Long-term satisfaction of resettled communities: An assessment of physical performance of post-disaster housing

Sri Lanka experiences regular natural hazard-related disasters: flooding, landslides, cyclones and droughts. These events cause devastating effects in terms of human casualties, disturbing settlements and damaging properties. Besides human casualties, one of the most visible and striking effects of these disasters is the destruction of houses: as a result, there is a requirement for post-disaster housing reconstruction. Post-disaster housing delivery can be either assistance in rebuilding original dwellings or permanent relocation to resettlement schemes. Under any of these circumstances, implementation of relocation schemes must ensure that the beneficiaries are ultimately satisfied in order to safeguard performance of such construction initiatives in the long term. The purpose of this study is to quantitatively assess and compare the long-term satisfaction of the relocated communities in relation to physical performance of the housing reconstruction projects. In addition to a literature review carried out on key performance indicators (KPIs) to investigate the long-term performance of post-disaster housing reconstruction, a survey was carried out with the occupants of flood-, landslide- and tsunami-induced relocation projects in Sri Lanka. The empirical evidence revealed that resettled communities in all three case studies were mildly satisfied in the long term in terms of physical performance of the relocation. Furthermore, provision for alteration and expansion, orientation and layout of the house, the number of rooms, and lighting and ventilation were found to be important factors that require special attention with regard to planning and design for long-term physical performance of post-disaster housing because these were found to statistically correlate with overall satisfaction across the three case study projects

A Resilience Framework for Critical Infrastructure

Infrastructures facilitate economic growth, protect human health and the environment and promote welfare and prosperity. Modern societies, therefore, rely heavily on continuous and reliable services provided critical infrastructure. Destruction to the infrastructure can lead to severe economic and social impacts and can also lead to loss of lives. To further complicate matters, modern infrastructures operate as a ‘system of systems’ with many interactions and interdependencies among these systems. Thus damage in one infrastructure system can cascade and result in failures and cascading effects onto all related and dependent infrastructures. To minimise such damages and impacts, it is vital to improve the resilience of critical infrastructure. This paper intends to present a resilience framework for critical infrastructure. Firstly a resilience definition has been established by reviewing the existing definitions. Then existing resilience frameworks were analysed to identity the suitable components for the proposed framework for critical infrastructure. Finally a layered approach framework has been developed to improve the resilience of critical infrastructure. The framework was developed based on comprehensive literature review. It was further validated with stakeholder feedback sessions. The framework consists of 4 layers that are independent and interdependent. Climatic hazards including current and future climate change, infrastructure, their networks and interdependencies, risks and impacts and capacities are the main layers. Each layer will have its unique features and its relationships with other layers. Climatic hazards will contribute to increased risks and impacts. Critical infrastructure is more vulnerable when exposed to climate hazard and uncertainty of climate change and will lead to risks and impacts. The capacities will help to determine the resilience level and will help to reduce the risks and impact. The framework serves as a diagnostic model to determine the existing resilience level of critical infrastructure and to improve the resilience by making necessary changes to the layers

Maximising Social Interactions and Effectiveness within Distance Learning Courses: Cases from Construction

Advanced Internet technologies have revolutionised the delivery of distance learning education. As a result, the physical proximity between learners and the learning providers has become less important. However, whilst the pervasiveness of these technological developments has reached unprecedented levels, critics argue that the student learning experience is still not as effective as conventional face-to-face delivery. In this regard, surveys of distance learning courses reveal that there is often a lack of social interaction attributed to this method of delivery, which tends to leave learners feeling isolated due to a lack of engagement, direction, guidance and support by the tutor. This paper defines and conceptualises this phenomenon by investigating the extent to which distance-learning programmes provide the social interactions of an equivalent traditional classroom setting. In this respect, two distance learning case studies were investigated, covering the UK and Slovenian markets respectively. Research findings identified that delivery success is strongly dependent on the particular context to which the specific distance learning course is designed, structured and augmented. It is therefore recommended that designers of distance learning courses should balance the tensions and nuances associated with commercial viability and pedagogic effectiveness

Disaster experiences, associated problems and lessons in southwestern coastal Bangladesh: exploring through participatory rural appraisal to enhance resilience

The southwestern coastal part of Bangladesh is highly vulnerable to different kinds of disasters due to the changing climatic conditions. With the lenses of rural communities here an approach to examine how were the different disasters experiences, what lesson they learnt and what are their present disaster associated problems and stakeholder’s networks they rely on to enhance their resilience. Qualitative data were collected through participatory rapid rural appraisal (100–150 persons), field observation, 12 focus group discussions (25–40 people/FGD), and key informant interviews (25 people) in four southwestern coastal districts and nine coastal villages of Bangladesh. Results showed that since long back to date drinking water crisis, poor roads, poverty, poor sanitation, and health problems are the main identified disaster-associated problems. After learning lessons from previous disaster experiences, the community people have improved and changed their practices mainly by storing emergency foods, house construction, and increasing disaster awareness. However, the coastal communities are combating with the problems that have both direct and indirect association with poor infrastructures. Therefore, the coastal communities urge and sketched for a better stakeholders’ supports and networks to minimize their problems and thus to enhance communities’ disaster resilience

Theorizing construction industry practice within a disaster risk reduction setting: is it a panacea or an illusion?

Construction industry practice is strongly influenced by the culture surrounding its operations and, with the prevailing emphasis on achieving efficiency, there is a strong focus on outcome metrics such as profitability and employee productivity. With the recent increases in natural hazard events worldwide, and the likelihood that this will worsen still further with anticipated climate changes, the industry is increasingly contributing to building resilience within disaster-affected communities. Existing industry expertise, its educational approaches and the related theoretical frameworks, however, all require adjustment if these changing needs are to be fully addressed. Most importantly, an agenda shift is required from the philosophical side and a more pragmatic approach is needed if community resilience goals and objectives are to be met, rather than the narrower focus of the current metrics-driven management system. A synthesis of the current literature is therefore presented, along with relevant case histories illustrating how such an agenda shift within a disaster management context may influence the development of appropriate theory, as well as impacting upon grass-roots educational requirements. The research concludes by discussing how the ‘mainstreaming’ of disaster management within construction industry practice could drive forward developments in theorizing expertise and educational provisions across the constituent discipline

Alliances in construction: investigating initiatives and barriers for long-term collaboration

Purpose ? This paper aims to prove that alliances in the construction industry can be used as vehicles to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. Design/methodology/approach ? The paper first sets out a theoretical proposition through a literature review and synthesis, then details an empirical case study in the construction industry to investigate the theoretical proposition. Findings ? The findings indicate the existence of the ?project based mindset?, within the working practices of the different players in construction alliances. This overly narrow project focus constrains the process of achieving sustainable competitive advantage for alliances. Research limitations/implications ? This research, in broad terms, provides insights on the value of long-term orientated collaboration in construction alliances and specifically target practitioners by identifying benefits of balancing alliance tasks and activities among senior executives and project managers in an appropriate way. Originality/value ? The paper makes an original contribution to the general body of knowledge on alliances and specifically to construction alliances by identifying the core value addition in the process of long-term orientated collaboration so that the processes are carefully designed, interpreted and nurtured in practice. Also, recommends initiatives by the alliance management to redesign tasks and activities such that collaboration becomes part-and-parcel of senior executives and project managers? daily routine, rather than considering collaborative encounters as extra activities that need ?slack? time