Dataset for "The Potential for Computational IT Tools in Disaster Relief and Shelter Design"

The expanding use of IT has brought an increase in productivity to the world of business, industry and commerce. However, this is not mirrored by an equivalent growth in the use of IT by aid agencies in post-disaster situations. This data contains results from a pioneering two-stage study which tested the appetite for the increased use of computational IT tools in this sector, their level of usefulness and whether they can be practically implemented.

The data contains the results of two separate online surveys (pre-use survey and post-use survey).

The first survey was conducted with thirty aid workers across nineteen countries on their use of IT and computational tools in shelter design and provision. The data contains information about the knowledge of the aid workers in relation to building performance situation software package and tools. The key finding was that none of the participants used any building simulation tools or software packages in any of the design stages of shelter construction and the great majority of the participants identified a need for a comprehensive, easy to use and freely available shelter design tool.

The data also contains information for the second survey which involved 48 aid-workers to record their experience of using the new tools and their feedback about the shelter design tools provided to them during the study.