Invited key note address
Fri, 27 Jan 2017 10:52:00 GMT
Prof. Dilanthi Amaratunga was the invited key note speaker at the “Risk Awareness and Future Challenges” - NBRO International Symposium, held from 6 – 7 December 2016 at Waters Edge, Battaramulla, Sri Lanka.
Her key note address was entitled: Risk Awareness and Future Challenges: The Role of Research and Development.
The importance of R & D in better understanding the processes before, during and after disasters is becoming increasingly important. Climate change has meant that an increasing number of the world’s population would be impacted by a climate-based disaster. Additionally, the economic costs continue to rise. Indeed, within an increasingly interconnected world, we have already started to see disaster events in Asia impacting the economies and livelihoods of countries and people in Europe, Africa or the Americas.
Innovations that are expected include: Shift from disaster loss to disaster risk, Shift from disaster management to disaster risk management, and Shift from “what to do?” to “how to do?”, which calls for advanced R & D agendas. It is anticipated R & D’s continued advancements will allow us to apply strategies and policy to mitigate risks and build resilience to natural and human made disasters in ways that were unimaginable 20 years ago.
Looking forward, this keynote discussed the role of R&D in risk awareness and addressing future challenges.
National Building Research Organisation (NBRO) of Sri Lanka is the premier research and development institute established in 1984 has now grown in to a successful technical service provider and research & development institution where experts from multiple disciplines have teamed up and dedicated to create a disaster free built environment for the nation.
