Capacity building towards resilience: context of post disaster waste management

Capacity building provides an opportunity to understand strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities towards a resilient future through identification of broader issues around sustainable development of a particular program, project or process, including their unique cultural, social and ecological characteristics. Thus, concept of capacity building is an essential component in development theory and practice. In particular, in post disaster scenarios, focus has been placed upon local capacity building as a means of increasing resilience to natural hazards. In this context, this paper focuses on concept of capacity building and its role in post disaster waste management towards building future resilience. Case studies have been conducted to gather information on existing capacities of post disaster waste management in Sri Lanka. Semi-structured interviews were held as the main data collection method and content analysis was used to analyse collected data. Results of existing capacities and identified gaps of post disaster waste management are presented in key areas as skills and confidence building, links and collaborations, continuity and sustainability, research and development, communication and coordination, organisational implementations and investments in infrastructure. Finally, the paper concludes with proposed recommendations for enhancing capacities of post disaster waste management towards future resilience

Capacity building for sustainable post disaster waste management: Construction \& demolition waste

Disasters, both natural and man-made, have been occurring with increasing frequency and effect in recent decades in many countries around the world. Among them, Sri Lanka is yet to recover from the effects of December 2004 Tsunami. Among many other reasons it has been identified that lack of awareness of the mechanisms and systems for post disaster waste management is a critical issue of concern. None of the Sri Lankan academic institutions related to the field offer courses designed for the management of disaster waste within the country. Furthermore, none of these institutions conduct awareness programmes aimed at the public on new mechanisms and systems of management of disaster waste. To address these issues, this research aims to enhance capacities to develop new mechanisms and systems for sustainable post disaster waste management focusing on construction and demolition waste. To achieve the identified aim, the research will explore current status of disaster waste management in Sri Lanka and a framework will be proposed for enhancing capacities for sustainable disaster waste management in economical, social and technological aspects. The research methodology includes a comprehensive literature review, semi structured interviews and case study with selected personal views on management of disaster waste management. In this context, the objective of this paper is to present the current scenario of disaster waste management based on the results of a secondary survey

Capacity building towards sustainability: Context of post disaster waste management

Concept of Capacity Building is an essential component in development theory and practice. In developing countries, it is identified as a key concept in achieving sustainability. In particular, in post disaster scenarios, focus has been placed upon local capacity building as a means of increasing resilience to natural hazards. In this context, this paper focuses on concept of capacity building and its role on achieving sustainable post disaster waste management. A literature review and pilot study have been conducted to gather information on post disaster waste management in Sri Lanka. Semi-structured interviews were held as the main data collection method and content analysis was used to analyse collected data. Unavailability of a centralized body, poor implementation of rules and regulations; lack of skills and confidence, inadequate funds, lack of communication and coordination were identified as prevailing capacity gaps in post disaster waste management. Thus, finally paper proposes a framework for capacity building for sustainable post disaster waste management

Waste management strategies during post disaster phase: A case of Sri Lanka

Natural or man made disasters cause serious negative impacts on life, property, livelihood and industries often resulting in permanent changes to societies and environments. In disasters, creation of waste due to damaged buildings and infrastructure is unavoidable. If these wastes are not properly managed, serious environmental and economic burdens will fall on general living conditions, reconstruction and as well as general waste collection processes. Therefore, management of disaster waste has emerged as a critical issue and poses a significant challenge to governing bodies in responding to a disaster. This is not unique to Sri Lanka which is prone to frequent natural disasters such as floods, landslides and droughts apart from the Asian Tsunami of 2004. This paper addresses post disaster waste management strategies adopted and issues and challenges encountered at both national and local levels in Sri Lanka during post - Indian Ocean Tsunami period. A comprehensive literature review and a field survey were conducted to gather information. Accordingly, most affected six districts were selected based on three types of disasters namely floods, landslide and the Tsunami. Seven national institutes responsible for managing disasters were selected for collection of data at national level. Semi-structured interviews were used as the main method of data collection at each stage and content analysis was used to analyze data that was collected. Local level findings revealed that strategies, issues and challenges vary according to the type of disaster, magnitude and location. Unavailability of a centralized body, poor implementation of rules and regulations; poor standards of local expertise and capacities, inadequate funds, lack of communication and coordination were identified as key issues at national level

A New Triangular Hybrid Displacement Function Element for Static and Free Vibration Analyses of Mindlin-Reissner Plate

A new 3-node triangular hybrid displacement function Mindlin- Reissner plate element is developed. Firstly, the modified variational functional of complementary energy for Mindlin-Reissner plate, which is eventually expressed by a so-called displacement function F, is proposed. Secondly, the locking-free formulae of Timoshenko’s beam theory are chosen as the deflection, rotation, and shear strain along each element boundary. Thirdly, seven fundamental analytical solutions of the displacement function F are selected as the trial functions for the assumed resultant fields, so that the assumed resultant fields satisfy all governing equations in advance. Finally, the element stiffness matrix of the new element, denoted by HDF-P3-7β, is derived from the modified principle of complementary energy. Together with the diagonal inertia matrix of the 3-node triangular isoparametric element, the proposed element is also successfully generalized to the free vibration problems. Numerical results show that the proposed element exhibits overall remarkable performance in all benchmark problems, especially in the free vibration analyses

Capacity building of disaster waste management for disaster risk reduction

Natural hazards are extreme events that could cause harm on both socio-economic and ecological systems which ultimately become major disasters. Therefore, identification of vulnerabilities and risks of major hazards are important for any country. Sri Lanka is also in the process of developing a risk profile of natural hazards after the Asian Tsunami of 2004. In this context, various national and local level workshops have been conducted for capacity building of non structural measures for disaster risk reduction. On this, this paper highlights a natural hazard: disaster waste which has high impact on disaster risk reduction, but given less attention in Sri Lanka where its creation and impact is unavoidable. Specially, absence of proper disaster waste management strategies eventually put health and safety of victims at a risk. Further, in the long term it affects increased frequency of disasters in spite of smaller impacts, such as floods. Thus, this paper highlights capacity gaps identified in post disaster waste management and its impact on disaster risk reduction. Semi structured interviews was conducted to collect data from stakeholders involved in disaster waste management at national and local levels. Unavailability of single point responsibility, statutorily enforceable rules and regulations and capacity constraints are identified as gaps in disaster waste management. Enhancement of administrative and operational level capacities of national agencies, specifically by granting legal powers and increasing awareness among the society will enable overcoming of above gap

Capacity building for post disaster waste management: research methodological perspective

Every year newspapers and television screens are dominated at some point by a natural disaster of international concern. In a disaster, generation of waste is unavoidable. This causes serious environmental and economic burden on normal living conditions, reconstruction as well as on general municipal waste collection processes. Within this context, waste management has emerged as a critical issue in responding to a disaster. This became a critical issue in Sri Lanka which was heavily affected by Asian Tsunami 2004. This was mainly due to inexperience, incapacity and lack of concentrated and effective planning and monitoring processes. In this context, it is vital to explore the capacities which need to be enhanced for effective post disaster waste management at national level in Sri Lanka. Therefore, this paper addresses research methodological aspects underpinning of this research looks into capacity building for post disaster waste management within the Sri Lankan context. Further, the paper illustrates how the philosophical issues such as epistemology, ontology and axiology directed the use of case studies as the suitable research approach. Case study design considerations associated with this research will also be discussed

Post-disaster construction & demolition debris management: A Sri Lanka case study

The increasing nature of impacts from disasters has made post disaster management a key area of concern. The management of disaster waste is revealed as an area of least concern yet it presents momentous challenges for those with inadequate capacities due to the large volume and hazardous constituents created, specifically in developing countries. This paper aims to report the findings of post-disaster waste management strategies and challenges identified in Sri Lanka. Data was gathered through interviews with government and non-government organisations at national and local level. The lack of an established hierarchy and single point of responsibility, mandatory and enforceable rules and regulations; inadequate capacity and funds, and lack of communication and coordination were identified as gaps in post-disaster waste management. This enabled the identification of post-disaster waste management strategies, highlighting gaps that need to be addressed for effective C\&D debris management for Sri Lanka's future resilience