Guest Lecture on 'Making a Disaster Resilient Built Environment : Role of Local Governments'

MAKING A DISASTER RESILIENT BUILT ENVIRONMENT: ROLE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENTS
Dr. Chamindi Malalgoda
Senior Lecturer, University of Huddersfield, UK

Urban areas are growing rapidly all over the world, particularly in the developing regions. As a result of rapid urbanisation, cities are becoming extremely vulnerable to natural disasters. Thus, it has become necessary to make cities more resilient to disasters. The built environment is a core element in every city, facilitating the everyday lives of human beings. Disasters can have a huge impact on the built environment, and failure of the built environment can create significant impacts on the social and economic activities of the entire nation. Thus, when moving towards safer cities, it is important to develop the built environment in such a way that it can adapt to the threats posed by natural disasters. Various stakeholders need to become involved in the process of making disaster-resilient built environments, and local governments have a critical role to play, as they are the closest government body to the local community. Even though there is growing concern among researchers and practitioners regarding the lead role required of local government in making disaster-resilient built environments, several issues have been reported about the inadequate contribution made by local governments in implementing disaster risk reduction initiatives. Therefore, this talk, aims to highlight the role of local governments in making cities resilient to disasters in the context of the built environment.

ZOOM MEETING DETAILS:
Meeting ID: 883 8368 3389
Passcode: 599425