We are pleased to announce the appointment of a new leadership team for CIB W120: Disasters and the Built Environment. The team held its inaugural meeting in April 2025, with a steadily growing membership base, followed by a second meeting during the World Building Congress in May 2025.
In a significant milestone, the Commission successfully hosted its first webinar titled “Rising Climate Risks and the Future of Disaster Insurance: Challenges and Solutions”, which brought together experts from both industry and academia. The event fostered valuable dialogue and collaboration on this critical topic. To support broader engagement and knowledge sharing, the webinar recordings are now available on the CIB W120 YouTube channel for public access and dissemination.
A recording of the webinar can be viewed here.
Future works are updated in the commission webpage.
Prof. Temitope Egbelakin, University of Newcastle, Australia, Coordinator
Professor Temitope Egbelakin is a world-class researcher with expertise in disaster resilience, construction management, Climate Change Adaptation, Heritage Preservation & Gender and Equity. She developed several innovative projects totalling $4.03M, published over 100 peer-reviewed publications, chaired 2 international conferences, delivered 23 keynote , and served as scientific committee in i8 conferences. She has worked together with numerous strategic partners in Australia, New Zealand, UK, USA and China.
The impacts and relevance of her research outcomes are evident through policy interventions, strong collaborative industry engagements, demand for consultancy, international collaborations and the uptake and application of research outcomes. The research outcomes have been topical and timely in New Zealand and Australia, and crucial towards informing practices and national regulation developments, and have created pathways to improve the resilience and sustainability of buildings and communities at the local, national, and international scales.
Dr. Krisanthi Seneviratne, Western Sydney University, Australia, Coordinator
Krisanthi has recently been appointed as a coordinator of the commission, a role she undertakes with gratitude and a strong sense of responsibility to foster collaboration and knowledge exchange within the global research community. Krisanthi Seneviratne is a Lecturer in Construction Management at Western Sydney University, Australia, where she also serves as an Academic Program Advisor for the Undergraduate Construction Management Program.
She is a Chartered Quantity Surveyor and a member of both the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and the Australian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (AIQS), actively contributing to RICS APC Assessments and the Membership Engagement Group. Her research interests include disaster resilience in the built environment, construction cost management, contract administration, and construction education. She has contributed to the scholarly community through service on the scientific committees of major conferences such as the CIB World Building Congress, the International Conference on Building Resilience, AUBEA, CIOB World Construction Symposium, and the FARU International Conference. She also reviews for journals including Built Environment Project and Asset Management, Construction Innovation, and the International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, reflecting her commitment to academic rigor and impactful research dissemination.
Yashodha Kalutotage, University of Newcastle, Australia, Communications Coordinator
Yasodha is an active member of the Commission, where she contributes to restructuring initiatives and engagement strategies.
Yasodha is a PhD candidate at the School of Architecture and Built Environment, University of Newcastle. Her research focuses on affordable flood insurance solutions for homeowners in NSW, leveraging blockchain technology to develop a collaborative flood insurance system.
By bridging the gap between insurers, homeowners, and policymakers, she aims to promote sustainable, long-term disaster resilience.
Before pursuing her PhD, Yasodha worked as a Quantity Surveyor in Sri Lanka. She earned a First-Class Honours degree in Quantity Surveying from the University of Moratuwa in 2022. Her background in construction economics, risk assessment, and project management fuels her passion for disaster resilience research.
