Climate-adaptive housing for the elderly: A preliminary study in New Zealand

Abstract

A changing climate requires our built environment to be adaptable to better serve the communities for which it was intended. However, little is known about how climate change, especially rising temperatures, will impact housing and thus affect at-risk populations. This study was conducted as a preliminary study to develop and validate a research instrument (questionnaire survey) to be used in investigating the potential effects of rising temperatures on the elderly in Auckland, the largest city of New Zealand, and the role they perceive housing plays in reducing these effects. Prior to conducting more comprehensive full-scale research, the development and validation of the questionnaire survey was deemed vital to ensure the quality of the research instrument to be used. Assessment from experts and participants were used to revise the questionnaire. From this phase, the authors were able to execute the following: 1) made improvements to the research instrument such as modification of questions for better understanding of the participants, addition of relevant items, removal of unnecessary items, revision of terms to accommodate common understanding, and enhancement of question presentation (e.g., from tick box or open-ended to Likert scale); 2) checked the viability of the data collection process; and (3) planned for data coding scheme, processing, and analysis techniques. This study demonstrated that the proposed research instrument to be used in conducting the comprehensive research is feasible.