An assessment tool for low carbon and disaster resilient self-help housing | |
| Author | Sasima Charoenkit |
| Call Number | AIT Diss. no.ET-15-02 |
| Subject(s) | Disaster relief--Thailand Self-help housing--Thailand Carbon dioxide--Evaluation--Thailand |
| Note | A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Energy |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | The continued increasing demand of housing for the urban poor in developing countries has substantial impact on energy use for household activities and the rise in CO2 emissions. By 2020 energy demand is expected to considerably increase to accommodate approximately 900 million low income populations in cities and towns. In addition, climate risks of low income housing are profound due to high potential of cities to face more frequent and intense disasters as a result of climate change. In developing world where informal settlements are concentrated and expected to increase, self-help housing is the promising approach to formalize this informal sector by empowering the urban poor to improve or build their own communities. Self-help initiatives have therefore been promoted in several countries in Central/South America, South Africa, and Asia. Based on the consideration of the large number of self-help housing, which is likely to be constructed in the coming decades, this represents an important opportunity for integrating low carbon and disaster resilience principles into the participatory process of self-help housing planning. It is necessary to develop a Low carbon and Disaster resilient Assessment Tool for Self-help Housing (LoDAT-SH) for this targeted group to assist them to make the informed decisions on their housing development towards a low carbon and disaster resilience future, due to the lack of the assessment toolfor non-expert users. This research therefore aims to develop the methodology framework of LoDAT-SH, which is simple, practical, valid, reliable, and useful for self-help residents and to test the applicability, the reliability, validity, and usefulness of LoDAT-SH developed for self-help housing in a developing country. LoDAT-SH principles were developed from strengths and limitations of the existing tools. Based on the principles of LoDAT-SH above, the four-phased methodological framework of LoDAT-SH wasconsolidated. This four-phased framework was used to develop LoDAT-SH for self-help housing in Thailand.In Phase I, a study of self-help housing in Thailand was carried out to understand physical housing and related characteristics along with energy and disaster related concerns by a household survey and semi-structure interviews in selected self-help housingprone to flooding in Bangkok and its vicinity. The findings show that level of affordability for electricity, transportation, and cooking is acceptable for most households but the damage costs due to flooding were considered high. However, this situation willworsen if fuel prices increase and flooding events tend to be more severe due to climate change.In Phase II, the assessment framework of low carbon and disaster resilient development for self-help housing in Thailand was developed. The assessment framework can be divided into four categories of low carbon development (LC), The continued increasing demand of housing for the urban poor in developing countries has substantial impact on energy use for household activities and the rise in CO2emissions. By 2020 energy demand is expected to considerably increase to accommodate approximately 900 million low income populations in cities and towns. In addition, climate risks of low income housing are profound due to high potential of cities to face more frequent and intense disasters as a result of climate change. In developing world where informal settlements are concentrated and expected to increase, self-help housing is the promising approach to formalize this informal sector by empowering the urban poor to improve or build their own communities. Self-help initiatives have therefore been promoted in several countries in Central/South America, South Africa, and Asia. Based on the consideration of the large number of self-help housing, which is likely to be constructed in the coming decades, this represents an important opportunity for integrating low carbon and disaster resilience principles into the participatory process of self-help housing planning. It is necessary to develop a Low carbon and Disaster resilient Assessment Tool for Self-help Housing (LoDAT-SH) for this targeted group to assist them to make the informed decisions on their housing development towards a low carbon and disaster resilience future, due to the lack of the assessment toolfor non-expert users. This research therefore aims to develop the methodology framework of LoDAT-SH, which is simple, practical, valid, reliable, and useful for self-help residents and to test the applicability, the reliability, validity, and usefulness of LoDAT-SH developed for self-help housing in a developing country. LoDAT-SH principles were developed from strengths and limitations of the existing tools. Based on the principles of LoDAT-SH above, the four-phased methodological framework of LoDAT-SH wasconsolidated. This four-phased framework was used to develop LoDAT-SH for self-help housing in Thailand.In Phase I, a study of self-help housing in Thailand was carried out to understand physical housing and related characteristics along with energy and disaster related concerns by a household survey and semi-structure interviews in selected self-help housingprone to flooding in Bangkok and its vicinity. The findings show that level of affordability for electricity, transportation, and cooking is acceptable for most households but the damage costs due to flooding were considered high. However, this situation willworsen if fuel prices increase and flooding events tend to be more severe due to climate change.In Phase II, the assessment framework of low carbon and disaster resilient development for self-help housing in Thailand was developed. The assessment framework can be divided into four categories of low carbon development (LC), Disaster Resilience (DR), Community Participation (CP), and Financial Consideration (FC). LoDAT-SH weighting was also assigned by using the Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) from two groups of seventeen experts and six self-help residents.In Phase III, LoDAT-SH indicators were identified for LC, DR, CP, and FC categories. They were selected from existing indicators available in the sustainability assessment tools. New indicators were also developed for some measurement issues of DR and CP categories. This includes twenty-seven indicators for the LC category, nine indicators for the DR category, and three each for the CP and FC categories. Benchmarks for each indicator were established based on several sources to assign the maximum and minimum values, referring to very good and average performance, for the individual indicators. The assessment results of the individual Disaster Resilience (DR), Community Participation (CP), and Financial Consideration (FC). LoDAT-SH weighting was also assigned by using the Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) from two groups of seventeen experts and six self-help residents.In Phase III, LoDAT-SH indicators were identified for LC, DR, CP, and FC categories. They were selected from existing indicators available in the sustainability assessment tools. New indicators were also developed for some measurement issues of DR and CP categories. This includes twenty-seven indicators for the LC category, nine indicators for the DR category, and three each for the CP and FC categories. Benchmarks for each indicator were established based on several sources to assign the maximum and minimum values, referring to very good and average performance, for the individual indicators. The assessment results of the individual ndicators were expressed as scores which rangedfrom 1-4, representing poor, average, good, and very good performance. To achieve the overall assessment results, scores of all indicators were summed in respectto the weights of such indicators. The proposed indicators and benchmarks were verified by a panel of stakeholders by using a five-point scale. LoDAT-SH indicators and benchmarks with low scores below 3.5 were revised based on the comments of panel members. The final version of LoDAT-SH then was pretested to five self-help residents to investigate the clarity of the tool and the ability of end-users to complete the tool.In Phase IV, the application of LoDAT-SH to low income housing projects was carried out to validate the assessment results and to examine weaknesses of the tool. Eighteen housing projects vulnerable to floods in Bangkok and vicinity was selected for the application of LoDAT-SH. To validate the LoDAT scores, the concurrent validity was undertaken by correlating the LoDAT-SH scores with the assessment scores obtained from international rating tools (LEED-ND, GBI for Township, and PCRS) and local rating tools (ECOVILLAGE and TEEAM). The overall validation results show that LoDAT-SH scores are highly correlated to the selected rating tools for most indicators measuring low carbon development and community participation.To examine the reliability and usefulness of LoDAT-SH, the tool was tested using 43 residents from two self-help housing. Reliability test was primarily focused on the agreement between the LoDAT-SH scores given by two groups of self-help residents and trained raters. Through four statistical methods of percentage of agreement, Pearson’s Correlation, T-Test, and intra-class correlation, the reliability results show good level of agreement between two groups for the majority of LoDAT-SH indicators. The questionnaire survey was employed to elicit the participants’ opinions about the usefulness of LoDAT-SH. The results of usefulness test show the positive response for the overall assessment of LoDAT-SH from the end-users.The application of LoDAT-SH to test its applicability, validity, reliability, and usefulness shows that LoDAT-SH is a simple, practical, and useful tool for assessing housing design by self-help housing residents. It also provides reliable and valid assessment results due to the systematic process for developing the tool. The use of LoDAT-SH in participatory planning process helps to incorporate two critical issues of climate change in self-help housing design and potentially increases the ability of self-help residents to create low carbon and disaster resilient settlements. The methodology used in this research should therefore be replicated and improved for developingLoDAT-SH that is suitable for different climates and disasters. |
| Year | 2015 |
| Type | Dissertation |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Energy and Climate Change (Former title: Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Change (DEECC)) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Energy Technology (ET) |
| Chairperson(s) | Kumar, Sivanappan |
| Examination Committee(s) | Routray, Jayant Kumar ;Salam, P. Abdul |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | HM King HRD Project ;Asian Institute of Technology Fellowship |
| Degree | Thesis (Ph.D.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2015 |