Dr Akvan Gajanayake
Akvan Gajanayake’s research assessed the wider impacts of road damage during natural hazards. Through stakeholder engagement with communities affected
by natural hazards, Akvan developed a framework to measure the impact of road networks, which is providing valuable data to decision makers, as well as other researchers. To Akvan’s knowledge, this is the first research that measured the impact of road failure during natural hazards, and as such it will have practical and policy implications in recovery post hazard.
Akvan is a Waste Futures Project Officer at the City of Port Phillip, Research Fellow with RMIT University and sessional lecturer at Monash College.
His thesis is available here.
Student project
With the occurrence of natural disasters rising in frequency and intensity, the importance of conducting research on the effect of disasters on major infrastructure becomes evident. Road infrastructure such as bridges, culverts and flood-ways play an important role after a disaster since providing access to affected areas is a vital factor influencing the recovery and reconstruction activities.
