Impact of Natural Disasters on Construction Projects: Strategies to Prevent Cost and Schedule Overruns in Reconstruction Projects

The number of natural catastrophic events has increased remarkably in recent decades, and the resulting challenges of construction projects have increased even more. It is imperative to recognize these challenges and employ suitable strategies to mitigate them to avoid project failures, which is the basis of this study. To become more knowledgeable about this subject, more than 100 scholarly articles, including peerreviewed papers and other types of publications, were reviewed and a list of eleven challenges was developed. The next step was to identify the management strategies that could be applied to overcome the challenges. The outcomes from this study concisely help decision-makers and project managers allocate their resources wisely after a disaster, implement construction activities more efficiently, and achieve higher rates of productivity while reducing the consequences of disruptive events. © 2020 The Authors. Published by Budapest University of Technology and Economics & Diamond Congress Ltd Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of the Creative Construction Conference 2020.