5th International Conference on Building Resilience
This blog originally posted on the Community & Regional Resilience Institute.
I had the good fortune to participate in this meeting last month (hosted by Australia’s University of Newcastle). The meeting brought together practitioners and researchers who illuminated virtually every facet of community resilience. It is an interesting forum for several reasons:
- Sponsorship. The EU’s ANDROID Disaster Resilience Network, the University of Newcastle and the University of Huddersfield (UK), in association with UNISDR and UN-HABITAT, the International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment and others.
- Participants. Truly an international conference with presenters from Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and New Zealand (and one American outlier!).
- Perspectives. As a “pracademic,” this hits my sweet spot – a rich combination of contributions from both practitioners and researchers that provides a broader context for what we’re doing in the US.
I’ve appended the list of papers along with comments on those that I found of particular interest (If anyone wants a copy of a pre-conference draft, just let me know). Papers will be published early next year in an Elsevier Procedia volume (free access!).
277 – Does the post-disaster resilient city really exist? A critical analysis of the heterogeneous transformative capacities of housing reconstruction ‘resilience cells’ Paidakaki Angeliki, KU Leuven, Moulaert Frank, KU Leuven
Finds different rates of recovery for various parts of the “housing enterprise.”
307 – A practitioner’s model of community resilience John Plodinec
A simple and concise formalism that has driven my thinking about resilience almost from the beginning of CARRI. It seems to conform with actual experience rather well and easily leads to the archetypical strategies communities have used to increase their resilience. Incorporates the “Whole Community” paradigm as well.
419 – Disasters have direction: understanding cascading events John Plodinec
A method for a community to use to systematically identify cascading events and their consequences. Among other things, it points out the importance of looking beyond the community when considering events that can challenge the community’s ability to function.
314 – The Inclusive and Integrated Disaster Networked Governance framework: a conceptual model for analysing the cooperative outcomes of resilience building Astrid Vachette
This presentation was probably my favorite at the conference. Astrid has done yeoman work developing detailed social network “maps” of those involved in resilience building in the island nation of Vanuatu. She adapted the Earth System Governance Framework (and made a nice contribution by adding capitalization as an additional governance principle) as a tool to look at cooperative governance. I really like her four pillars of governance: government/NGO networks; cross-sector networks; networked leadership; networked learning.
334 – Building resilience to disasters through workshops for services providers using national monitoring and evaluation framework Jessie Huard, Diana Bernardi, Danielle O’Hara
Helping the challenged to become better prepared for disasters is a continuing problem worldwide. This award-winning effort by the Australian Red Cross aimed at getting to those with special needs through organizations that normally provide them with services. The program has had marked success – among service providers who were doing nothing to help their clients prepare for disasters prior to attending one of the workshops 67% were actively helping their clients become better prepared six months after a workshop.
361 – Serendipity: a Design Approach for Lifecycle Management and Risk Mitigation of Buildings in Natural Hazard-prone Regions Noemi Basso
Objective is to design and preserve architectural identity while extending life span and to decrease the footprint of buildings in hazardous areas. Approach has been applied to over 2500 projects to provide long-lived structures.
356 – Flood risk vs property value: A sector specific market perception study of commercial properties Namrata Bhattacharya Mis, Jessica E Lamond
A look at the relative non-impact of flood risk on perceived commercial property value. I was unaware of Jessica’s work and appreciate her straightforward approach.
369 – An exploration of the relationship between building resilience, uncertainty and “no regrets” adaptation Jessica E Lamond
The second of Jessica Lamond’s papers details considerations for developing and choosing no-regrets approaches for resilience. She then evaluates both early warning systems and building codes using these considerations for flood hazards. A very nice study.
393 – A Dynamic Master Plan For The 21st Century Tiberiu Florescu, Ph.D and Andrei Mitrea, Ph.D
404 – Structural methods for multi-hazard risk reduction in protected central areas of cities Cristina Olga Gociman, Tiberiu Constantin Florescu, Iolanda Gabriela Craifaleanu, Mihaela Stela Georgescu
One of the biggest problems facing those wanting to mitigate disasters is developing the “value proposition” or business case for action. An important facet of this is how to prioritize these actions, or rather, how do you convince those with funds to undertake one vs another project? This multi-faceted problem is certainly complicated and sometimes rises (or sinks?) into the wicked realm. Taken together, these papers present an intriguing approach to the problem. The first paper describes the bases of a Dynamic Master Plan for Bucharest, Romania. The approach attacks the problem’s complexity using tools from urban planning and development, GIS, collaborative planning and operations and management. The second paper describes a multi-attribute (cultural value, functional value, value in terms of sense of community or attractiveness, vulnerability and risk) decision tool for prioritizing action on buildings of historic or cultural value in the downtown area. This paper also has some useful background on the problems facing the Bucharest urban area. I was not aware of how prone to earthquakes they are.
413 – Rural People: Resilient Futures, Uncovering a leadership model for building resilience Joanne Brown, Alianne Rance, Dr Hartmut Fuenfgeld, Melanie Russell
This paper describes work being done in Australia to develop leaders in rural communities (a video about their progress can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxG1pZ5EuGk). The things I most liked about this presentation were the little nuggets about what worked for them.
- It is far better to incorporate identified actions into existing plans, rather than developing new resilience plans (Rockefeller Foundation seems to be going the other direction.).
- They have developed templates for “Project on a page” and “Results on a page” that are useful omni-directional communication tools.
482 – A Case Study of Capacity Building: Embedding Sustainable Development Principles and Practices at the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David Carolyn Hayles
“Sustainability” and “resilience” are keystones of much of our civic development. Unfortunately, there are too few concerted efforts to embed these concepts in the educational experiences of the next generation’s leaders. Professor Hayles discusses an effort to embed these in all aspects of campus life – from campus initiatives to pedagogical developments and student-led initiatives. There is a focus on dealing with change (writ large) that resonates.
494 – A systems approach to managing human resources in disaster recovery projects Yan Chang-Richards, Suzanne Wilkinson, Erica Seville, David Brunsdon
Whenever I see a paper with Erica Seville’s name on it, I pay attention. She (and her work and that of her colleagues) epitomize what I aspire to do – converting research into action. In this paper, Alice Richards discussed what may ultimately become the rate-limiting step for Christchurch’s recovery: the shortages of skilled workers needed to accomplish the physical rebuilding (Anyone who has read Dan Alesch’s book on recovery shouldn’t be surprised that this often is a problem.). This paper presents a nice summary of the problem and of some of the successful approaches that are being taken to overcome the problem.
520 – A Social Network based framework for assessing risks and vulnerability in built environment Hemanta Doloi, Robert Crawford, Craig Langston, Low Sui Pheng
This paper presented work that ultimately lands very close to my “Disasters have direction” paper, thought starting from a different place (wish we could have talked before the conference.).
323 – Older people as resilience builders in natural disaster preparedness, response and recovery Amanda Howard
Based on survey work in Australia, the title says it all. She found that more seasoned [ahem!] citizens formed and maintained informal networks that led to sharing of resources and experience.
496 – The Australian Natural Disaster Resilience Index Phil Morley, Melissa Parsons, Graham Marshall, Peter Hastings, Sonya Glavac, Richard Stayner, Judith McNeill, James McGregor, Ian Reeve
423 – Development of an Area Disaster Resilience Management System Model for Healthcare
Masahiko Munechika, Chisato Kajihara, Masataka Sano, Masaaki Kaneko, Haizhe Jin, Kento Ogawa
441 – The functions of related organizations that ensure continuous healthcare services in a disaster Chisato Kajihara , Masahiko Munechika, Masaaki Kaneko, Masataka Sano, Kento Ogawad
453 – Policy Analysis in Prioritising Societal Challenges – the Case of Sri Lanka Champika Liyanage, Kanchana Ginige, Dilanthi Amaratunga, Richard Haigh
470 – Emergency service demand in Queensland during natural disasters Buddhi Wahalathantri, Weena Lokuge, Warna Karunasena, Sujeewa Setunge
473 – Is Business Continuity Management increasing Resilience of SMEs? Fanny Guay
475 – Building flood disaster resilience of SMEs in urban cities of Nigeria Adebobola. Z. Olotu, Toinpre Owi, Rafiu. O Salami
476 – Evaluation of a case study concrete bridge in Victoria under effect of bushfire Weena Lokuge, Hessam Mohseni, Sujeeva Setunge, Scott Simpson
481 – Disaster Risk Management of Cultural Heritage The Rocks, Sydney, Australia Catherine Forbes
490 – Housing and resilience: Case studies from the Cook Islands Iftekhar Ahmed
498 – Urban heat island effect in Asian metropolitan centres – Tokyo and Singapore N. Nirupama, Lauren Hebert, Judith Jubril
504 – Utilizing disaster risk information to develop local resilience in Manadalay City, Myanmar
Md Anisur Rhman, Matthew Devid Sarsycki, Peeranan Towashiraporn
506 – Humanitarian’ or; ‘Resilient Architecture’ for vulnerable communities? Nuno Martins, Manuel Correia Guedes
507 – Revitalizing Home Sales in the Current Challenging Economic Environment Jason L. McDonald, Syed M. Ahmed
508 – Sharing responsibility at community level: social resilience and local connections
Sarah Redshaw, Valerie Ingham, Kathleen Harrison, Toni Quigley, Prue Hardgrove
516 – Inter-organisational characteristics of resilience in a post-disaster recovery context Erica Nkusu Mulowayi, Vaughan Coffey, Jonathan Bunker, Bambang Trigunarsiah
518 – Urbanisation and disaster risk in urban villages – Case study Delhi Associate Professor Bipasha Kumar
527 – Early Warning and Early Action redefining the relief, rehabilitation, and reconstruction continuum Georgina Jordan, William Swanson
546 – The sustainability issue of housing material loans (HML) for public housing in the Philippines: recipe for cyclical disaster risk? Sylvester Shaun David Seno
548 – Resilience and Adaptive Capacities in Cyclone Larry Richard Oloruntoba
564 – An integrated framework for resilience management of inter-network city infrastructures S. Thomas Ng, Frank J. Xu
599 – Understanding the Roles of Property Investors and Insurers and Earthquake Risk Mitigation Temitope Egbelakin, Suzanne Wilkinson
601 – Framework for Improving Property Owners Earthquake Disaster Preparedness Decisions
Temitope Egbelakin, Suzanne Wilkinson, Niluka Domingo
605 – Take up of property-level flood protection: An exploratory study in Worcester, UK Jamie Brown, Gayan Wedawatta
615 – Professional doctorates: applicability to the construction industry in increasing societal resilience to disasters Chamindi Malalgoda, Kaushal Keraminiyage, Dilanthi Amaratunga, Richard Haigh, Srinath Perera, Onaopepo Adeniyi
347 – Analysing community needs and skills for enhancing disaster resilience in the built environment Srinath Perera, Onaopepo Adeniyi, Solomon Olusola Babatunde
348 – Enhancing investment in Disaster Resilience of the built environment of SMEs: Developing a conceptual framework Onaopepo Adeniyi, Srinath Perera, Andrew Collins
“What should we do now?” “What should we say?”