Special themed issue on improving resilience of existing infrastructure and built assets against extreme weather

Citation

(2012), "Special themed issue on improving resilience of existing infrastructure and built assets against extreme weather", International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, Vol. 3 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijdrbe.2012.43503aaa.006

Special themed issue on improving resilience of existing infrastructure and built assets against extreme weather

Article Type: Call for abstracts From: International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, Volume 3, Issue 1

The world in recent years has seen a number of Extreme Weather Events (EWEs), causing large losses of life as well as significant economic losses. As a result, the cumulative economic and social costs of extreme weather-related events have been increasing significantly. The World Bank estimated that, in 1998, various natural disasters killed over 50,000 people and destroyed $65 billion worth of property and infrastructure. Disasters that occur due to weather extremes affect the existing infrastructure and other built assets, creating significant losses to the Government, individual households and the business sector in general. It is estimated that the global annual cost of weather damage on average is to be in the range of $200-330 billion. The Pitt Review of 2007 discloses that there were about 200 major floods worldwide during 2007 alone, affecting 180 million people, causing 8,000 deaths and over £40 billion worth of damage and disruption.

Several studies have been initiated to assess the impact of climate change and extreme weather events on the whole of society. To name a few: The IPCC, UKCIP weather scenarios, the Pitt Review and the Stern Review. In addition to these major reports, there have also been several other reports initiated in the UK by the Association of British Insurers (ABI), The Environment Agency, The RICS, DEFRA and CIRIA. These reports identify the impacts of various EWEs and measures to overcome the growing problem. The Stern Review (2007), for instance, predicts that the average global temperatures could rise by 2-38 within the next 50 years, leading to many severe impacts such as melting glaciers, rising sea levels, decline ofeco-systems etc. In addition to the gradual change of climatic conditions, climate change is expected to increase the intensity and frequency of EWEs. IPCC, in their special report presented at their 34th session held in November 2011, stated that the frequency of hot days is likely to increase ``by a factor of 10 in most regions of the world'' and that heavy precipitation will occur more often. Given this context, it has become a necessity to enhance the resilience of infrastructure and other built assets, which are especially vulnerable to the climate change and EWEs, in order to counteract the threat of such events and to ensure their continuous operation. More sustainable initiatives need to evolve to overcome the disruption and to enhance adaptation and coping capacities of individual households and the business sector. In line with the special themed issue as described above, it calls for contributions by academics, policy makers and professionals in the built environment and other multidisciplinary fields.

The issue will cover the following subjects

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  Assessing resilience and adaptive capacity of existing infrastructure

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  Assessing attitudes of built environment professionals to climate change-induced extreme weather

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  Preparing for extreme weather events – short-term and long-term measures

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  Small and medium enterprise initiatives to cope with extreme weather

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  Integrating adaptation planning into built asset lifecycle

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  Assessment of risks and vulnerability to extreme weather

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  Tools and techniques for more accurate extreme weather forecasting

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  .Stakeholder engagement initiatives for extreme weather risk management

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  Policy-making initiatives to manage extreme weather events.

High quality original papers are invited within the ``Improving resilience of existing infrastructure and built assets against extreme weather'' themed issue. All papers will be subjected to the journal's usual double blind peer review process.

Submission

At this stage, we are calling for abstracts with proposed title. These will be reviewed against the themed issue scope, and IJDRBE's aims and objectives. Relevant authors will be asked to submit full papers. Any queries or abstracts should be submitted to the Guest Editors:

Dr Bingunath IngirigeSchool of the Built Environment, University of Salford, UK M5 4WTE-mail: M.J.B.Ingirige@salford.ac.uk

Prof. Keith JonesSchool of Architecture and ConstructionUniversity of Greenwich, UKE-mail: K.G.Jones@greenwich.ac.uk

Important dates

Deadline for abstract submission 29 January 2012Decision and call for full papers 26 February 2012Full paper submission 30 June 2012Results on full paper acceptance and invite for corrections 30 September 2012Final papers sent to the publisher 15 November 2012Expected publication January 2013