Untapped potentials of built environment professionals in national disaster resilience action plans in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Even though many governments have ambitious plans for speedy and effective post disaster recovery a less success rate has been recorded in many parts of the World including Sri Lanka. In light of this situation, a growing call has been evident for greater engagement of the construction industry in the global effort of disaster resilience. This research is therefore aimed at recognizing the specific role(s) of built environment professionals previously unidentified in disaster resilience action plans in Sri Lanka. The research commenced with a literature review including the Sendai Framework which was the first major agreement of the post-2015 sustainable development agenda. A detailed desk review involved mapping the currently defined roles of the public sector in disaster resilience building in the National Disaster Management Plan (NDPM) in Sri Lanka with the open-source guideline called “The Built Environment Professions in Disaster Risk Reduction and Response” co-authored by Lloyd- Jones et al. (2009) that defines 29 distinct roles of built environment professionals. This research reveals that the built environment professionals in Sri Lanka have been heavily unrecognized and underutilized in the cause of disaster resilience where only 10 roles have been earmarked