This Checklist-Based Guide to Identifying Critical Environmental Considerations in Emergency Shelter Site Selection, Construction, Management and Decommissioning provides an easy-to-use way to assess whether environmental issues have been appropriately addressed in emergency shelter efforts. In most cases, unaddressed issues can be resolved by changing plans or implementing specific upgrades of shelter sites. The Checklist can also be used to review planning for new emergency shelter sites. In this mode, the issues raised in the guide can be addressed by specific actions incorporated into an emergency shelter program before the program is implemented. The Checklist was initially developed as part of the emergency transitional shelter effort in Sri Lanka following the 26 December 2005 tsunami (see http://www.benfieldhrc.org/SiteRoot/disaster_studies/rea/rea_resources.htm). The Sri Lanka Checklist was developed based on Sphere standards and policy and transitional shelter guidance developed by the humanitarian community in Sri Lanka. This version of the Checklist has been edited and reformatted to be used in most types of humanitarian crisis which result in the displacement of populations and the need for emergency shelter.
