In hmolscience, Buddhi Weerasinghe (c.1960-) is a Sri Lankan disaster management consultant noted for []
Overview
In 2010, Weerasinghe, in response to the wake of 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, published “Emergence of Resilience” and “Towards a Better Assessment Framework: the Case of Wanduruppa”, wherein, via citation to thinkers including: Libb Thims, Willard Gibbs, Ilya Prigogine, Kenneth Bailey, among others, he outlined a post-disaster theory, in the wake of the 26 Dec 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. [1] The following is an example excerpt: [2]
“The concept of resilience—time to recovery, the rate of speed of return to pre-existing conditions after disturbance (engineering resilience); the magnitude of disturbance that can be absorbed before the system changes its structure by changing the variables and processes that control behavior (ecological resilience)—has increasingly gained recognition and acceptance and it is now frequently used in many fields. In the early 20th century, economists and sociologists, such as Vilfredo Pareto began to apply J. Willard Gibbs’ equilibrium criterion to the modeling of economic systems and social systems (Bailey, 1990).”
The Pareto connection to Gibbs here, to note, is a misattribution deriving from the 1935 Pareto equilibrium Gibbs equilibrium comparisons of Lawrence Henderson. [9] Some of what Weerasinghe suggests, in respect to the ability of a disaster location to return to equilibrium, was discussed by Henderson in his 1938 "Sociology 23" lectures, in terms of a social Le Chatelier principle.
Education
Weerasinghe has a PhD in something, in 2001 was a university lecturer in Sri Lanka, and in 2008 was noted national speaker on community disaster education. [2]
References
1. (a) Weerasinghe, Buddhi. (2010). “Emergence of Resilience”, in: Strengthening Resilience in Post-Disaster Situations: Stories, Experience and Lessons from South Asia (editors: Julian Gonsalves and Priyanka Mohan) (§31, pgs. 353-64; Gibbs, pg. 355). Academic Foundation, 2011.
(b) Weerasinghe, Buddhi. (2010). “Towards a Better Assessment Framework: the Case of Wanduruppa”, in: in: Strengthening Resilience in Post-Disaster Situations: Stories, Experience and Lessons from South Asia (editors: Julian Gonsalves and Priyanka Mohan) (§41, pgs. 453-68; Thims, pg. 468). Academic Foundation, 2011.
(c) 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami – Wikipedia.
2. (a) Weerasinghe, Buddhi. (2010). “Emergence of Resilience”, in: Strengthening Resilience in Post-Disaster Situations: Stories, Experience and Lessons from South Asia (editors: Julian Gonsalves and Priyanka Mohan) (§31, pgs. 353-64; Gibbs, pg. 355). Academic Foundation, 2011.
(b) Bailey, Kenneth D. (1990). Social Entropy Theory (Gibbs, 8+ pgs). New York: State University of New York Press.
3. (a) Hoole, Rajan and Thiranagama, Rajani. (2001). Sri Lanka: the Arrogance of Power: Myths, Decadence & Murder (pg. 160). University Teachers for Human Rights.
(b) Gunawardene, Nalaka. (2008). “Communicating Disasters Book Launched Among Communicators”, nalakagunawardene.com, Feb 23.
4. Henderson, Lawrence J. (1935). Pareto’s General Sociology: a Physiologists Interpretation (Gibbs, 9+ pgs). Harvard University Press.
Videos
● Weerasinghe, Buddhi. (2010). “Climate Change Policy is Divorced from Disaster Risk Policy”, SRC Sri Lanka National consultation, April. Vimeo.com.
