Capacity-Building to Support Safer Housing through Appropriate Hurricane Strap Use
Abstract
Amid rising global disaster risks, governmental and nongovernmental organizations have called for increased technical assistance to build capacity within communities to build safer housing. However, limited research has evaluated these approaches to building technical construction capacity. This study discusses the process of collaboratively designing an approach to build construction capacity for safer housing, evaluating this process through measures of builders’ self-efficacy and knowledge of mitigation measure efficacy. The capacity-building focuses particularly on the appropriate use of hurricane straps in wood roof construction in Puerto Rico, which was identified as an area where engineering recommendations did not align with many builders’ perceptions of safety. Three phases were used to design, implement, and assess this capacity-building approach. First, we interviewed staff in local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to identify propositions for building technical construction capacity in Puerto Rico. We then used these propositions as a framework to design the capacity-building approach. Finally, we piloted and evaluated this approach with existing trainers and community members who are building and repairing housing in Puerto Rico, interviewing them after implementation to analyze shifts in self-efficacy and knowledge of mitigation measure efficacy. The results reveal interviewees’ increased perceived self-efficacy and knowledge of mitigation measure efficacy following capacity-building, leading them to express increased willingness to mitigate hurricane risks to housing with appropriately installed hurricane straps. Overall, this study provides evidence that centering people’s perspectives is needed in technical construction capacity-building to influence builders’ self-efficacy and knowledge of mitigation measure efficacy and promote safer housing construction and suggests an approach that can be used to center these perspectives.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data used during this study are proprietary and confidential in nature and may only be provided with restrictions (e.g., anonymized data). This includes interview data at a level of detail in which individuals and their responses to any interview questions can be identified. Redacted, coded data from interviews are available from the corresponding author upon request.
Acknowledgments
We thank those who helped and willingly participated in this study, including staff and participants from the locally-based organizations described, Meredith Lochhead, Yarelis González Vega, and Nicolle Teresa Ramos. We would also like to thank Ed Groblewski, Cyndi Chandler, and other staff from Simpson Strong-Tie for sharing their expertise. This study is supported by the US National Science Foundation Award No. 1901808. The opinions, findings, and conclusions expressed in this study are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the National Science Foundation.
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Published In
Natural Hazards Review
Volume 24 • Issue 3 • August 2023
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This work is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
History
Received: Jul 22, 2022
Accepted: Feb 27, 2023
Published online: May 31, 2023
Published in print: Aug 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Oct 31, 2023
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Business management
- Construction engineering
- Construction industry
- Construction management
- Disaster risk management
- Disasters and hazards
- Housing
- Hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones
- Infrastructure
- Mitigation and remediation
- Natural disasters
- Occupational safety
- Organizations
- Practice and Profession
- Public administration
- Public health and safety
- Residential construction
- Safety
- Urban and regional development
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