CIB promotes research and understanding on construction and society
View(s):- The construction industry in Sri Lanka is proving to be very competitive when compared to other countries with the Ceylon Institute of Builders (CIOB) being able to host the World Construction Symposium for the third time in Sri Lanka.
The 3-day ‘The Third World Construction Symposium – 2014′ was held last week in Colombo on the theme “Sustainability and Development inbuilt Environment: The Way Forward’ and in his keynote address, Dr. Wim Bakens, Secretary General, International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction (CIB), said that their main focus is on construction and the society.
The objectives of the CIB, he said are to improve the performance of research and researchers through meetings, sharing and learning to make the world’s knowledge accessible and to promote research in contribution to industry development and social growth. They would also have expert commissions on traditional operations with priority themes, student chapters, conferences, publications, journals and establishing regional offices.
CIB would adopt building regulations and control in the face of climate change, he said adding that there are natural hazards, technical hazards and social hazards. Natural hazards could be classified, as earthquakes, ground shift, cold periods avalanches, dry and hot weather, thunder/wind, wind storms and forest fires.
Technical hazards could be classified as car accidents, railway accidents, fires, etc while social hazards could be classified as epidemics, terrorism, malicious behaviour, cyber attacks and suicides. He said that for the next 20 years sustainable construction is the priority themes of CIB and the new focus would be construction and society with resilient urbanisation.
Dr. Rohan Karunaratne, President, the Ceylon Institute of Builders (CIOB), said that the symposium would help the industry stakeholders to develop an understanding of challenges faced by the global industry. He said that participation of professionals and academics from various countries in this symposium brings in various inputs from across the globe.
The companies developing technologies to meet the challenges, he said, are expected to provide new insights. He said that leading academics and students have been invited to enlighten them on recent scientific findings and said that he strongly believed that this symposium would be of great significance.
Dr. Andrew Ross, Subject Head, Surveying Built Environment, Liverpool John Moores University, speaking on the importance of sustainability said that while the term “sustainability” has become mainstream it is also one which has been misappropriated by companies seeking to appear environmentally conscious for commercial purposes.