Sustainable construction for disaster recovery

Abstract

Sri Lanka can be affected by a multitude of natural disasters such as cyclones, minor earthquakes, Tsunami, floods and landslides. Although it is relatively easier to avoid the sites prone to floods and landslides, the built environments must have sufficient robustness against cyclones and earthquakes. For houses constructed close to the coast, there is some risk of at least partial submergence in a tsunami since it is difficult to predict the distance of travel of waves inland. Therefore, partial or complete damage to houses is of common occurrence in a natural disaster as evident from cyclone of 1978 or tsunami of 2004. When a rebuilding exercise is undertaken immediately after a natural disaster for resettlement of displaced families, a severe burden is placed in the supplies of building materials. Since majority of building materials used for houses have natural resources as the origin, certain adverse environmental impacts also could occur especially with over exploitation. Some examples are the recent sand crisis and environmental damage experienced due to excessive clay mining. Therefore, paying sufficient attention to sustainable construction will be of extreme importance during the disaster recovery phase. This paper critically evaluates the various alternative materials that could be used for minimizing the environmental impacts while improving the sustainability. Real examples are drawn from the tsunami reconstruction activities carried out in various parts of Sri Lanka where alternative materials such as Compressed Stabilized Earth bricks and blocks, rammed earth, chip concrete blocks and micro concrete tiles have been used.