Browsing by Author "Koralage, MB"

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item: Conference-Full-text
Building community resilience to economic impacts of climate change on livelihoods: the methodological perspective
(Department of Building Economics, 2024) Koralage, MB; Kulatunga, U; Ingirige, B; Sandanayake, YG; Waidyasekara, KGAS; Ranadewa, KATO; Chandanie, H
Climate change increasingly impacts the livelihoods of communities worldwide, damaging their economies. This raises the necessity of investigating approaches to build community resilience to the economic impacts of climate change. Thus, this study aims to propose a suitable methodology for investigating the economic impacts of climate change on communities using Causal Loop Diagrams (CLDs), an approach under system thinking. A systematic literature review of economic models of climate change was adopted as the best-suited secondary data collection method to identify economic parameters to be investigated. Then, following the philosophical position of interpretivism, with an abductive approach for theory development, is justified as suitable. Considering the credibility of the study, which had more than one data collection method, a multimethod qualitative study was conducted following a survey and case study research strategies. Four staged data collection was conducted following preliminary interviews, focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and expert interviews. Three data analysis techniques of content analysis, cross-case analysis and CLDs, were used to analyse the primary data. Then, the steps taken in this study to achieve reliability, validity, and generalisability are mentioned. These findings will be helpful for researchers in structuring research methodologies to apply system thinking in social science research, ensuring reliability, validity, and ethics.
item: Conference-Full-text
A Conceptual framework to manage circular economy knowledge in construction projects
(Department of Building Economics, 2024) Koralage, MB; Udawatta, N; Karunasena, G; Sandanayake, YG; Waidyasekara, KGAS; Ranadewa, KATO; Chandanie, H
Circular Economy (CE) implementation in the construction industry has gained wider attention worldwide due to its ability to minimise the negative impacts of construction industry practices. However, gaps in CE knowledge have hindered CE implementation in the construction industry. Although the necessity of Knowledge Management (KM) for CE transition has been raised in numerous studies, existing literature has a dearth of CE KM studies, which is further limited in the construction context. Thus, this research aims to develop a conceptual framework to manage CE knowledge in construction projects by investigating required CE knowledge for construction professionals. A comprehensive literature review was undertaken to achieve this aim by analysing the literature using manual content analysis. The findings of this research highlight the overlaying impact of knowledge and KM on financial, market, technology, policy, and culture-related enablers and barriers of CE implementation in the construction industry. Furthermore, the potential of knowledge on addressing context and concept-related barriers to implementing CE was discussed, and a bespoke KM cycle with seven steps has been established, highlighting the importance of the KM cycle for CE KM rather than using the KM process. Finally, a conceptual framework for CE KM of the construction industry has been developed, revealing a shell view of these concepts. These findings will be beneficial for construction practitioners to i). understand areas of knowledge to be improved, and ii). identify KM actions to initiate improvements to ensure the implementation of CE principles.