CIB W120 – Disasters and the Built Environment is hosting a seminar on Tuesday, 21st July 2026 at 6.00-7.00 PM (AEST), on Understanding Socio-Cultural Dimensions in Disaster Response and Recovery.
The success of disaster recovery is not determined only by the physical safety of rebuilt environments, but also by how well recovery processes respond to the cultural, social, and psychosocial realities of affected communities. While relocation policies, evacuation systems, and reconstruction programs are often designed from a technical and risk-reduction perspective, communities continue to make decisions based on attachment to place, livelihoods, social networks, identity, and everyday cultural practices. Ignoring these dimensions can unintentionally create new vulnerabilities and, in some cases, encourage communities to return to high-risk areas.
Experiences from Sri Lanka, demonstrate how recovery interventions that overlook socio-cultural realities can disrupt livelihoods, weaken community networks, and challenge long-term resilience. These experiences also reveal the importance of culturally sensitive evacuation systems, community participation in decision-making, and home-owner driven reconstruction approaches that provide greater ownership and flexibility for affected populations.
This presentation highlights the need to integrate cultural understanding into disaster response, resettlement, and recovery policies in order to support more inclusive, resilient, and socially sustainable built environments.
Speaker
Professor Udayangani Kulatunga, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka
Udayangani Kulatunga is a Professor in Building Economics at the Department of Building Economics, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, and the Founding Director of the Centre for Disaster Risk Reduction at the same university. She also previously served as Director of the Centre for Disaster Resilience at the University of Salford, UK. She holds a BSc (Hons) in Quantity Surveying from the University of Moratuwa and a PhD from the University of Salford, UK, specialising in performance measurement in construction research and development.
With extensive teaching experience in both Sri Lanka and the UK, she is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, UK, and holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice. Professor Kulatunga has served as Principal and Co-Investigator on numerous local and international collaborative research projects. Her research focuses on construction management, quantity surveying practice, disaster management, risk and resilience, climate change, and post-disaster reconstruction and resettlement. She has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and international conferences and has supervised a large number of postgraduate research students in both Sri Lanka and the UK.
