Citation
(2013), "International Conference on Building Resilience", International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, Vol. 4 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijdrbe.2013.43504aaa.003
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2013, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
International Conference on Building Resilience
Article Type: News articles From: International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, Volume 4, Issue 1
Individual, institutional and societal coping strategies to address the challenges associated with disaster risk 17-19 September 2013, Heritance Ahungalla, Sri Lanka, www.buildresilience.org/2013
Communities around the world are faced with the threat of disasters on a daily basis. National governments, local government associations, international, regional and civil society organisations, donors, the private sector, academia and professional associations as well as every citizen needs to be engaged in reducing their risk to disasters. All these stakeholders must play their part in contributing to building disaster resilient communities. Despite this, research and evidence-based knowledge about the need for and benefits of disaster risk reduction are both poor and underutilized. We need to find mechanisms that apply scientific evidence and knowledge in policy and decision making.
The 2013 International Conference on Building Resilience will encourage debate on individual, institutional and societal coping strategies to address the challenges associated with disaster risk. The conference will be held at Heritance Ahungalla, on Sri Lanka’s Southwest Coast. As a country subject to several large-scale disasters in recent years, including the 2004 tsunami and a civil war spanning several decades, Sri Lanka provides an ideal setting to explore the challenge of creating resilient communities and cities.
This event will build upon the successful 2011 International Conference on Building Resilience, which was held in association with the launch of The Making Cities Resilient: My City Is Getting Ready! Campaign, which addresses issues of local governance and urban risk. The 2013 conference will continue to support the campaign focus areas up to and beyond 2015, including city-to-city learning and capacity building, and an emphasis on partnerships.
The scientific committee welcomes contributions from researchers, policy makers and practitioners. These contributions may be in the form of research papers, practice notes or case studies. Please see overleaf for a detailed list of conference themes.
Conference venue
Heritance Ahungalla is a five-star luxury hotel located on 15 acres of beachfront on Sri Lanka’s Southwest Coast, just south of Bentota and 76 km from Colombo. The hotel was designed by Geoffrey Bawa, Sri Lanka’s most prolific and influential architect, famous for blending interior and exterior spaces, connecting buildings with the natural environment. Further details about the venue can be found at: www.heritancehotels.com/ahungalla/
We look forward to welcoming you to Heritance Ahungalla!
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Organised by. Center for Disaster Resilience, University of Salford, UK; Queensland University of Technology, Australia; and RMIT University, Australia.
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Local hosts. University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka; University of Colombo, Sri Lanka; and Eastern University, Sri Lanka.
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In association with. United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR); Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC); Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS); Ministry of Disaster Management, Sri Lanka; and the ANDROID Disaster Resilience Network.
Call for research papers, practice notes and case studies
Abstracts are invited that address the conference themes below. In particular, national and local government need better access to policies and tools to effectively deal with disasters and engage diverse stakeholder groups. Urban risk reduction provides opportunities for capital investments through infrastructure upgrades and improvements, building retrofits for energy efficiency and safety, urban renovation and renewal, cleaner energies, and slum upgrading. Local governments are the closest level of government to citizens and their communities. They play the first role in responding to crises and emergencies. They deliver essential services to their citizens, such as health, education, transport and water services, which need to be made resilient to disasters.
How can we increase community engagement towards increasing societal resilience?
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Urban risk reduction.
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Making cities resilient.
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Sustainability and community resilience.
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Achievable resilience.
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Role of the community in the reconstruction process.
How can national and local governments be empowered to incorporate disaster risk in their development plans?
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Trends and models in capacity development.
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Scale of needs.
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Challenges in bringing capacities up to scale.
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Role of DRR networks in the context of supporting local capacity development.
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Capacity development in making cities resilient.
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Entry points of DRR in development planning.
How can we promote inclusive development to increase resilience?
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Multi-stakeholder perspective.
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Resilience and sustainable development.
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Gender considerations.
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Conflict sensitive reconstruction.
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DRR in reconstruction and sustainability.
How can we facilitate evidence-based policy?
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Knowledge for policy and society.
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Improved science-based policy decision making in disaster risk reduction.
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Knowledge platforms, networking and uptake of research results.
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Shaping immediate relief action in line with the goals of development co-operation in post-crisis/post-conflict societies.
How can we create public private partnerships to address disaster risk?
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Partnership models.
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Procurement strategies.
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Financial models.
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Disaster risk in investment decision making.
How can we manage disaster risk in development planning?
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Role of the national government in setting policy and creating an enabling environment.
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Incorporating DRR in city development planning.
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Project management for reconstruction.
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Long-term reconstruction strategies and sustainability.
What will be the role of the built environment professions in addressing disaster risk?
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Interdependency of expertise.
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Rebranding disaster risk reduction.
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What expertise to use and when.
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Professional institutions and their role.
How can we promote social transformation through post disaster reconstruction?
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Livelihoods and micro-enterprise development.
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Housing and infrastructure.
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Social cohesion.
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Mainstreaming social transformation into recovery projects.
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Promoting community capacities for social transformation.
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Abstracts may be submitted in the form of research papers or practice notes and case studies.
Research papers
Authors who have their abstracts accepted will be invited to submit a full research paper that will be subjected to double blind peer review. Accepted papers will be presented at the conference and published in the ISBN Electronic Conference Proceedings.
Practice notes and case studies
Practice notes and case studies are particularly welcome from policy makers and practitioners operating in related fields. Authors who have their abstracts accepted will be invited to present their practice notes and case studies at the conference and have their abstracts published in the ISBN Conference Book of Abstracts.