Capturing the Best Practices in Disaster Resilience adopted by Australian Construction Companies

The c4SMC received AU$6,500 as grant funding from School of Built Environment Strategic Research Funds 2020 (Seed Projects) to conduct an industry relevant research project titled ‘Capturing the Best Practices in Disaster Resilience adopted by Australian Construction Companies’. This research is led by the chief investigator Dr Krisanthi Seneviratne, co-investigators Professor Srinath Perera, Associate Professor Xiaohua Jin, Dr Liyaning Tang, and Dr Robert Osei-Kyei, and supported by researcher Buddhini Ginigaddara.

Australian construction industry has been affected by a number of consecutive disasters including bush fire, flood and COVID19 pandemic in the recent past. Since the construction industry makes over 8% contribution to the economic output of Australia, its survival and recovery is critical to the economic development of the country during and aftermath of disasters. The construction sector is unique as it heavily depends on labour force (1.1 million) that needs close and collaborative working. Thus, the sector essentially needs to adopt good practices to operate during and after disasters. Therefore, it is important to understand how organisations coped with disasters to enhance the disaster resilience of the entire construction industry through sharing of good practices. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to enhance the disaster resilience of the construction sector through capturing and sharing the best practices adopted by construction companies in continuing business during disasters based on interviews with employees of construction companies.