Enhancing capacities for disaster mitigation and reconstruction in the built environment: a case study from Sri Lanka

Throughout the recent decades, natural and man-made disasters have demonstrated the fragility of the built environment and its vulnerability to hazards. The destruction of the built environment caused by disasters impedes the regular functioning of the society while hindering all the other activities due to its strong linkages with other sectors. This emphasises the need of a disaster resilient built environment. Capacity enhancement within different sectors in the society such as governments, institutions and communities, in relation to the built environment enables to identify constraints and to plan and manage construction activities of the built environment effectively, efficiently and sustainably. Identifying capacity gaps in the context of disaster mitigation and reconstruction in the built environment is vital to identify any required capacity enhancement. In this context, this paper discusses such capacity gaps in Sri Lanka through a literature review. Sri Lanka is commonly prone to natural hazards like floods, cyclones, landslides, and droughts and has experienced low-frequency but high impact disasters also such as the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004. The paper identifies the capacity gaps in different sectors in the country such as national and local governments, non state actors and the private sector, local communities, policy and regulatory environment and human resource development in relation to disaster mitigation and reconstruction in the built environment. Problems in the regulatory structure, deficiencies in necessary laws and regulations including problems in their implementation, and lack of required resources and skills have been identified as the major capacity gaps in the paper.