Mind the gap: State of the art on decision-making related to post-disaster housing assistance

This paper systematically reviewed the literature on temporary housing built after sudden natural hazards, from a decision-making perspective, using reflexive thematic analysis methods. This enabled the identification of critical decision-making components (i.e. open challenges, trade-offs, dilemmas and contradictions) and necessary synergies at three levels: the operational, the managerial and the strategic.

Results highlight the value of a structured review of the literature to identify decision-making gaps and opportunities for knowledge integration across domains, besides the need of a constructive decision-making alignment at all decision-making levels to enable holistic recovery planning. Additionally, they show the importance of an in-depth examination of decision-making dichotomies for developing novel methods and tools, which respond to contextual needs and local dynamics.