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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.