Evaluation and Enhancement of Environmental Performance of Refugee Shelters in Palestine

Abstract

Creating appropriate indoor conditions for satisfying human thermal, visual, and aural desires has been recognized to be an essential requirement in building design, since the composition of indoor environment parameters have determined human performance and productivity, as well as physical and intellectual capability. However, achieving optimum indoor conditions for building's occupants should also be parallel with energy saving in order to achieve green indoor environment. Thermal comfort is the most substantial among other indoor environmental parameters and has the greatest effect on energy consumption. Shelters in refugee camps in Palestine can experience poor ventilation, lack of natural light and solar radiation, and noise problems, as a sequence of high urban density, absence of green areas, and lack of land; whereas refugee camps in Palestine have one of the highest population densities in the world. Moreover, the cost of energy is high in Palestine and it is the most expensive in all countries in the Middle East. In view of this scenario, this thesis intended to investigate the indoor environment of shelters in Palestinian refugee camps including thermal, visual, and acoustic environment, and other indoor parameters, with focus on thermal comfort, in order to provide suggestions for potential enhancement. The shelters of Special Hardship Cases (SHC) families were selected in this study; whereas the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine Refugees in the Near East has been promoting shelter reconstruction programme for SHC families all over the camps. The characteristics of the existing new and …