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"Rising Seas, Resilient Coasts”: Enhancing Adaptive Capacity of Coastal Hotels in an Island Country

Part 2 Dissertation 2024
Manikya Mandakini
University of Moratuwa | Sri Lanka
The exposure of coastal built environments to climate-induced natural hazards (CINH) has increased over time. Resilience and adaptability are essential concepts in mitigating the impact of CINH. The tourism sector, a major revenue-generating industry in Sri Lanka, is predominantly situated along the coastline. However, its development has often been haphazard, neglecting the principles of resilience and adaptability, thereby increasing the industry's vulnerability to future hazardous events. The existing literature indicates a lack of focus on building attributes that mitigate hazards, underscoring the importance of assessing adaptive capacity in the tourism built environment.

The methodology employs a theoretical design framework and a scorecard method developed through a comprehensive literature review and examination of global best practices to assess building adaptive capacity. The scorecard includes 36 design strategies and 87 assessment criteria, each evaluated individually. Five case studies were physically visited, and scoring was conducted based on the presence of each criterion. The findings validate the hypothesis, indicating a moderate to low level of building adaptive capacity among the selected case studies. This confirms the potential of the scorecard as a novel decision-making tool for enhancing existing establishments and guiding pre-design phases of architectural interventions within vulnerable coastal built environments.


Tutor(s)
Indrika Rajapaksha
2024
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