Rethinking construction to reduce disaster risks: a guide for built environment professionals

This insight paper aims to provide built environment professionals and stakeholders with an overview of how disaster risk reduction (DRR) can be better integrated into the work of chartered surveyors and other built environment professionals in the development and management of land, real estate, construction, and infrastructure sectors. Unprecedented urbanisation, changing demographics, and changes to our climate and health crisis, such as COVID-19, are a few trends driving disaster risk and reshaping the world in which we live and work.

The paper considers the role of built environment professionals in effective disaster mitigation and preparedness and how that can significantly reduce the threat posed by natural, anthropogenic, and technical hazards of all types. It also considers how effective response and reconstruction can minimise the economic and social damage that may otherwise result from a disaster and help reduce vulnerability to future hazard threats.