Writtle University College and ARU have merged. Writtle’s full range of college, degree, postgraduate and short courses will still be delivered on the Writtle campus. See our guide to finding Writtle information on this site.

Dr Nadeeshani Wanigarathna

Senior Lecturer

Faculty:
Faculty of Science and Engineering
School:
Engineering and the Built Environment
Location:
Chelmsford
Areas of Expertise:
Built environment
Research Supervision:
Yes
Courses taught:

Nadeeshani is a senior lecturer and teaches Quantity Surveying modules to undergraduate students. She is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Her research focuses on construction economics with a particular focus on disaster management financing.

[email protected]

Background

Nadeesha joined ARU in 2014 whilst she was writing up her PhD at Loughborough University. Over the past seven years she has been directly involved in three large EU-funded research projects investigating the resilience of communities, businesses, and critical infrastructure organisations to disaster events. Nadeesha works with a number of national and international institutions to contribute to research and teaching.

Research interests

  • Construction economics
  • Cost modelling
  • Cost benefit analysis
  • Antecedent disaster loss assessment
  • Life cycle costing
  • Whole life value

Areas of research supervision

  • Mitigation and adaptation of housing stock to meet sustainability goals
  • Maintenance management of railway assets
  • Impact of location related variables in early cost estimates for international building projects
  • Climate action - transitioning to sustainable public sector capital investment planning
  • Adoption of modern methods of construction techniques in developing countries
  • Social belongingness interventions for ethnic minority students within STEM-related undergraduate programmes

Teaching

BSc (Hons) Quantity Surveying

BSc (Hons) Construction Management

Qualifications

  • Post Graduate Certificate in Higher Education, Anglia Ruskin University
  • PhD Civil and Building Engineering, Loughborough University
  • BSc (Hons) Quantity Surveying, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka

Memberships, editorial boards

  • Associate Editor for the ECE Journal of Management, Procurement and Law
  • Member of the Scientific Committee - Association of Researchers in Construction Management Conference (ARCOM) Conference

Research grants, consultancy, knowledge exchange

MEDiate (Current) - (Climate change-induced disaster risk management funded by Horizon Europe/UKRI. Capacity – Co-investigator and the task lead for the task 3.2 to investigate the impact of direct damage to buildings to various social categories.

Turnkey 2019-2022 - Turnkey was a multidisciplinary project funded by Horizon Europe to develop a Multi-sensory based operational earthquake forecasting, earthquake early warning and rapid response. Capacity - Co-investigator to lead the research work related to business case for proposed operational earthquake forecasting, earthquake early warning and rapid response system, evaluation of cost and benefits of technical mitigation interventions to reduce earthquake induced liquefaction).

LIQUEFACT was a multidisciplinary project funded by Horizon Europe Assessment and mitigation of liquefaction potential across Europe. Capacity - Co-investigator (I lead the work related to evaluation of cost and benefits of technical mitigation interventions to reduce earthquake-induced liquefaction)

RICS (available on iSurv). Title and purpose - Building Information Modelling can support effectiveness and efficiency of built-asset management for healthcare buildings. Capacity - Principal Investigator.

Selected recent publications

Wanigarathna N., Xie, Y., Henjewele, C., Jones K. (2023) Machine learning application for construction cost modelling. Journal of Construction Management and Economics [Under review]

Tom, H., Wanigarathna N., Tree, M. King, D. (2023) Investigating the financial risk of fixed price construction works contracts during extreme crisis times. Journal of Legal Affairs and Dispute Resolution in Engineering and Construction. [publisher proof stage]

SAM, G., Wanigarathna, N., and Malalgoda, C. (2023). M&E Sub-contractor Performance. [submitted]

Wedawatta G., Wanigarathna N., Vijekumara A., Tennakoon M. Macro-level insurance for financing post-disaster recovery: The case of National Disaster Insurance Policy in Sri Lanka. Climate Economics and Finance; 2023, 1(1):2. doi.org/10.58567/cef01010002

Ofori-Kuragu, J.K.; Osei-Kyei, R.; Wanigarathna, N. (2022) Premanufacture offsite construction methods – what we learned from the UK housing sector. Infrastructures 7(12):164, . DOI: 10.3390/infrastructures7120164

Wanigarathna N., Jones K., Morga M., Pascale F., Meslem A. (2022) Cost Benefit Analysis for liquefaction disaster mitigation interventions. Journal of Financial management of Property and Construction.

Bolton, S., Wedawatta, G., Wanigarathna, N., and Malalgoda, C. (2022). Late payment to subcontractors in the construction industry. Journal of Legal Affairs and Dispute Resolution in Engineering and Construction. Vol. 14, Issue 4 (November 2022)

Wanigarathna, N., Sherratt, F., Price, A.D.F. and Austin, S. (2021), "Sources and flow of healthcare built environment design evidence", Built Environment Project and Asset Management, Vol. ahead-of-print No. doi.org/10.1108/BEPAM-08-2020-0144

Jones, K., Pascale, F., Wanigarathna, N. et al.(2021) Critical evaluation of the customisation process of the UNDRR disaster resilience scorecard for cities to earthquake-induced soil liquefaction disaster events. Bull Earthquake Eng 19, 4115–4143. doi.org/10.1007/s10518-020-00993-y

Jones K, Morga M, Wanigarathna N., Pascale F, Meslem A (2020) Improving the resilience of existing built assets to earthquake induced liquefaction disaster events. Bull Earthq Eng.

Wanigarathna, N., Sherratt, F., Price, A.D.F., Austin, S.A. (2019). Design re-use: Critical application of healthcare building design evidence. Engineering Construction and Architectural Management Journal.(In review). 26 (3), 350-366. doi.org/10.1108/ECAM-07-2017-0118

Wanigarathna, N., Jones, K., Bell, A. and Kapogiannis, G. (2019), "Building information modelling to support maintenance management of healthcare built assets", Facilities, Vol. 37 No. 7/8, pp. 415-434. doi.org/10.1108/F-01-2018-0012

Wanigarathna, N., Sherratt, F., Price, A.D.F., Austin, S.A. (2016). Healthcare designers' use of prescriptive and performance-based approaches. Architectural Engineering and Design Management Journal. 12 (6).

Ruddock, R., Amaratunga, D., Wanigaratne, N. and Palliyaguru, R. (2010). Post-Tsunami Reconstruction in Sri Lanka: Assessing the Economic Impact. International Journal of Strategic Property Management. 14, 217-230.

Recent presentations and conferences

Jones, K., Mulder, F., Morga M., & Wanigarathna N. (2023) A Disaster Risk Management Decision Support System: The MEDiate Project. The proceedings of the 22nd EuroFM Research Symposium 2023, European Facility Management Network, 9-11 November 2023, Istanbul, Turkey.

Jones, K., Mulder, F., Morga M., & Wanigarathna N. (2023) How facilities managers could improve organisational resilience through data: the example of an earthquake management platform. CIB W070 Conference on Facility Management and Maintenance. 8-12 May 2023, Trondheim, Norway.

Nadeeshani Wanigarathna, Keith Jones, Femke Mulder, Barbara Borzi, Francesca Bozzoni (2023) Economic appraisal standards for planning earthquake early warning infrastructure acquisition. CIB W070 Conference on Facility Management and Maintenance. 8-12 May 2023, Trondheim, Norway.

Wanigarathna N., Henjewele, C., Jones K, Morga M, Pascale F (2022). Modelling earthquake damage repair costs: Improving accuracy for preparedness decision making. 38th Association of Researchers in Construction Management conference (ARCOM), 5-7 September 2022, Glasgow, UK.

Attwell, Henjewele, C., Wanigarathna N., Performance of rail infrastructure. 38th Association of Researchers in Construction Management conference (ARCOM), 5-7 September 2022, Glasgow, UK. Jones, K., Mulder, F., Morga M., & Wanigarathna N. (2022) Facilities management and earthquake risk reduction: the TURNkey project. Proceeding of the World Building Congress 2022, 27-30 June 2022, Melbourne Australia.

Jones, K., Mulder, F., Morga, M. and Wanigarathna, N. (2022) Improving organisational resilience to disaster events: an FM perspective. The proceedings of the 21sh EuroFM Research Symposium 2022, European Facility Management Network, 15-16 June 2022, Breda, the Netherlands.

King, D., Wanigarathna N., Jones K, Ofori, J.K. (2022). A Delphi pilot study to assess the impact of location factors for hyperscale data centres. 11th Nordic Conference on Construction Economics and Organisation. 18 -20 May 2022 Copenhagen and Malmö.

Jones K, Morga M, Wanigarathna N., Pascale F (2019) Cost-benefit analysis of liquefaction mitigation strategies. In: IABSE Symposium 2019 Guimaraes: Towards a Resilient Built Environment – Risk and Asset Management, March 27–29.