Healthcare Infrastructure, Resilience and Climate Change: Preparing for Extreme Weather Events

This book highlights the vulnerability of healthcare buildings in the context of climate change-triggered extreme weather events (EWEs) and the case for mitigation. With a concise discussion on climate change and its consequences in the form of such events, a cost model and equations that register losses and help quantify them are then presented. The model can be used to estimate the significant potential loss that might occur during an EWE and help healthcare facilities prepare for them.

The book analyses cases of major EWEs in India over the last two decades and collates the data available into various categories. Through this research the authors have developed a framework which assists healthcare facilities with a detailed calculation of value losses, both tangible and intangible. The framework can be used to assess the impacts on healthcare buildings in terms of disruption of services so that appropriate decisions related to the resilience in healthcare planning can be taken into consideration. Thus, the book is useful for directing planning and design processes aimed at continuity of service and building resilience to perform in the face of natural disaster and extreme weather.

The purpose of this book is to prompt facilities planners and healthcare facilities to prepare to respond to EWEs through the planning and design process in a rational manner. Built infrastructure professionals such as architects and engineers, policy makers, and academics with an interest in disasters, risk and climate change will all find this book to be key reading.

Virendra Kumar Paul is faculty at the Department of Building Engineering and Management at the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi. Associated with the department since 1985, his areas of interest in research and academia include construction project management and fire safety in buildings. His research is also focused on the study of the impact of disasters and vulnerability and advocacy for safe design practices. He is a well-published author in renowned high-impact journals from publishers such as Springer, Taylor & Francis and UGC Care and other peer-reviewed journals. He has served on numerous committees steering the development of public healthcare and educational campuses.

Chaitali Basu has served at the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, since 2016 before she moved to the University of the West of England, Bristol, UK, to serve as a senior lecturer in quantity surveying and construction technologies. She is an alumna of BITS Mesra, SPA Delhi, Oxford Brookes, UK, and a BHAVAN scholar (Michigan State University, USA). Her academic interests include building performance evaluation, building surveying, and construction project management.

Abhijit Rastogi is faculty at the Department of Building Engineering and Management, School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi. Having been a part of academia for more than eight years, Dr Abhijit is extensively involved in research and teaching. His areas of academic research include construction management, risk management, building materials, and skill development.

Sumedha Dua is a research scholar who has been associated with healthcare infrastructure and educational projects. Her areas of interest include energy efficiency, disaster management, resilient healthcare design and development, construction management, and sustainability. She is pursuing academic research in risk assessment of healthcare infrastructures in extreme weather events.