Role of construction in managing disasters in developing economies

Recent large scale natural disasters such as Indian Ocean Tsunami of December 2004
reminded the world that the natural disasters can occur at any time any place and there
are no “safe heavens” in the world. Moreover the devastation triggered through this
natural disasters reminded us once again the strength of the link between the built
environment and natural disasters. Despite the fact that the importance of the built
environment and related disciplines towards successful post disaster recovery has been a
significant body of research during the recent past (for example see: Karim 2004;
Lizarralde and Boucher, 2004; Nikhileswarananda, 2004; Young, 2004) the recent natural
disasters made the researchers and alike to review the existing body of knowledge related
to post disaster recovery management and built environment as a matter of global
importance and relevance.