Lifelong learning needs for disaster management education in the built environment

Disasters cause considerable damage around the world every year. It is evident that most of the material damages of disaster have been on engineering related facilities of the built environment and therefore require serious efforts from the construction sector to respond. Therefore, the need to respond, recover, rebuild or reinstate the built environment affected by disaster can be identified as a major challenge for the countries affected by disasters. Construction industry and built environment disciplines have a major responsibility in responding to the above context. Apart from the physical construction process the knowledge and the experience of the construction professionals are essential in the disaster mitigation process. There is a widespread agreement in the literature that disaster management is a continuous process and has no specific end point. This enables to focus on disaster management sector in the context of lifelong learning. Haigh and Amaratunga (2010) recognise that built environment discipline at each stage of disaster management process has invaluable expertise and key role to play in the development of society‟s resilience to disasters. Construction professionals are expected to possess specific knowledge and expertise in this regard. The main reason is the peculiar nature of disaster reconstruction. Educating the construction professional to make them act efficiently and effectively in a disaster situation is therefore vital. HEIs delivering Built Environment programmes have a major responsibility to provide specific skills and knowledge that are necessary to be acquired and applied in a disaster situation by the construction professionals. The lifelong learning opportunities further enhance this provision as it will facilitate the HEIs to act as a continuing education centres providing skills and knowledge in a dynamic environment. In this context this paper analyses lifelong learning needs for disaster management education in the built environment. This paper is based on an EU funded project titled Built Environment Lifelong Learning Challenging University Responses to Vocational Education (BELLCURVE). The paper explores the complexity of disaster management in terms of its body of knowledge and modes of education. The implications for lifelong learning provision via HEIs are discussed with specific references to governance system