Knowledge gaps in the construction industry to increase societal resilience to disasters

There is a growing recognition that those responsible for the built
environment have a vital role to play in developing societal resilience to
disasters. If construction researchers and practitioners are to be able to
contribute to reduce risk through resilient buildings, spaces and places, it
is important that capacity is developed for modern design, planning,
construction and maintenance that are inclusive, inter-disciplinary, and
integrative. In order to address this challenge, an EU funded research
project entitled CADRE (Collaborative Action towards Disaster Resilience
Education) is identifying knowledge gaps and developing an innovative
professional doctoral programme (DProf). The project seeks to integrate
professional and academic knowledge in the construction industry to
develop societal resilience to disasters. Through the development of an
innovative and timely curricular and learning material, the project seeks
to update the knowledge and skills of construction professionals in the
industry.
Before developing the proposed DProf programme, it is important to
identify the knowledge gaps in the construction industry. This paper is an
account of a study to identify gaps in the knowledgebase of construction
professionals that are undermining their ability to contribute to the
development of a more disaster resilient society. Capturing knowledge
gaps involved identifying the needs of various stakeholder groups
associated with disaster resilience and management, as well as current
and emerging skills that are applicable to construction professionals and
would contribute to enhanced societal resilience to disasters. In parallel,
an extensive policy analysis was conducted to capture the emerging policy
level needs. The primary and secondary data generated a long list of
needs and skills. Finally, the identified needs and skills were combined
‘like-for-like’ to produce thirteen broad knowledge gaps and associated
sub-themes. The paper provides an extensive analysis of the knowledge
gaps identified through this process.