Barriers and enablers of coastal disaster resilience – lessons learned from tsunami in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to evaluate the coastal disaster resilience and the disaster management framework of Sri Lanka, by conducting a case study in a few coastal areas in the district of Matara which were majorly affected in 2004 by the Indian Ocean Tsunami. Although it has been 15 years since the disaster struck the country, Sri Lanka is still struggling in building back better. This reveals the need to strengthen the action plan toward coastal disaster management by identifying the barriers and challenges that still exist in policies and frameworks, the use of technology in evacuation planning, implementation of evacuation plans and capacity building of the community. Design/methodology/approach This study was conducted through structured and in-depth interviews among the general public and government officials targeting the eventual outcome as to ascertain barriers incorporated with the disaster management framework and then possible improvements to the framework were identified and suggested. Findings The findings showed that the practice of an administrative-oriented disaster management framework was a key element in creating a welfare-oriented community that is still building back better in Matara, which was one of the worst affected cities in the country during the 2004 Tsunami. Originality/value This paper facilitates resilience development by identifying the overall development of the system after 2004. The required modifications needed to strengthen the system have thereby been identified through the developed output which was produced by analyzing the barriers and challenges.

Project management challenges for post-disaster reconstruction projects in Angola: a public sector perspective

“…The fourth ranked challenge to PDRPs was “minimizing the negative effects of political instability”. Extant literature on developing countries (and specifically Angola) has highlighted the challenges around minimizing the negative effects of political instability and how it affects the management of PDRP especially during the planning and construction stage (Qinghua et al , 2009; Jha et al , 2010; Chang et al , 2011; Rouhanizadeh et al , 2019b; Rathnayake et al , 2020). For example, as observed by Chang et al (2011), political elements are among those influencing the project resource availability and thus the project performance.…”

Evaluating the network of stakeholders in Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems for multiple hazards amidst biological outbreaks: Sri Lanka as a case in point

“…Although Sri Lanka has a devised disaster preparedness and planning mechanism for multi-hazard contexts, recent studies have stressed severe gaps in the system. Poor coordination among government departments, lack of human resources, poor stakeholder communication, lack of clarity and accuracy, bottlenecks in communication skills are a few of the existing gaps in the current disaster management mechanism [ 36 , 41 , 47 ]. Recent studies, that have focused on mitigation of COVID-19 and concurrent hazards in the country, have stressed the need for multi sectoral coordination in disaster management approaches [ 4 ].…”

Identifying gaps in early warning mechanisms and evacuation procedures for tsunamis in Sri Lanka, with a special focus on the use of social media

“…Governing structures (Rathnayake et al, 2020, Jayasiri et al, 2018 Evacuation planning (Hippola et al, 2020;Jayasiri et al, 2018a;Perera et al, 2020) Community resilience (Perera et al, 2020;Rathnayake et al, 2020) Response to EW messages (Jayasiri et al, 2020;Perera et al, 2020) Internal communication between technical agencies (Shehara et al, 2019b) Use of technological applications (Shehara et al, 2019a) Use of social media for EW dissemination Not addressed…”

“…However, the effectiveness of the existing Early Warning System for Tsunami and other coastal hazards was questioned several times. Several studies that were conducted to identify barriers and enablers in coastal disaster resilience have highlighted existing gaps in the Early Warning (EW) and Evacuation Procedures (EP) pertaining to coastal hazards (Perera et al, 2020;Rathnayake et al, 2020). These gaps and provided recommendations are identified mainly under key themes such as governance, modes of EW and EP dissemination, and the response of authorities and community.…”