness might outweigh these disadvantages, but an informed decision is recom-

mended. For the scope of Disaster Preparedness, simpler, less risky methods do have an advantage.

The required knowledge to confi-dently employ a method affects that method's usability, often con-nected with method adoption rates. High complexity of a treatment leads to poorer usability and hence, lower adoption rates by target population, rendering the system virtually useless.

This method is presented on the basis that it might be the only ac-cessible method for populations at risk and should an absence of other resources be observed, it could very well be a lifesaver.


9. Solar Disinfection (SODIS)Micro Organisms are vulnerable to heat and Ultra Violet radiation, both amply provided by the Sun. SODIS is a method to purify water based solely on the exposure of water to sunlight. This method involves the bottling of water as clear as possi-ble in PET bottles and the exposure of theses bottles to sunlight for at least six hours on a sunny day [E15].

SODIS as a water treatment tech-nique, its simplicity, low cost and effectiveness can be initially hard to believe. However, regardless of innate scepticism one might have, this method has been developed by the Swiss Eawag: Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology since 1991. The initial idea of Solar Water Disinfection had been presented for the first time by

Aftim Acra in 1984, through UNICEF. Laboratory tests by EAWAG took place and having proved the ef-fectiveness of the method in killing all sorts of pathogens, the system started to be field tested in 1999.

SODIS works better with clear water, clear skies and strong sun, but it can also be tailored for cloudy days, when instead of 6 hours, it requires two full days of exposure.

As SODIS involves a continued exposure of the water filled bottles to the sun, one of the main con-cerns when applying the system is the positioning of the water to be treated. The perfect medium in a developing world setting is alumini-um or corrugated iron sheets, often used as roofing.

The SODIS project has been exten-sively researched on several levels besides mere water treatment, including application, training of instructors, cultural adaptation or geographical distribution of sun-light. A look into the full official documentation is recommended at:

http://www.SODIS.ch.

Conclusions

SODIS advantages are easy to understand. Its effectiveness and lack of needed resources is highly enabling.

If the logistical hassle of collecting enough PET bottles is solved, this method holds great opportunity.


10. Water StorageBiological contamination of water is a ongoing process that cannot be fully stopped. It can be interrupted and contained, but any compro-mised water source requires a full treatment cycle before it can be regarded as disinfected again.

For this reason, the issue of cross-contamination is a relevant one and strategies to avoid it should be in place.

Household Water Treatment and Storage, due to its small scale and context specificity is better served with general guidelines that introduce the dangers of cross-contamination, rather than specific prescriptive measures.

The prepared educational materials have a too big of a scope to allow for a extensive description of water storage methods. Instead, a num-ber of simple, general advice on the topic was presented, along with sources for more specialized infor-mation. You can find this advice on the Appendix E.


11. Sanitation and Hygiene"Major health risks due to inade-quate excreta disposal after disas-ters arise in urban areas following damage to existing systems, or when parts of a city receive large numbers of displaced or homeless people, so putting increased pres-sure on facilities that may already be under strain (...)" [E16]

As every emergency situation is dif-ferent (e.g. nature of settlements, available space, number of users), what is here suggested is a number of general guidelines to be followed at all times, that can be easily adapted to existing conditions. These guidelines can be found in Appendix E.


12. ConclusionsWater being such a necessary survival resource, it is crucial that people have ways to get safe drink-ing water.

This chapter proves that there are few simple techniques that people can use, that will disinfect contami-nated water.

These will be included in the educational package for Disaster Preparedness. Even thought they are not instructions for the making of a product, they are quite useful in a Disaster situation.


[E1] World Health Organization, 2003, Domestic Water Quantity, Service, Level and Health. [Online] Available at: http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/dis-eases/WSH03.02.PDF [Accessed 19/04/2010]

[E2] World Health Organization, 2007, Combat-ing waterborne disease at the household level. [Online] Available at: http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2007/9789241595223_eng.pdf [Accessed 19/04/2010]

[E3] Joel Garreau, 2001.” Nature’s Revenge”. The Washington Post. [Online] Available at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?Pagename=article&node=&contentId=A24688-2001Aug31 [Accessed 20/04/2010]

[E4] United States Geological Survey, 1996. Glossary of water-use terminology - "Saline Water". [Online] Available at: http://water.usgs.gov/watuse/wuglos-sary.html [Accessed 20/04/2010]

[E5] United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2009. Ground Water and Drinking Water - Drinking Water Contaminants. [Online]. Available at http://www.epa.gov/safewater/hfacts.html [Accessed 20/04/2010]

Home Water Purifiers and Filters, 2010. Heavy Metals. [Online]. Available at http://www.home-water-purifi-ers-and-filters.com/lead.php [Accessed 20/04/2010] Home Water Purifiers and Filters, 2010. Iron and Man-ganese. [Online]. Available at http://www.home-water-purifiers-and-filters.com/ironmanganese.php [Accessed 20/04/2010][8] United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2009. Indoor Air Quality - Volatile Organic Compounds. [Online]. Available at http://www.epa.gov/iaq/voc.html [Accessed 20/04/2010]

[E6] United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2009. Ground Water and Drinking Water - Emergency Disinfection of Drinking Water. [Online]. Available at http://www.epa.gov/safewater/faq/emerg.html [Accessed 20/04/2010]

[E7] Ongerth, J. E., et al. 1989. Backcountry water treatment to prevent giardiasis. Am. J. Public Health 79:1633-1637.

[E8] Backer H.Water disinfection for international and wilderness travelers. Clin Infect Dis 2002; 34:355–364.

[E9]Backer H.Water disinfection for international and wilderness travelers. Clin Infect Dis 2002; 34:355–364.

[E10]Backer H.Water disinfection for international and wilderness travelers. Clin Infect Dis 2002; 34:355–364.

[E11] Center for Disease Control & Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee, 2008.Guideline for Disinfection and Sterilization in Healthcare Facilities. [Online]. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dhqp/PDF/guidelines/Disinfec-tion_Nov_2008.PDF [Accessed 20/04/2010]

[E12] United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2009. Ground Water and Drinking Water - Emergency Disinfection of Drinking Water. [Online]. Available at http://www.epa.gov/safewater/faq/emerg.html [Accessed 20/04/2010]

[E13] Kahn FH, Visscher, 1975. BR: Water disinfection in the wilderness-A simple, effective method of iodi-nation (Information).West J Med 122:450-453

[E14] Pearce EN, Gerber AR, Gootnick DB, et al. Effects of chronic iodineexcess in a cohort of long-term American workers in West Africa. J Clin. Endocrinol Metab 2002;87:5499 –502

[E15] Swiss Federal Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (EAWAG) & Department of Water and Sanitation in Developing Countries (SANDEC), 2002. Solar Water Disinfection - A guide for the application of SODIS. [Online]. Available at http://www.sodis.ch/methode/anwendung/ausbildungsmaterial/doku-mente_material/manual_e.PDF [Accessed 20/04/2010]

[E16] World Health Organization, 2002, Environmen-tal health in emergencies and disasters: a practical guide. [Online] Available at: http://www.who.int/wa-ter_sanitation_health/emergencies/emergencies2002/en/index.html [Accessed 11/05/2010]


CookingImportance of Food; Approach; Expected Conditions;

Requirements; Coping Strategies; Rocket Stove; Conclusions

More Disaster resilient than water supplies, food is still object of

concern after a Catastrophe.

If the target for this project were not so destitute, it could be sug-

gested that people stocked up on food. However this is not possible.

Instead of focusing on the stocking up of supplies, I suggest the

making of an efficient stove.

In this chapter you can find out why.


1. Importance of CookingPhysiologically speaking, food needs come in third after Shelter and Water. This is reflected in its given emphasis on this project.

Besides this physiological aspect, food and food preparation also play a big part in domestic finances and social life.

Cooking can occupy a significant part of a family's budget, not only with ingredients, but also with the fuel and related products.

Since it is not expected that people in the BoP can stock up on food supplies, the selected approach is suggest faster, more efficient ways of cooking. This is done through the suggestion of a special kind of stove.


2. ApproachBecause of the lack of disposable income and chronic food shortages faced by the target group, Food Preparedness cannot hinge on the stocking of resources.

It is unrealistic to expect that poor people that often struggle for daily food, will set reserves aside for a possible (not certain) upcoming Disaster. [F1]

To address this problem, it was decided to improve people's food situation through the providing of better cooking conditions, instead of through saving of cooking ingre-dients or instruments.

The fabrication and use of a "Rock-et Stove" are proposed.

A "Rocket Stove" consumes less firewood and can be smokeless,

which allows for healthty indoor use The stove can be produced by a household with common supplies often found in the garbage.

Also, once its operating principles are understood, it his a simple technology to reproduce and adapt. It has ample Off-Disaster applica-tion potential, leading to possible branching effects on people's lives.


3. Expected ConditionsFood supplies are more Disaster Resilient that water supplies. Food storage typically resists better than water (e.g. a burst box will keep some of its contents). This means that food supplies do not immedi-ately disappear in a Disaster Occur-rence.

3.1 little available food for immediate consumption

There is however, a problem. Also as mentioned before, the target populations usually have very little available food and any surviving re-sources are likely to be consumed within few days (if more than one).

Stocking up at the household level is extremely difficult and external aid approaches might be necessary.

3.3. Poor cooking conditions

On the other side, for those who have food, cooking can be a chal-lenge for other reasons. One of those is the need for cooking fuel, that after a Disaster might have low availability. As an example, in Haiti, after the 2010 earthquake, a short-age of cooking fuel was felt.[F2]

Fuel is only a problem, assuming that stoves or ovens are in place. This is not always the case, as sometimes families abandon their previous homes leaving them be-hind [F3]


4. RequirementsThe described approach and con-ditions for the preparing of food create a picture of what is expected from any proposed solution.

The suggested solutions for food preparation must:

Create cooking capacity after a Disaster Situation

Allow for scalability and adapta-tion

Use as least materials and re-sources as possible

Require little technical knowledge

Have application potential outside Disaster settings


5. Coping StrategiesFabrication of cooking aids after the onset of Disaster is possible, but hardly the most effective way of achieving best results. The urgency of the situation and the potential lack of specific resources hinders the process. Making the stoves prior to the Disaster is the recom-mended strategy.

The presented stove design re-quires virtually no tools other than a way to cut tin. This means that theoretically any family could do it at home. There is however, a ad-vantage is working with established groups (e.g. schools, hospitals, churches and community sessions). Not only centralized material gath-ering can help in getting some sup-plies, a more efficient way of tool sharing can be in place.


6. Rocket StoveThe Rocket Stove is a design by Dr. Larry Winiarski, that started devel-oping it in 1982 for the Approvecho Research Center, in Oregon, US. [F4]

It was developed from the begin-ning to be an alternative to inef-ficient stoves that require logs of wood to operate. Designed to be easy to produce and cheap to ob-tain, it is a perfect fit for develop-ing countries.[F4]

The rocket stove is a characterized for having an heavily insulated chimney, and a very focused deliv-ery of heat.ZI5]

By keeping the chimney insulated from the outside, less heat is lost through the chimney. This heated chamber heats up the air, com-pletely burning the fuel. The heated air is focused on the pot and as it

travels upwards, more fresh air is sucked in into the stove, fueling the fire.

The focusing effect of the chimney is also beneficial for the heating of pots and pans, meaning that no heat escapes, as it happens with an open fire.

The Rocket Stove design takes ad-vantage of the fact that a low mass stove will not suck in the heat generated by the fire (as opposed as with an heavy, dense stove).

This design allows for more ef-ficient combustion and therefore, lower fuel needs. Because the heated chimney burns away the smoke, a well made rocket stove can be used indoors with no nega-tive health effects.

Source: Aprovecho Research Center

Rocket Stove Functioning

cooking pot

chimney

insulation

hot air flow

fuel

fresh air inlet


The Rocket stove can be made from different materials and is eas-ily adapted. Its size and building blocks can be changed and once the general principle is understood, people can iterate on the design.

The insulation between the chim-ney and the body of the stove can be made of several materials. The only rules to remember is that trapped air is the best insulator,

this means using less than perfect insulating materials, such as clay.

In said cases, it helps if the insula-tion is mixed with hay or hollow weeds, cane, etc.

Rocket stoves are adaptable and scalable because changing their architecture or size, while keeping the insulated chimney principle will make the result just as effective.

and materials with a large thermal mass will absorb a lot of heat.

For this reason, sand or clay are not good insulators. Chimneys in-sulated with them will lose a lot of heat to them. Wood ash is the rec-ommended insulation, if kept dry.

When making stoves from alterna-tive materials, sometimes one will be forced to adapt. In some cases

A good rocket stove will only need minimal fuel (e.g. twigs, wood splinters)

Rocket Stoves have been exten-sively introduced in developing countries with success. Because their innovation does not disrupt old habits (like a Solar oven does, for instance), people are quicker to adopt it.

I made a rocket stove from simple materials that can be expected to be found in most developing countries. This experiment 1s a benchmark for the teaching of the technique. My used materials are described between brackets.


7. ConclusionsIt took me roughly one hour to fab-ricate the stove (which have cost roughly 7 Euro because I used new supplies to make it). When testing it, it took some iterations on the design (reducing space between chimney and bottom of pot, bend-ing top of stove inwards to create pot support and focusing flame with the chimney cover).

When everything had been opti-mized the system was quite ef-ficient, bringing 1,5l of water to a rolling boil within 10 minutes. It required around 0,5kg of wood pieces to do so.

The Rocket stove is a good cooking device that can actually be used outside Disaster circumstances. Its simple requirements and construc-tion allow for the teaching of its fabrication and local production, both before and after the Disaster.


A1] Survival Topics, 2010. How Long can you live without food [Online]. Available at http://www.survivaltopics.com/survival/how-long-can-you-live-without-food/ [Accessed 24/05/2010]

[F1] The Institute for Business & Home Safety, 2009. Vulnerable Populations [Online]. Available at http://www.disastersafety.org/resource/resmgr/pdfs/vulner-able_populations.pdf [Accessed 16/03/2010]

[F2] World Food Program/ Womens Refugee Commis-sion., 2010. Cooking Fuel Needs in Haiti:A Rapid As-sessment [Online]. Available at http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWFiles2010.nsf/FilesByRWDocUnidFilename/KHII-83T9MR-full_report.pdf/$File/full_report.pdf [Accessed 24/05/2010]

[F3] Visíon Mundial, 2008. Testimonies - Families from Villa Victoria Visit their Flooded Community [online]. Available at http://www.visionmundial.org/historias_de_vida.php?id_historia=14&id_idioma=2 [Accessed 24/05/2010]

[F4] Aprovecho Research Center, 2009. ARC's History [Online]. Available at http://www.aprovecho.org/lab/aboutarclist/mission [Accessed 24/05/2010]

[F5] Appropriate Technology Encyclopedia, 2009.CCAT Rocket Stove[Online]. Available at http://www.appropedia.org/CCAT_rocket_stove [Accessed 24/05/2010]


Communications Introduction; Importance of Communications; Radios as means to communicate;

Approach; Type of radio; Institutions; Conclusions

In Post-Disaster situations, having access to updated information is of

the highest importance.

Unlike other areas contained in this project, having access to

Communication means does not hinge on the making of products or individually applicable techniques,

but on the request for external help.

In this chapter, the approach to the acquisition of radio devices is

presented.


1. Importance of CommunicationsA common characteristic that Communications have with the other presented Disaster Prepared-ness capabilities, is that they can be useful even before a Disaster strikes.

In fact, access to good and fitting information can mean more aware-ness to impending risks and more knowledge on how to mitigate and avoid such risks.[G1]

In a Disaster situation, three types of information are often useful:

Description of Disaster

Post-Disaster advice

Assistance information


It is common that early warnings are sent out from "traditional" media outlets (e.g. radio and television), merging seamlessly with people's daily routines, where such means of communication are already in use.

It goes without saying that when people do not have access to updated, meaningful information, they are much more likely to be taken by surprise by a Disaster.

This possibility of constant alert-ness to the hazards of Disaster merges nicely with the Disaster Pre-paredness requirement of "staying informed", as outlined in chapter E "Disaster Preparedness"

After the Disaster, Communications gain a more urgent character as they provide a channel for the com-munication of still ongoing threats

(e.g. aftershocks of an Earthquake), characteristics of the past Disaster and available Assistance.

It is easy to understand that infor-mation about what sort of Disaster affected the community and what problems might still be present, can help people in making their own evaluation of the situation. The availability of accurate infor-mation empowers people to take decisions on their future conduct, with the confidence of being well informed.

The availability of assistance and plans for future assistance are also relevant, as they guide people in selecting the best courses of action (e.g. stay or evacuate, where to evacuate, what to take and so on).

In a nutshell, proper communica-tions allow people to receive useful information that will let them take immediate and near-future deci-sions more confidently.


2. Radios as means to communicateIn emergency situations, radio is a favorite communication medium. Virtually all advice in Disaster Pre-paredness recommends the posses-sion of a radio to be able to receive Post-Disaster information.

Radios have a few advantages over other means of communication:

- Radio devices are relatively cheap to acquire, operate and maintain

- Radio emissions are relatively cheap and fast to produce (when compared with other real-time means of communication)

- Radio signals can reach a lot of people at the same time, with no blocking of signal due to overloads

- Radio information can be trans-mitted in real-time, allowing for last minute updates and the immediate correction of obsolete information

- Radios can reach illiterate and blind people

[G2]

Unfortunately, when compared with other techniques/products described in this project, radios are the most technically complex, very likely to be outside the fabrication capabilities of our target group.

It is also considered that if a per-son has the means and the knowl-edge to build a radio, it would be cheaper and more reliable to actu-ally buy one.


3. ApproachDue to the increased complexity of radios, very difficult to assemble by our target population, a different approach is followed in this sec-tion.

The objective is to make sure people have access to radios and it is irrelevant if they are or not made by their future users.

As there are several institutions that dedicate themselves to the distribution of radio devices to populations in need, I suggest their recruitment.

The suggested way for people go about acquiring their radios for Disaster Preparedness is to request help from local or external institu-tions that have such capacity,

To this end, in the booklet "Make Yourself Ready", the section de-voted to Communications contains contact information and advice on how to use such contact informa-tion.

The included contacts are those of some institutions that work directly with the provision of radio listening devices to those in need.

This advice is based on preparation and serious assessment of needs,

to lend seriousness and trans-parency to the communities that request help.

One can say that although people are not directly responsible for the assembly of the radios, they are responsible for the running of the radio requesting initiative.

Worth of noting is that, because one radio can be used simultane-

ously by several people and it can be a significant investment, its sharing is encouraged.

For full details on the suggested method for the requesting of ra-dios, please consult Appendix G

Approach to the providing of Radios

Base of thePyramid

DevelopmentInstitution

request


4. Type of RadioThis project is directed to the Base of the Pyramid and acknowledges its challenges. Some of these challenges are related to a lack of stable power supply ( voiding the use of rechargeable batteries) and also to the conditions that these devices are expected to face (e.g. extreme temperatures, low support and unexperienced users).

Naturally, radios destined for the Base of the Pyramid must be sturdy, reliable and forgiving. Also, they should be able to pick up a wide assortment of frequencies in several spectrums (AM and FM).

Additionally, the power supply of such radios should allow for off-the -grid charging and preferably, in more than one way.

Luckily there are already plenty of such radios on the market. Not coincidentally, these are the most often offered by the institutions that distribute such products.


5. Suggested InstitutionsThe institutions that are suggested as possible providers or radios are the following:

Lifeline Energy

Send a Radio (from FEBA)

Ears to our world

Farm Radio International

The first three more directly in-volved with the physical distribu-tion of radio devices. The fourth works mostly with the providing of radio show scripts to improve edu-cation of agricultural practices. It might an useful contact in periods of recovery or mitigation.

5.3 Ears to our worldhttp://sendaradio.org/

Ears to our World is an humanitar-ian organization that specializes in the distribution of radio technolo-gies to individuals, primarily chil-dren and teachers, in the develop-ing world.

While its primary focus is on schools, its reach now encom-passes other community facilities, the visually impaired, and, when required, disaster relief.

5.1 Lifeline Energyhttp://lifelineenergy.org/

Lifeline Energy is mainly active in Africa and has been mostly associ-ated with helping the information needs for Agriculture, Education, Emergencies, Enterprise, Environ-ment, Health and Peacemaking.

In the past, Lifeline Energy was known as “Freeplay Foundation”.

5.2 Send a Radio

Send a Radio is an initiate where people can pay for radios to be offered to those in need. In this case, it would mean that somebody would be offering a radio and the Send a Radio project would make it reach the people that need it the most.

5.4 Farm Radio Internationalhttp://www.farmradio.org

Farm Radio International is a differ-ent type of institutions as it does not directly provide people with radios. What it does is to provide radio content in the form of scripts and information on agricultural practices that can help people in their agricultural work.

Its action is best felt before a Di-saster, even for so-called “normal life”. The information it provides allows people to be more efficient in planning, growing and harvesting their agricultural products.


6. ConclusionsA deviation from other ways of guaranteeing access to the neces-sary supplies, the requesting of radios is proposed.

Main advantages of such approach are the smaller economical burden and the more reasonable expecta-tions of future user's behavior.

One can say that if an user is con-cerned on how can he or she ac-quire a radio for Disaster Prepared-ness purposes (and others, during pre-Disaster times), it means that in his context, the devices are not available in enough numbers or at a competitive price.

These eventual obstacles led me to provide ways for people to get Radios in a perhaps more realistic way.


[G1] San Francisco Department of Emergency Manage-ment. 2008. 72 Hours.org manual [Online] Available at: http://72hours.org/pdf/72Hours.pdf {Accessed 30/04/2010]

[G2] Lifeline Energy, 2010, Lifeline Radio. [Online] Avail-able at: http://www.lifelineenergy.org/lifeline_radio.html [Accessed 11/05/2010]

Educational Package Education Approach Page 137 Designed Manuals Page 157

1. IntroductionThe educational nature of this project is fully explained in this section. It begins with a descrip-tion of what is the approach to the education of the BoP populations and then presents the resulting designed manuals.

This approach considers the roles of a potential educator, recom-mended methods to implement education activities and appropriate design of instruction manuals.


Education Approach Introduction; Educational Approach; Teaching Disaster Preparedness;

Tools for the Educator; Supporting Theories

The focus this project has on the transference of knowledge requires

a basic understanding of educational theory to be pertinent.

In this chapter, the general educa-tion approach is described, along

with supporting theories.


can be use to build and procure the needed Disaster Preparedness supplies.

Due to the specificities of each possible application cultural con-text, it also became necessary to include advice for non specialists in Disaster Education, to be able to make arrangements for the teach-ing of the previously mentioned techniques.

that reduces the requirements for people to prepare for Disaster.

These requirements are of means, knowledge and motivation. To increase access to Disaster Pre-paredness material means, one can propose simpler, cheaper solutions, which in turn will work towards an increase in motivation to prepare (it stops being acceptable to think “Disaster Preparedness is outside my reach”)

To improve people's about Disasters and Disaster Preparedness knowl-edge, one can propose the transfer of useful knowledge to the popula-tions.

In effect, this results in my pro-posal being an education package that covers the teaching of basic Disaster Preparedness theory and the teaching of techniques that

1. IntroductionFrom the study of Disasters it was concluded that there was a need for Disaster Preparedness solu-tions for typically neglected and underprivileged populations. From the study of these populations, it became evident that their main problems in preparing were those of access to information and re-sources for Disaster Preparedness. From the study of Disaster Pre-paredness solutions, it was clear that traditional approaches to Di-saster Preparedness were excluding neglected populations that are not being materially supported by the state and/or external institutions.

To effectively design Disaster Pre-paredness solutions for these poor and uneducated populations, it is necessary to take an approach

Educational Approach

Cultural InterfaceAgent

Base of thePyramid


2. Educational ApproachBased on the previous explanation, the selected Educational Approach is two-tiered:

The teaching of product making techniques instead of design of specific product solutions

The teaching of education techniques for those who will be responsible for the teaching of the material solutions.


solutions in the form of informa-tion. This removes the challenge of funding, logistical costs and appro-priateness of an external solution to a new context. It replaces these challenges with the obligation that the people that receive the infor-mation, must be responsible for the making of the proposed products.

It is believed that the suggested techniques, explained in the book-let "Make Yourself Ready", are sim-ple and cheap enough to be acces-sible enough for the people in the Base of the Pyramid. To reinforce this belief, there is the empirically proven improvisation capability of those who live with very little.

To teach the material making tech-niques to the people, a visually-rich technical manual was designed.

2.1 Teaching product making techniques

Specified product solutions for Di-saster Preparedness by those in the Base of the Pyramid pose a prob-lem of accessibility. Any product so-lution will need to be acquired by or given to the people that need it. This creates logistical problems that leave out more isolated popula-tions, but also requires more funds to be implemented. Any product design solution will have to be pro-duced, and this means costs. These cannot be support by those in the Base of the Pyramid and also limit how much governments and other institutions can help the people in need.

Teaching product making tech-niques, on the other hand, allows for a simpler, cheaper transfer of

Cultural Interface Agent

Base of thePyramid

Cultural InterfaceAgent


2.2 Teaching educational techniques

Teaching techniques, instead of suggesting the acquisition of prod-ucts does ease the access of poor people to Disaster Preparedness solutions. However, this teaching of techniques is usually not straight-forward between different cultures.[H1] Since the cultural context where the information was compiled (The Netherlands, 2010) is different from the expected contexts where the information will be consulted (re-gions in the Base of the Pyramid, unknown period), one can assume that it is not enough to present the information in a static way.

It becomes necessary for the people who will benefit from these techniques, to translate (not only in language terms) into contents that they can understand. This translation requires a shared cul-tural interface between the writing of the suggested technical manual (“Make Yourself Ready”) and the teaching of its contents to the poor, mostly uneducated and radically different populations in the Base of the Pyramid.

Because people in the Base of the Pyramid are often illiterate or inex-perienced with technical informa-tion presented as the written and

a religious leader, a civic leader, a representative of the government or another external institution).

This person might not be ex-perienced in teaching Disaster Preparedness. In fact, this per-son might not be experienced in teaching whatsoever. To allow for non specialists to teach the prod-uct making techniques previously described, an Educator's Guidebook

drawn form (probably being more used to empirical teaching meth-ods), the shared cultural interface cannot be expected to be a stereo-typical individual from the BoP. [H2]

Someone more accustomed to writ-ten and drawn technical advice, that at the same time, can com-municate with people from the BoP, is necessary. This person can be a local cultural elite (e.g. a teacher,

was designed. Its name is “Educa-tor's Guidebook” is a companion to the technical manual “Make Your-self Ready”.

Implementation Method

Organize Research

Plan

Make

Educate

1 2

3

4

5


3. Teaching Disaster PreparednessThere is a suggested method for the using of these educational resources. It is partly inspired by existing guidelines for the estab-lishment of educational activities [H3].

The suggested method is:

Organize

Research

Plan

Make

Educate

This method has 5 steps, initiated by someone responsible for the education of the community in terms of Disaster Preparedness.

3.2 Organize

In this first step, there is a focus on creating working conditions for the rest of the duration of the project. This means the creation of preliminary objectives (prior to Research), an assessment of avail-able resources (in terms of time, people, funding and material), like INEE proposes.

This step is purposely left open, with no prescriptive account of steps, but with the above sugges-tions for tasks.

At the end of this step, there is some information (e.g. some of the available resources) and some assumptions (e.g. people in the community are not prepared for Disaster).


3.2 Research

At this stage, the future educator has some assumptions in regards to his/her community knowledge about Preparedness, its educational level and what are the education conditions. It is time to assess these objectively. For this purpose, the educator can use the “What are the Education conditions” question-naire, found at part E5 of the “Edu-cator's Guidebook”. Also available and useful at this stage is the “How is the local culture” questionnaire, that will allow for a culturally sensi-tive adaptation of educational strat-egies. Naturally, it is still necessary to work on getting the cooperation of other participants that can help with their time, influence, knowl-edge or resources.

At the end of this step, there is

This is a good moment to involve the community, via some selected participants.

There is also a possibility for the need of appropriate educational material (e.g. rehearsing an educa-tive play).

At the end of this stage, there are strategies and outlines of the next two phases

some confirmed information and advice on how to use such infor-mation to plan better educational initiatives.

3.3 Plan

Armed with the collected informa-tion, this is the moment where the educator, preferably working in a group, will determine what are the best ways to reach the people in the community with Disaster Preparedness advice and the tech-niques in the booklet “Make Your-self Ready”.

Such planning should consider what are the educational starting points, who will cooperate in the teaching of people, if there is a necessity to gather materials and tools before, what is are the sched-uled periods for teaching and the teaching spaces.

3.4 Make

Closer to the end, now it is time to make the necessary arrange-ments for the activities planned in the previous stage. This includes the reservation of space for the educational event (e.g. the local school or even an outside area in the community). It is also now that educational material is prepared, based on what was concluded from the research phase.

At the end of this step, there are ready materials for the teaching of Disaster Preparedness.


3.5 Educate

This is the final phase in the pro-cess. In this phase, the educator will teach the community on Disas-ter Preparedness and its associated techniques. This is the moment where the educational materials is used and its effectiveness tested. Should the previous steps have been properly followed, there is a good chance that people will cap-ture some of the knowledge. As in traditional schooling, there are ad-vantages to the repeating of learn-ing opportunities, with the added benefit that much of the research and planning work is already done.

At the end of this phase, people should be more familiar with Di-saster Preparedness and the tech-niques suggested in “Make Yourself Ready”.


4. Tools for the EducatorTo empower to future educators, it became necessary to suggest a way to ensure a fit between the suggested techniques and the communities that will be taught such techniques. The “Educator's Guidebook” present basic notions of cultural differences and their effects on learning. To make this information useful, two assessment tools were designed.

The first assessment tool was a questionnaire to gauge cultural dimensions and extract conclusions on their effect for students' prefer-ences regarding teaching/learning.

The second assessment tool was another questionnaire that intend on shedding light on what are the Educational Conditions of the com-munity.

Both questionnaires were designed to be simple and indicative, rather than extensive and authoritative.

These questionnaires bridge the lo-cal context and educational theo-ries.

4.1 Cultural Assessment Questionnaire (“How is the local culture”)

This questionnaire presents the educator with five groups of ques-tions, each group covering a Cultur-al Dimension that has been associ-ated with cultural teaching/learning preferences. Each of the five groups contains four simple questions that the educator must answer based on his knowledge of observable customs in the community.

At the end of the questionnaire, there is a interpretation guide, that

helps the educator to understand the implications of the results for structuring of teaching activities.

4.2 Education Conditions Questionnaire (“How are the education condi-tions”)

This second assessment tool has three groups of questions, focused on three areas:

What people in the community think about Disaster Preparedness

What is the educational level of people in the community

How is the educational system in the community

Again, this questionnaire is not an extensive probe into the topic of education. It is a simple aid to

orient the educator's study of the educational conditions around him/her.

The groups are subdivided in smaller subgroups, according to the type of question and option for answering.

Like the first questionnaire, this is also accompanied by an interpreta-tion guideline, that nudge the edu-cator in extracting the most useful conclusions

While the first questionnaire is more useful to adapt teaching approaches, this second question-naire is more appropriate to get a picture of what are the expected conditions for hypothetical future educational efforts (in the topic of Disaster Preparedness).


5.1.1 Collectivism

Collectivism is related to how people of a culture relate to each other. Its opposite is “Individual-ism”. A culture might be more inclined towards “Collectivism” or “Individualism”. In Collectivistic Cultures, people tend to belong to groups (e.g. family, caste, neigh-bourhood, etc) that are very close. People in Collectivistic societies will consider their groups as a major factor of their personal identity.

In individualistic societies, the op-posite happens. People are more independent and while they also belong to groups, groups are not their main identity. In individual-istic societies, people look after themselves (and immediate family) and expect others to do the same.

attention to specific areas where cultures are known to diverge and it also allows the educator to “evaluate” his/her current cultural context.

The used dimensions are not those of Gert Hofstede [H4], but those of the [H5] Globe Study, by Sage. These dimensions are:

Collectivism

Power Distance

Future Orientation

Gender Egalitarianism

Humane Orientation

Assertiveness

Uncertainty Avoidance

Performance Orientation

5. Supporting theoriesDue to the breadth of the goals for this project, it was necessary to resort to supporting theories to inform the educational suggestions that were made in the "Educator's Guidebook"

These were:

Cultural Dimensions

A model for learning

Experiential Learning Theory

Learning Styles

5.1 Cultural Dimensions

The notion of Cultural Dimensions as culture characterizing assets was introduced in the “Educator's Guidebook”. It is presented for two reasons: It draws the educator's


and will not have much of an active voice in community decision mak-ing.

5.1.5 Humane Orientation

Humane Orientation has to do with a culture’s appreciation of benevo-lence, kindness and generosity. Putting others above oneself is considered to be a good and noble thing to do and a valued character-istic in people.

At the same time, in highly humane oriented cultures, self-enhance-ment can sometimes be consid-ered merely self serving and self gratifying and hence, little humane oriented.

Competition, personal success and ambition are on the natural oppo-site of Humane Orientation.

life. Instead of setting goals and plans, people are more likely to be inflexible and do things the same way, regardless of changing circum-stances.

5.1.4 Gender Egalitarianism

Gender Egalitarianism can be understood as how equal are Men and Women in a society, regarding their rights and obligations. Natu-rally, cultures that are more gen-der egalitarian will allow women a greater freedom and equal access to education and work.

On the opposite side are cultures that have a low Gender Egalitarian-ism score. In these, Women and Men do not do the same work and there are divisions on what is con-sidered to be appropriate for either sex. Women are usually limited to taking care of the home and family

5.1.3 Future Orientation

Future Orientation is how much people in a certain culture encour-age behavior that is focused on the future and not on the present situation, like planning or sav-ing money. Cultures with a strong Future Orientation will promote the delaying of instant gratifica-tion versus impulsive action (e.g. saving for a better house, instead of spending money on immediate pleasure). Also, cultures that score high in Future Orientation usually see material success (e.g. getting rich or having plenty of posses-sions ) on the same level of spiri-tual realization (e.g. being happy and fulfilled).

On the opposite, where Future Ori-entation is low, people do not save as much and have a less planned

5.1.2 Power Distance

Power Distance is related to how much people of a Culture will ac-cept an unbalanced distribution of power among its people. While in some Cultures, everybody is seen as equal to the others, with similar rights and duties; in other Cultures, different people have different priv-ileges and responsibilities. One can say that the “Power Distance” is lower in the first example (because everybody has the same “Power”); and higher in the second example (because there is a difference in how much power people have).

A simple indicator of an high Power Distance in a culture is when people of that culture occupy the same social position during all their lives because their are not allowed to achieve a greater status.


5.1.8 Performance Orientation

Performance Orientation reflects how much a culture cherishes and rewards innovation, high quality of work and constant improvement. Cultures that have a high score for Performance Orientation have a preference for demanding objec-tives that will take one out of his/her comfort zone and accomplish better results. Time is seen as linear, mono chronic and a sense or urgency is also common

Where Performance Orientation is low, the opposite is observed. People tend to prefer a pleasurable take on life, less competitive and more collectivistic.

people are more important that achieved results.

5.1.7 Uncertainty Avoidance

Uncertainty Avoidance involves the extent to which, in a culture, vagueness is tolerated. Cultures with an high Uncertainty Avoid-ance, try to reduce the amount of ambiguity and undefined situ-ations. This happens through the implementation of formalities and procedures. These cultures usually resist change and take risks only after some moderate thinking.

Cultures with a low Uncertainty Avoidance are much more open to new, unfamiliar situations and are more keen on taking risks. Work and private life may not be as “scripted” as in the uncertainty avoiding cultures and people en-courage a more risk-taking attitude.

5.1.6 Assertiveness

Assertiveness is the measure of how much a culture supports the belief that people should be tough, aggressive and persistent in their efforts to achieve success. Cultures where assertiveness is high, people have respect for the strong and successful and competition is seen in a good way, as it forces people to achieve and fight for their objec-tives. In these societies, there is a belief that one can control his/her reality and results are more impor-tant than relationships.

There is, obviously, the other side of the scale, where people prefer to avoid confrontation and accept life as it is presented to them. For people that are not very assertive, persistence in the face of adversity is sometimes seen as pointless and

A model for learning

Inputs Outputs Transfer Condition

Source: adapted from Baldwin and Ford, 1988

StudentCharacteristicsCapability to learnBelief in own capabilityMotivation Involvement

EducationCharacteristicsPrinciples of learningTraining ContentTraining DeliveryCognitive Style

Learningand Retention

Education ContextCharacteristicsSupport from teachersSupport from colleaguesOpportunity to apply

GeneralizationandMaintenance


5.2 A model for learning

To inform the educator in what fac-tors influence learning and reten-tion, a model from Baldwin and Ford [H6], focused on the transfer of training was used. This model hold that there are three types of factors that influence learning and reten-tion of knowledge. These are:

Student Characteristics

Education Characteristics

Education Context Characteristics

This model is included so that the educator can have a reference for what areas he/she can work on, to ensure effective transfer of knowl-edge.


5.2.3 Education Context Characteristics

Teaching/Learning are part of a process, which why so many fac-tors influence it. The Environment where these take place also has an importance. This environment is not just the physical place (e.g. class room), but the more general social ambient that surrounds peo-ple when they are being educated.

There are a few factors that influ-ence the education environment:

Support from teachers

Support from colleagues

Opportunity to use knowledge

5.2.2 Education Characteristics

It is easy to understand that the way you teach something will influ-ence how well people will learn it. This is why people teach different things in different ways. A father will teach a son how to fish, by taking him with him and showing the child how it is done. A teacher teaches mathematics with lessons and exercises. You can see exam-ples of this all around you.

The following list shows what things affect the Educational meth-ods the most:

Principles of Learning

Training Content

Training Delivery

Cognitive Style

5.2.1 Students Characteristics

Teaching something to a student that is motivated, curious and posi-tive is much different than teaching a student that does not want to learn, is indifferent to what is being taught and does not believe in his ability to learn or extract anything useful from what is being present-ed. The following characteristics are important to ensure in a student:

Minimum level of capability to learn

Belief in own capability for learn-ing

Motivation and interest in learning

Involvement with the education efforts

Experiential Learning Theory

AbstractConceptualization

ConcreteExperience Diverging

Assimila ngConverging

Accommoda on

ReflectiveObservation

ActiveExperimentation


Experiencing modes:

Abstract Conceptualization (“thinking”)

Concrete Experience (“feeling”)

Conversion modes:

Reflective Observation (“watching”)

Active Experimentation (“doing”)

According to this theory, learning happens in a cycle, where expe-riencing and conversion modes alternate between each other. There is not one possible “entry point” or “exit point” in the cycle. Rather than this, learning can start at any of the experiencing modes and complete a cycle (going through the remaining conversion modes and experiencing mode).

5.3 Experiential Learning Theory

David Kolb [H7] has identified Learn-ing style preferences, listed in his Kolb's Learning Style Inventory [H8]. These learnings styles have been associated with personal and cultural characteristics. This means that it possible to suggest a teach-ing approach that is more adequate to a certain cultural context, pro-vided that one characterizes such context (done with the assessment tools).

To understand Learning Styles, it is necessary to understand the under-laying Experiential Learning Theory, also advanced by Kolb. This theory holds that all learning is in fact, the conversion of experiences into knowledge. The theory advances that there are two experiencing modes and two conversion modes.


5.4.1 Assimilating

People that like to learn in this way, prefer a concise, logical ap-proach. Ideas and concepts are more important than people. These people require good clear explana-tion rather than practical opportu-nity.

They are very good at understand-ing very varied information and organizing it a clear logical format. People with an Assimilating learn-ing style are less focused on people and more interested in ideas and abstract concepts. The find abstract topics more interesting than practi-cal knowledge.

5.4.2 Converging

People that prefer this approach to learning like to solve new prob-lems. They like to think about solu-

5.4.4 Accommodating

People with a preference for this learning style like to use other people’s analysis, and prefer to take a practical, experiential ap-proach. They are attracted to new challenges and experiences, and to carrying out plans. They commonly act on ‘gut’ instinct rather than logical analysis.

People with an Accommodating learning style will tend to rely on others for information than carry out their own analysis. This learn-ing style is prevalent and useful in roles requiring action and initia-tive. People with an Accommodat-ing learning style prefer to work in teams to complete tasks. They set targets and actively work in the field trying different ways to achieve an objective.

5.4 Kolb's Learning Styles

Personality and cultural character-istics define what experiencing and conversion modes are preferred. There are four possible combina-tions:

Abstract Conceptualization + Reflective Observation = Assimilating

Abstract Conceptualization + Active Experimentation = Converging

Concrete Experience + Reflective Observation = Diverging

Concrete Experience + Active Experimentation = Accommodating

[H9]

tions and then try those solutions. These people find technical issues more important than human issues (e.g. the need to solve the problem is more important that saving face) and are best at finding practical use for ideas and theories.

These people like the idea of spe-cialization and the opportunity to test real-life situations.

5.4.3 Diverging

People with a Diverging learning style have plenty of cultural inter-ests and like to gather information. They are interested in people, tend to be imaginative and emotional, and tend to be strong in the arts. People with the Diverging style prefer to work in groups, to listen with an open mind and to receive personal feedback.


[H1] Royer, James M. (1979) Theories of the transfer of learning. Educational Psychologist, 14, 53-69.

[H2] World Health Organization. 2007.How to improve the us of medicines by consumers [Online] Avail-able at: http://www.who.int/medicines/publications/WHO_PSM_PAR_2007.2.pdf {Accessed 15/07/2010]

[H3] Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergen-cies. 2010. Minimum Standards for Education [Online] Available at: http://www.ineesite.org/index.php/post/inee_minimum_standards_overview/ {Accessed 12/07/2010]

[H4] Geert Hofstede, Cultural differences in teaching and learning, International Journal of Intercultural Re-lations, Volume 10, Issue 3, 1986, Pages 301-320, ISSN

[H5] Robert J. House, Paul J. Hanges, Mansour Javidan, Peter W. Dorfman, and Vipin Gupta. Culture, Leader-ship and Organizations: The GLOBE Study of 62 Societ-ies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2004

[H6] Baldwin, T.T., & Ford, K.J. (1988). Transfer of training: A review and directions for future research. Personnel Psychology, 41, 63-105.

[H7] Boyatzis, R. E. & Kolb, D. A., 1991, Educational Psychology 11(3,4), 279-295.

[H8] Kolb, D. A., 1984, Chapter 2. In D. Kolb, The expe-riential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. NJ: Prentice-Hall.

[H9] see [H7]


Designed Manuals Introduction; Make Yourself Ready; Educator's Guidebook; Information Accessibility

This project resulted in two written and illustrated manuals that

contain information on how to make Disaster Preparedness

products and how to teach the making of those products .

These booklets are designed for easy distribution and maximum

accessibility, regardless of reader's cultural context

In this chapter, these documents are described, along with the

principles that were followed to ensure their appropriateness.


1. IntroductionAs previously introduced, the physical result of this project is an educational package, comprised of two booklets. One booklet (“Make Yourself Ready”) contains visual and textual descriptions of the necessary steps to make Disaster Preparedness supplies. The other booklet (“Educator's Guidebook”) is a more textual document, that con-tains guidelines and suggestions for a person interested in teaching the contents of “Make Yourself Ready”.

In “Make Yourself Ready”, clearly a simpler document, theoretic infor-mation on Disaster Preparedness or active principles behind some techniques (such as UV killing of germs) were avoided altogether.

In the “Educator's Guidebook”, more abstract notions had to be presented (such as Cultural Dimen-sions and Experiential Learning Theory) but still, their sometimes obscure terms were presented side-by-side with more casual, natural-sounding names.


2.1 Section 1, Introduction

What is this booklet?

What does it want to teach?

How is this booklet made?

The first section of “Make Yourself Ready” is divided in 3 parts. It in-forms the reader for what to expect throughout the rest of the booklet.

The second part (“What does it want to teach?”) describes the type of products in book, lists the tech-niques and mentions the focus on adaptability of them. It also makes a reference to the “Educator's Guidebook” as a source of informa-tion on teaching techniques.

2. Make Yourself ReadyMake yourself ready is divided in 5 sections. Each part can be taken independently and each technique is also possible to be removed from the rest of the manual without losing necessary information or advice.

The 5 sections are:

Introduction

How to make a cooking stove

How to make shelter

How to treat water

How to get a Radio

This order of the parts was chosen on the basis of keeping product making techniques before less concrete instructions (such as wa-ter treatment methods and advice on how to request radio devices). The expected effect of this order is that people can start with the more product-oriented techniques and see, first-hand the results of their work. This can be motivating for people to learn the latter skills, that do not result in new, usable artefacts.

Its first part (“What is this book-let?” explains the nature of “Make Yourself Ready” as an instructions manual for the making of Disas-ter Preparedness products. I also informs the reader on what is the use of the book, its target audi-ence, who should make the prod-ucts, if these are only requirements for Disaster Preparedness and if it is allowed to copy the book.


The last part of this section (“How is this booklet made?”) further hints at the adaptability of used materials, what kind of measure-ments are used and where extra information can be found.

2.2 Section 2, How to make a cooking stove

Introduction

Cooking Stove

This section is divided in 2 parts, one of them being an introduction and the other being the instruc-tions themselves.

The first part (“Introduction”) ex-plains what kind of stove is being suggested, what kind of materials can be used, what is the expected cost of a stove and other uses for

This section has 6 parts and be-sides the introduction, there are two techniques to produce shelter material and three techniques to make unions to use this material.

The first part (“Introduction”) ex-plains what kind of shelter material will be made, what possible uses will it have, what materials are required and an estimation of cost per square meter.

The second part (“Shelter material (using Electricity)”), explains how to use a clothes iron to produce shelter material from plastic bags.

The third part (“Shelter material (using Fire)”), shows how to use a variation of the previous technique to produce shelter material, with a cooking pan with hot coals inside. This require no electricity.

it. It also explains that there a ben-efit in making more than one and lists simple modifications that can be made.

The second part (“Cooking Stove”) contains the visual description of the needed to produce a stove. It also includes a list of tools and materials

2.3. Section 3. How to make shelter

Introduction

Shelter material (using Electricity)

Shelter material (using Fire)

Union (tarp to line)

Union (tarp to tarp, fixed)

Union (tarp to tarp, movable)


The fourth part (“Union (tarp to line)”) describes how make con-nections between the produced shelter material and rope, without damaging or puncturing the shelter material. This allows for the reuse of the material.

The fifth part (“Union (tarp to tarp, fixed)”) includes the instructions to attach several tarps to each other, making a larger piece of shelter material. This technique does dam-age the shelter material with little holes, one per connection.

The sixth part (“Union (tarp to tarp, movable)”) has the final technique regarding shelter. This technique is an adaptation of the “Union (tarp to line)” technique and is useful for making of temporary and adjust-able connections, such as shelter doors.

cost of treating water, depending on the technique and , while pro-viding extra sources of information, lays out some cares that should be taken on the topic of sanitation and hygiene.

The second part (“Boiling water”), describes the needed steps to boil water to treat it. It is pictured as using the previously described cooking stove.

The third part (“Bleach”), suggests ways to treat water with the Chlo-rine found in household bleach. Since this method requires some-how precise dosing of chemicals, it also suggests an easy way to calculate how much a liter is.

2.4 Section 4, How to treat water

Introduction

Boiling water

Bleach

SODIS (also known as Solar Disin-fection)

Tincture of Iodine

This section has 5 parts, including the mandatory introduction.

The first part (“Introduction”) serves to clarify what kind of water treatment techniques are suggest-ed. It also provides simple advice of potential water sources and how to select a technique from the booklet. It provides an estimate of needed water for each person and gives advice on the proper storage of water. It alludes to the variable


2.5 Section 5, How to get a radio device

Introduction

Which institutions can I contact?

Request a Radio

The final section in “Make Your-self Ready” contains three parts and is slightly different from the other sections due to its particular approach to the issue of acquiring radios.

The first part (“Introduction”) pres-ents the importance of information before and after a Disaster, it also lists the advantages of shortwave radio as a source of information and explains that this chapter is not about buying or making a radio. In this part, it is mentioned that there is no need for one indi-

The fourth part (“SODIS (also known as Solar Disinfection)”), contains the instructions to treat water by exposing it to the sun. It also in-cludes advice on how to select the proper water bottles to do it and a simple turbidity tester that can say if the water to be treated is clear enough.

The last part (“Tincture of Iodine”), explains how to use the Iodine found in the anti-septic Tincture of Iodine to treat water. Because Iodine has some adverse health effects for pregnant women, it also alerts to this fact.

vidual radio for each family and it further describes what kind of radio device is people need.

The second part (“Which institu-tions can I contact?”) has the contact information and a short de-scription of four institutions that do humanitarian work by distributing radios to the populations in need.

The last part of the last section of this book (“Request a Radio”) has a six step guide to request radio devices from the previously listed organizations. It places its focus on more administrative steps, rather than technical prescription.


3. Educator's guidebookThe “Educator's Guidebook” is also divided in 5 sections, but not cor-responding to the same 5 sections of “Make Yourself Ready”. Due to the complexity of its contents, the “Educator's Guidebook” is better used if kept together.

The 5 sections of the Educator's Guidebook are:

Introduction

Method

Disaster Preparedness

Education

How is your Community

The order of the parts reflects a structure of an initial explanation of the purpose and methodology sur-rounding the book (“Introduction” and “Method”), followed by neces-sary theoretical background (“Di-saster Preparedness” and “Educa-tion”) and finally a more operative chapter (“How is your community”) that contains tools to assess com-munity and use such knowledge to empower the use of the previously introduced theory (Disaster Pre-paredness and Education)

3.1 Section A, Introduction

What is this Booklet?

What is Disaster Preparedness?

What things will I teach?

The first section of the “Educator's Guidebook” has three parts that lay a foundation for what the book will be. The first part (“What is this

This Educator's is much less visual than “Make Yourself Ready” be-cause of its more abstract contents and the more educated nature of its expected reader.

booklet?”) presents the document as resource for people that want to teach the contents in “Make Yourself Ready”, it also advances that the book was made for “non-specialists”. It presents the book as simple, accessible companion to the more pragmatic “Make Yourself Ready”.


The second part (“What is Disaster Preparedness?”) introduces the concept of Disaster Preparedness as something that people in a com-munity can do and hence, become more ready to face Disaster, should it happen.

The last part (“What things will I teach?”), refers to “Make Yourself Ready” as the source of technical knowledge. It also explains that more information about Disaster Preparedness can be found in the “Educators Guidebook”.

3.2 Section B, Method

What will be my roles?

What method should I follow?

What are the conditions for a good project?

The second section of the “Educa-tor's Guidebook” also has three parts. In the first ("What will be my roles?”) , it is explained that some-one interested in starting Disaster Preparedness teaching activities should expect to have several roles in a project, depending on its status.

The second part (“What method should I follow?”) describes the overall method to apply the knowl-edge in “Make Yourself Ready” and in the “Educator's Guidebook” to teach Disaster Preparedness to a community. This method is also explained in the current report sec-tion, ahead.

The final part (“What are the condi-tions for a good project?”) gives some simple, valuable advice about running a project of this kind.


3.3 Section C, Disaster Preparedness

Introduction

How can families prepare for Disaster?

What products to get?

What plans to make?

How to stay informed?

How to convince people to prepare for Disaster?

This chapter has more parts than the previous chapters, but has roughly the same size. Because it is has more concrete information, it was assumed that it could be more easily passed on to students, so it was divided in more sections to ease browsing.

The first part (“Introduction”) is used to explain the concept of the Disaster Management Cycle and its four phases, explaining each phase and justifying Disaster Prepared-ness as the best phase for families to work on.

The second part (“How can families prepared for Disaster?”) explains simple rules for Disaster Prepared-ness efforts (e.g. the whole fam-ily must participate, it should be a continuous effort) and explains

the three principles of Disaster Preparedness (“Get Equipment”, “Make plans” and “Stay in-formed”). It also lists the products in “Make Yourself Ready” as the basic things to have.

The third part, (“What products to get?”) presents the reader with a more complete list of Disaster Pre-paredness supplies, based on rec-ommendations from the Red Cross.

It should be interpreted as a guide to upgrade one's Disaster Prepared-ness Kit, should he/she be able.

The fourth part (“What plans to make?”) lists the basic necessary plans for emergencies, namely of communication and family reunifi-cation.

The fifth part (“How to stay pre-pared?”) suggests how people

should stay informed about Disas-ter risks and ways to avoid them.

The final part (“How to convince people to prepare for Disaster?”) is directed towards the potential educator and mentions what are the basic conditions for people to invest in Disaster Preparedness (“Awareness”, “Information” and “Capability”).


the learning process. This is based on the work of Baldwin and Ford [I1] and is used here to bring atten-tion to the fact learning depends on more than the student and the teacher.

The third part (“How do people learn?”) introduces Kolb's Experien-tial Learning Theory [I2] and Learn-ing Styles [I3] to suggest that some teaching methods are more ad-equate than others, depending on the people who are being taught. This will also be used later on, to interpret the cultural assessment suggested in the last section.

3.4 Part D, Education

Introduction

What matters in teaching/learning?

How do people learn?

This section is one of the most abstract, dealing with teaching and learning. It is divided in three parts that guide the educator in acquiring a new point of view on education and how learning happens.

The first part (“Introduction”) serves to clear some initial no-tions (e.g. one does not need to be a teacher to teach and it is pos-sible to teach children, women and men).

The second part (“What matters in teaching/learning?) presents a model of what factors influence

3.5 Part E, Your Community

Introduction

How to study my community?

How is my local Culture?

What are the local Education Con-ditions?

What tools do I use?

This last section has 5 parts and, like the previous section, has a somehow abstract content related with cultural assessment.

The first part (“Introduction”), initiates the topic by explaining what is important to characterize a community, mentioning its culture and educational conditions (for the scope of this project). It also says why it is important to do such a task (to ensure fitness between


community and teaching approach-es) and what needs to be adapted to the community (“what is taught” and “how it is taught”

The second part (“How to study my community”) regards methods and goals of the study and how will the results be used to adapt the teach-ing of Disaster Preparedness.

The third part (“How is my local Culture?”) is an important one, where the notion of “Culture” is described in simple terms, along with an overview of 8 Cultural Dimensions. More information on the previous chapter, "Education Approach".

The fourth part (“What are the lo-cal Education Conditions?”) starts by explaining what are “Education Conditions” in this project and pro-ceeds by explaining how to gauge

them and interpret the results.

The fifth part (“What tools do I use?”) contains two questionnaires and respective result interpretation guidelines. This part starts with a simple introduction to say how precise are the questionnaires, who should answer the questionnaires and how long should they take to fill in.

Such questionnaire is a simple tool, complete with an interpreta-tion guide that helps to understand what are the needs for Disaster Preparedness education and level of education of people. It also includes questions to gauge the availability of teaching support (e.g. schools ) in the area.

All questions are phrased in simple ways, and the possible answers are clear.


4. Information AccessibilityThese resources were designed to be used by people that are not specialists in Education or Disaster Preparedness. Further more, they might be from a different cultural context, with different conven-tions on written and visual com-munication. This project takes the approach of using an intermediate cultural interface that can take

There were 4 main areas of con-cern:

Language

Layout

Visuals

Questionnaire

the information from the designed manuals and make it accessible people that do not share the de-signer's cultural background.

However, this solves the problem only partially and great care was taken to design the two documents in a way that minimizes confusion and misunderstanding.

4.1 Language

In both produced documents (“Make Yourself Ready” and “Edu-cator's Guidebook”), the chosen tone was a simple, direct way. Topics were often titled in the form of questions to which the text answers and jargon was avoided. When topics required the use of more obscure vocabulary (to en-able a further study by the readers, should they desire it), the original terms were presented side-by-side with more mundane names.

4.2 Layout

Both books follow a similar layout, with adaptations for the more text dense “Educator's Guidebook”. The layout is in the common A4 interna-tional paper and uses only shades of black and hints of blue that translate well into greyscale. The documents were made easy to pho-tocopy, with strong contrasts and block colors. Another feature of the layout is the careful division of sec-tions, clearly labeled. This allows for a clear division of topics and eases the browsing of the books for the search of specific contents. This search is eased by the inclusion of side bars, titled after the docu-ments' sections they belong to.


4.3 Visuals

The visuals, besides following the simple color scheme of the rest of the documents', followed rules of clarity to communicate to illiterate populations. [I4]

Graphic elements were hand drawn, to ease the interaction with them and negate a possible “too designed look” that could be inter-preted as dry or daunting.

In the visuals, care was also taken to include pictures of people, often families, making the products or using them afterwards (each section in “Make Yourself Ready” starts with such a picture).

To ease interpretation of drawn objects, scale was maintained as much as possible, for the same repeating objects. Scale references, such as hands or familiar objects

In the drawn images, multiple similar objects were drawn multiple times, instead of a single time with indication of repetition (e.g. using “3X”).

Finally, measurements are indicated using familiar body sizes such as inches or hands, and liquid mea-surements were displayed by using familiar containers of known capac-ity (e.g. 0,33cl Soda cans).

are also common. To indicate sat-isfactory or unsatisfactory actions, smiling or frowning faces, respec-tively, were used. Also to make obvious the visual flow within illustrations, arrows were added when necessary. Arrows were also used to display the displacement of parts, but using a different visual style from the “visual flow indicat-ing arrows”.


4.4 Questionnaire Design

To ease comprehension, question-naires were accompanied with instructions to fill in and interpret and grouped in ways that simplify rules of interpretation. Also, the type of possible answers were se-lected to force an answer from the person filling them in (e.g. 4 point scale or “what is missing?” type of questions). [I5]

In as much as possible, the pro-posed questions were phrased in an evident way, that suggests how should they be interpreted (e.g. “what is missing?” type of ques-tions).


[I1] Baldwin, T.T., & Ford, K.J. (1988). Transfer of training: A review and directions for future research. Personnel Psychology, 41, 63-105.

[I2] Kolb, D. A., 1984, Chapter 2. In D. Kolb, The expe-riential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. NJ: Prentice-Hall.

[I3] Boyatzis, R. E. & Kolb, D. A., 1991, Educational Psychology 11(3,4), 279-295.

[I4] World Health Organization. 2007.How to improve the us of medicines by consumers [IOnline] Available at: http://www.who.int/medicines/publications/WHO_PSM_PAR_2007.2.pdf {Accessed 15/07/2010]

[I5] Philip Gendall. 1998. Marketing Bulletin,, 9, 28-39, Article 3


Project Evaluation Future Recommendations; Result; Process; Reflection.

Taking a look back at my graduation project, for which I have been working since January 2010, I see a clarity that

was not present in the beginning. This allows a reflection on this proj-

ect's process, its results and recommendations for future work.


1. future recommendationsBecause a design project is never over, there is always a little more that one can put into it. Especially in a project like this, that evolved a lot from its ini-tial challenge (“Design Technical Cloth-ing for Urban Search and Rescue”), there are many surprises along the way. Often, these surprises become opportunities for further refinement.

These are things I think could benefit further work on this project.

1.1 Further Testing of Techniques and Presentation

It was admitted in the beginning of the report, that this project suffers from not having been tested on the field. Although I am quite confident and proud of my work, I understand that reality can be quite different from research or academia. In this project I tried to tackle this by consulting the best sources I could, by talking with

tion. I am very confident that the end result is easily distributed as a product or digital file, but I'd like to have a more grounded distribution strategy. Such strategy could specify partners, contexts, and even possible redesigns.

I believe this is still possible to do, but the lack of interest from the contacted institutions and the limited time con-tributed against this.

1.3 Open-source and Crowd-sourced contributions

As a product of knowledge, a compila-tion of techniques for impoverished populations , “Make Yourself Ready” makes more sense as two open docu-ments. The educational package even has a focus on adaptation of educa-tional activities, so it is quite reason-able to consider the release of the documents into the public domain.

Better than this would be to create an open platform (such as a wiki website)

teachers and friends with experience and by taking a critic look at available data. In addition, I also experimented my self some of the presented tech-niques.

It is however, undeniable, that this project could really benefit from a first hand experienced application. This would be useful to confirm or debunk all sorts of informed assump-tions, such as BoP living conditions or exposure to Disaster. Such experience would give me a much more solid confidence in the appropriateness of this project.

I tried to contact a few organizations that do humanitarian work but these efforts produced no fruits.

1.2 Strategies for Distribution of knowledge

The reason why I gave this project such a grassroots, low-tech approach, was to increase its possible applica-


where everybody could participate. For better results, it would be neces-sary to have some platform manage-ment in place, to pose challenges and guide people's contributions. There are plenty of opportunities to make this project live longer and evolve with time. I do not have all the sugges-tions right now, but I am sure that the a continuation of this effort relies on more people, cooperating with their particular experience. This could mean a new take at Disaster Preparedness education, one based on the bridging of several distinct areas of knowledge. A cross-pollination of sorts

2. ResultAt the end of this project, two booklets were produced. Although part of the same package, these documents have very different contents that drew upon different areas of knowledge. Rather than highly specialized publications that could offer nothing that had not been offered by traditional Disaster Preparedness sources, I preferred a broader approach that equips a poten-tial user with a minimum knowledge. I believe this allows for greater acces-sibility of contents.

I'm very happy with the results of this project, as I feel that they have brought something new on the table. My only possible gripe with the designed contents was the quality of the drawings, that sometimes, despite my efforts, did not reach the levels I though it could/should reach.

Naturally, I'd be more satisfied if the previously introduced recommenda-

tion had actually been reached during the project. But considering all factors, I think the result is good, is relevant and has potential for real-world change.

3. ProcessBecause of the organic feel of this project, with new areas arising and old ideas abandoned, I was forced to adapt my working style. I did so by trying to increase the independence of each project area. This means that someone interested in educational the-ory, coming across my project, would not need to read the report to extract something useful. The challenge was to keep the independent areas some-how related. I think I achieved this by virtue of the main architecture of the project with the three defined areas of Context, Techniques and resulting Educational Package.

This project was a departure from

other project I have had in the past, and not only because it did not result in a physical, commercial product. The whole process involved much more re-search that other projects I have done. This is because of the large number of different areas that were studied, but it was definitely an interesting experi-ence, that I doubt I will have again in a professional context.

One thing I learned in this project, process-wise, was the need to increase communication with stakeholders dur-ing execution. I sometimes felt that it was necessary to complete whole sections of the project, before submit-ting them for evaluation and comment. In hindsight, this appears to have decreased my communication with the Client and the Professors, while I was holding back to perfect content before delivery.


4. ReflectionBecause it was different from what I am used to do, this project forced outside my comfort zone. It was a bit daunting, but refreshing anyway. Many were the times that I was researching for this project, completely fascinated by the things I was learning. In fact, it made think about future academic challenges.

This project was also very personal. Not only it started through my initia-tive, it was also a very free assign-ment. This freedom and its consequent responsibility, made me more aware of all the little details in a project and the importance of clear results.

This personal feel was no doubt only possible because of the trust every-body has put into me. Whenever I sug-gested a change that was approved, I always felt that people were convinced about its benefits. This has, naturally, increased my confidence in my work.

A final note is that this assignment, dealing with the worst type of events, happening to the most fragile people, made me more aware of the huge opportunities to make a difference through design.

It might be the naivete of the young, but I would say that it has changed me.


For more information, please do not forget to consult the Appendix section.

João Rocha, 2010 [email protected]

Joao Rocha Graduation Report

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Transcript of Joao Rocha Graduation Report