Richard Peter Haigh

University of Huddersfield · School of Applied Sciences

Displacement due to extreme weather conditions and conflicts is a frequent phenomenon in the contemporary world. With the overall alteration of their day-to-day lives, the displaced communities require urgent and sustainable built environment interventions to rebuild their lives. It is vital that the needs of the displaced and host communities are...

Internal displacement resulting from conflicts and disasters has increasingly become one of the major global humanitarian and development challenges. The 2021 report on internal displacement shows that the conflicts and disasters of 2020 internally displaced about 40.5 million new persons across 149 countries and the number rose to 55 million by th...

In the systematic approach toward disaster risks, planned relocation is considered to be the last resort when providing a durable solution for relocates. This study is an investigation of the role of “social capital” in rebuilding lives in the aftermath of relocation caused by post-disaster induced displacement. This study is based on field researc...

Landslides are fatal climate-induced natural disasters that leave more people homeless than any other calamity in Sri Lanka. Relocation is a frequently adopted policy initiative led by the government and related authorities in post-disaster reconstruction in Sri Lanka. The hesitancy of most vulnerable communities to relocate to new places has rende...

The Ciliwung River in Java, Indonesia, is known to cause frequent flooding in the downstream capital city of Jakarta. From source to mouth the river flows through several administrative units. Indonesia’s decentralised governance structure means that each unit has the authority to develop its own plans and to address its own objectives. Not only th...

This paper discusses the significance of public health information sharing among underprivileged communities during a pandemic, based on a survey conducted in 9 districts in Sri Lanka. Further, the paper highlights the socio-demographic and public-health information-related factors that affect vaccine hesitancy in Sri Lanka during the COVID-19 pand...

The impact of disasters has increased and intensified due to climate change, and its adverse impacts which have caused many losses and damage among communities worldwide. Studies have confirmed that the main causal factor is the adverse impact on the natural environment and its processes due to anthropogenic activities. Therefore, decision-makers a...

This paper presents an evaluation of two community-based planning sessions organized in the Rathnapura and Jaffna districts in Sri Lanka promoting public engagement in multi-hazard preparedness and response.

In broader terms, a Smart City improves the quality of life of its citizens through the effective use of innovative (digital) solutions. While innovative Smart City solutions keep growing, attention has been paid to resilience-making within Smart Cities, recognising that disasters are unavoidable. In light of the characteristics of a Smart City (sm...

The climate change impact highly threatens coastal regions. Coastal populations face a range of climate-related risks such as cyclones, sea-level rise, and coastal flooding. The built environment has a significant impact over the local climate and environment of coastal communities. Coastal areas are identified to be central locations of human habi...

This paper discusses the critical challenges faced in urban planning in multi-hazards' context. A systematic literature review has been conducted to identify the key constraints and challenges of urban planning in a multi-hazard situation.

The built environment has to play an essential role in day-to-day activities of the human being because of urbanization and rapid increase of the basic needs of the human. The built environment mainly consists of buildings (residential and commercial) and infrastructures such as water, transportation, electricity, energy, telecommunication, health,...

Substantial investment in transport has paved the way for major road developments in many developing countries. The environmental impacts of such road development, and occupational health and safety of construction, have both been widely recognised, and in many cases addressed in recent projects. However, little attention has been given to the heal...

Tsunamis pose significant challenges for disaster reduction efforts due to the multi-hazard, cascading nature of these events, including a range of different potential triggering and consequential hazards. Although infrequent, they have the potential to cause devastating human and economic losses. Effective urban planning has been recognised as an...

This research work was conducted as part of the broader study that focuses on addressing two specific challenges: 1)the integration of COVID-19, pandemic and biological hazard preparedness as part of multi-hazard early warning; and 2) mainstreaming tsunami, biological and multi-hazard preparedness into urban planning for coastal regions. The partne...

The COVID-19 pandemic gave rise to several unprecedented challenges, including an emergency shift to online learning and distance education. Although many consider it normal to own devices like mobile phones, laptops and computers, studies suggest that about 46% of the global learning population remains offline. Consequently, inclusive education an...

The COVID-19 pandemic gave rise to several unprecedented challenges, including an emergency shift to online learning and distance education. Although many consider it normal to own devices like mobile phones, laptops and computers, studies suggest that about 46% of the global learning population remains offline. Consequently, inclusive education an...

This brief presents some key findings of an investigation carried out to identify the current status of the tsunami and multi-hazard preparedness in the context of urban planning within Sri Lanka.

COVID-19 has showcased the systematic nature of risks. Its effects have spanned beyond the health sector causing severe economic disruptions. Sri Lanka's GDP contracted by 3.6% in 2020 from a 2.3% growth in 2019, reflecting the largest economic downturn recorded in the country's history. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has been largely perceived as...

The recent global acknowledgement of the importance of disaster risk reduction (DRR) in steering the world towards sustainable development can be discerned in the Sendai Framework for DRR 2015-2030 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Ironically, certain DRR strategies like planned relocation have often undermined agricultural productio...

Synergized impacts of simultaneous hazards amidst COVID-19 have called for the need for highly collaborative multi-sectoral approaches for disaster preparedness planning. In such a context, this study aims at evaluating the network of stakeholders in the National Early Warning System of Sri Lanka during preparedness planning. Social Network Analysi...

Purpose Addressing the housing needs of the displaced communities is an essential part of a recovery programme that has distinct links to livelihoods, health, education, security and social and family stability. The housing factor acts as a social centre for family and friends, a source of pride and cultural identity and a resource that commands bo...

This conference paper highlights the need and strength of a community-based approach to pandemic preparedness and response as learnt during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Paper presents a set of findings derived from a desk study.

The paper presents key elements and stages of a framework developed on pandemic and epidemic preparedness and response, in the context of multi-hazard.

A cohesive society is not only characterised by the availability of basic services and facilities, but also promotes economic equality and inclusion, democracy, and social solidarity. Forced displacement due to disasters and conflict constantly disrupt the path to a sustainable and cohesive society. Displaced communities often struggle with a lack...

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction has identified the climate change education as a key motivation for improving energy efficiency, climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction by encouraging changes in the attitudes and behaviour and helping adapt to climate change-related trends. Delivering climate change education via Mass...

Disaster induced displacement is one of the most frequent phenomena occurring in the contemporary world and has been aggravated by factors such as climate change. With the systematic interpretation of disaster risks, planned relocation has been recognized as a durable solution for post-disaster reconstruction and disaster mitigation. Planned reloca...

As a result of the massive death and destruction caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, developing effective disaster preparedness strategies became a priority among countries in the region. The Indian Ocean end-to-end tsunami warning and mitigation system was established in the years following the tsunami and became fully operational in 2013. A...

COVID-19 pandemic has given insights into the systemic risks of a hazard, demonstrating the potency of biological hazards to not only render one sector dysfunctional but also fail the entire system. The grave and devastating impacts of the current COVID-19 call for the need to assess the state of global and national preparedness for future pandemic...

This paper elaborates on the key elements of pandemic preparedness and response. As an output of the paper authors present a comprehensive framework that is based on the epidemic and pandemic preparedness and response, special focus on early warning and multi-hazard preparedness.

5th Global Summit of GADRI: Engaging Sciences with Action 31st August to 2nd September 2021 Intercontinental Virtual Conference http://gadri.net/summit/

Covid-19 pandemic, one of the most significant humanitarian and development setbacks faced by humankind in the known history, imposes immeasurable risks to the progress of sustainable development and human wellbeing. It is a health crisis that went beyond anyone’s control, leading to a global pandemic, but on the other end, it is an economic catast...

Covid-19 has affected both developed and developing countries. Sri Lanka is no exception to other countries in the region, and was able to manage the pandemic at the initial stage with a certain element of success. The local government authorities have also contributed towards the pandemic response measures, though they do not have any legitimate d...

A year after the first human cases of Covid-19 were identified in late 2019, the global Covid-19 pandemic had already killed more than 2.25 million people and infected more than 103 million people. By late 2020, the disease caused by this novel coronavirus had resulted in devastating health, economic, social and environmental impacts on countries a...

The COVID-19 pandemic in Sri Lanka has not only posed a severe threat to human health and longevity but also cascaded into a large scale economic downturn and bleak social effects signifying the systemic nature of risks. This study examines the major economic and social effects caused by the first wave of COVID-19 in the country and the manner in w...

Purpose - The current National Early Warning System for Sri Lanka (NEWS: SL) was established after the devastations of the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004. Although early warning (EW) systems and evacuation procedures are in place, several areas which need improvements have been emphasized in recent studies carried out in the country. Therefore, this...

With the rapid increase of coastal hazards, many scientists have commended on the significance of effective coastal hazard early warning systems worldwide. An early warning system comprises four elements: detection and monitoring, risk analysis, warning dissemination, and preparedness and response mechanisms with three phases: upstream, interface a...

Social media is a prevalent and evolving communication channel that allows users to create contents, consume and share with a wider community. It is seen that there is a high potential to adapt social media in disaster risk reduction and management (DRR&M) as an advanced communication channel by facilitating communication and dissemination of disas...

Focusing on human behavioral aspects are significant in the effective delivery of Early Warnings to the community on time. In that context, the extent of trust towards the Multi-Hazard Early Warning mechanism plays a major role. This deals with delivering the warning messages related to several hazard categories and the cascading disaster risks tri...

Covid-19 has affected both developed and developing countries. Sri Lanka is no exception to other countries in the region, and was able to manage the pandemic at the initial stage with a certain element of success. The local government authorities have also contributed towards the pandemic response measures, though they do not have any legitimate d...

A year after the first human cases of Covid-19 were identified in late 2019, the global Covid-19 pandemic had already killed more than 2.25 million people and infected more than 103 million people. By late 2020, the disease caused by this novel coronavirus had resulted in devastating health, economic, social and environmental impacts on countries a...

This paper seeks to improve the conceptual understanding of the process of participation in early warning systems (EWS) through a review of participatory EWS examples in the academic literature. Specifically, the paper asks: who is involved, what responsibilities do participants hold, what activities are they involved in, and what are the associate...

The COVID-19 outbreak has caused severe disruptions in health, social, economic, and political sectors highlighting the need for focusing on the dynamic nature of systemic risks. The cascading impacts of the COVID-19 have already evidenced the systemic nature of risks related to biological outbreaks. Therefore, the emulation of a multi-sectoral app...

The COVID-19 pandemic in Sri Lanka has not only posed a severe threat to human health and longevity but also cascaded into a large scale economic downturn and bleak social effects signifying the systemic nature of risks. This study examines the major economic and social effects caused by the first wave of COVID-19 in the country and the manner in w...

The entire world is in an unprecedented dysfunction since 11 th March 2020 when the WHO declared a global pandemic as unprecedented health and socioeconomic issues emerged with the outbreak of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and its associated 53 coronavirus diseases (COVID-19). This challenging pandemic has created...

Purpose It is significant to assess the societal trust toward the new advancements in multi-hazard early warnings (MHEW) with the focus on disaster risk reduction (DRR). Based on this, the purpose of this paper is to examine the extent of societal trust behavior along with the parameters such as mode of communication and institutions of issuing ear...

This paper explores explore the main elements and key stages of epidemic and pandemic early warning through literature and identify the critical elements in order to analyse the interconnectedness between different elements in an effective epidemic and pandemic early warning mechanism

This report presents the findings of a study that was conducted with the aim of assessing the long term outcomes of the Kegalle Resettlement Program, which was designed and implemented by the Government of Sri Lanka with the technical assistance of the National Building Research Organisation [NBRO] and the participation of other relevant stakeholde...

Disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA) are two practices designed to tackle vulnerabilities to disasters. It is commonly recognized that there are several key similarities between the two and the linkages between them have been highlighted throughout recent global agendas. Although there is wide recognition that a cohesiv...

This paper discusses how the pandemic response in Sri Lanka could be more decentralized and embedded into the existing DRR framework with special focus to increase the involvement of multi-stakeholders.

This paper analyzes what are the policy challenges of disaster risk governance in the context of systemic risk with special focus to Covid19 health pandemic

Coastal hazards make significant impacts on lives and economies across the world. Asia reported the highest number of coastal hazards during recent decades. Among many initiatives introduced to minimize devastating impacts of coastal hazards, multi-hazard early warning (MHEW) has been identified as an effective way of dealing with coastal and other...

Purpose The extreme climatic events are a result of modern human lifestyles and activities. Climate literacy is one of the significant factors to redefine aggravated human behaviours related to climate change and energy efficiency. Therefore, education relevant to energy efficiency and climate change is identified as a vital requirement in the pres...

The alerts given accurately on time via Early Warning mechanisms can save thousands of lives as well as can minimize the level of damage to the Critical Infrastructure to a greater extent. With the rapid occurrence of natural hazards day by day, more emphasis on Disaster Risk Reduction strategies are concerned in order to minimize the disaster-rela...

Global human population continues to boom which consequently necessitates the provision for more buildings. Predominantly in developing countries, these buildings, built to accommodate the influx of more people comply with local and national building laws and regulations which have been outdated and do not resist to natural hazards and rapidly chan...

This book presents a collection of papers under the theme of multi-hazard early warning and disaster risks. These were selected from the presentations made at the International Symposium on Tsunami and Multi-Hazard Risks, Early Warning and Community Awareness in supporting implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030...

COVID-19 started in China and then spread to other countries. The Indonesian government officially announced the first case of COVID-19 on 2nd March 2020. Previously, on 4th February, the Ministry of Health issued a Decree of the Minister of Health number HK.01.07 of 2020 regarding “Determination of Novel Coronavirus Infection (2019-Ncov Infection)...

Simulation of flood inundation in urban areas longer important, given the magnitude of potential loss and disruption associated with non-river based, urban flooding. The complexity of the urban environment and lack of high-resolution topographic and hydrologic data compromise the development and implementation of models. Low impact development (LID...

This international symposium on multihazard early warning and disaster risk reduction provides an important opportunity to reflect upon our progress our progress to date in tackling disaster risk, but also to consider some of the challenges and opportunities that lay ahead.

The COVID-19 pandemic that has been engulfing the world for the past year has forced lives to come to a halt and created a new definition of the ‘normal’. The pandemic has portrayed the systemic nature of risk compelling most states to take sudden and spontaneous decisions in response. These decisions have curtailed the spread of the virus in the s...

This paper is based on findings of an ERASMUS+ funded Advancing Skill Creation to ENhance Transformation (ASCENT) project that aimed (2016-2019) to build research and innovation (R&I) capacity in the Asia Region 6 (as per ERASMUS+ guidelines) to enable the development of societal resilience to disasters. In collaboration with some Asian partner ins...

The interface mechanism in a tsunami early warning system (TEWS) occurs between receiving tsunami information at the country level and disseminating warning and evacuation orders to the public. Three crucial actions take place during the interface: issuing the warning, disseminating it, and ordering an evacuation. Using two case studies in Indonesi...