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Dr Nabil Achour
BSc, MSc, PhD

Research Associate

Background

After gaining a BSc in Civil Engineering from the University of Tunis II (Tunisia), Nebil worked in private engineering and design firms on designing structures, computer aided design and trained engineers in several countries. He granted a Japanese Government Scholarship to further his education in Kanazawa University (Japan) in 2001 where he later gained his MSc, with a focus on the response of hospital lifeline systems following seismic activities, and his PhD on risk assessment within health care systems. Following his graduation he was then employed as a researcher in his graduate university, and then he joined Loughborough University (UK) as a Research Associate working on the resilience of healthcare facilities to natural disasters, climate change and sustainability as part of the Health and Care Infrastructure and Research Innovation Centre (HaCIRIC). Dr Achour joined investigation teams in several countries and was invited as a Keynote Speaker and a Guest Lecturer. His interests include disaster prevention and management, physical and social resilience of infrastructure and the built environment to natural disasters and interdisciplinary and international research groups.

Nebil is also Coordinator for the Construction Project Management Work-based Disatance Learning (CPM WBDL) MSc Programme. A collaborative programme between Heriot-Watt and Loughborough Universities.

Professional Affiliations

• Earthquake Engineering Field Investigation Team (EEFIT), (part of IStructE)
• Institute of Healthcare Engineering and Estate Management (IHEEM)

External Activities

• Guest Lecturer at Coventry University
• External Examiner at Coventry University (for PhD candidates)
• Reviewer for the International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment (IJDRBE)
• Reviewer for Natural Hazards (International Journal)
• Reviewer for the Journal of Risk Research
• Member of the Scientific Committee of the Conference on Disaster Resilience 2011 in Sri Lanka

Awards and international esteem:

1. Guest Editor for the International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment (IJDRBE).
2. Keynote Speaker at A Healthy Climate: The Implications of climate change for health and adapting healthcare services, 22 March 2011, Nottingham Conference Centre, Nottingham, UK. 
3. Best Paper Award, CIB World Congress 2010 & Emerald Publications, Salford, UK.
4. First Prize for Best Report, IMCRC Networking Event, Loughborough University, UK.
5. Keynote Speaker at the Memorial International Symposium on Earthquake Engineering in Retirement of Professor M Kitaura, 16 May 2009, Ishikawa Prefectural International Exchange Center, Kanazawa, Japan.

Broad Interests and Expertise

• Natural disasters
• Climate change
• Geohazards
• Numerical modelling
• Vulnerability assessment
• Systems interconnectivity
• Sustainability

Research Interests

• Infrastructure and Built Environment Resilience and Sustainability
• Emergency planning and disaster response
• Natural hazards; Vulnerability assessment; Risk mitigation; Disaster management
• Systems interconnectivity
• Improvement of systems resilience and assessment

Research Group

Construction Management

Current Research Activities

Title(s):

Resilience of healthcare delivery system

Summary:

Methods:

• Exploratory research
• Constructive research
• Empirical research
• Primary and secondary research
• Quntitative and qualitative research
• Modelling and Simulation

Previous Research Projects

• April 2004-MArch 2007: Estimation of malfunction of a healthcare facility in case of earthquake.
• July 2010-February 2011: Responsible sourcing advice for construction SMEs (ReAdy).
• January 2008-May 2011: Sustainability of Healthcare Infrastructure.

Other Information

1. Achour, N., Miyajima, M., Price, A.D.F & Kitaura, M. (under review) Hospital Resilience to Natural Hazards Classification and Performance of Utilities, Natural Hazards.
2. Glass, J., Achour, N., Parry, T. & Nicholson, I. (2012) “Engaging Small Firms in Sustainable Supply chains: Responsible Sourcing Practices in the UK Construction Industry”, International Journal of Agile Systems and Management (IJASM), 5(1), 29-58.
3. Achour, N & Price, A. D. F. (2011) (Eds), Optimising healthcare facilities performance in natural hazards, International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment (IJDRBE), 2(3). [Special Issue]. Accessible from: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?issn=1759-5908&volume=2&issue=3 . 
4. Achour, N., Miyajima, M., Kitaura, M. & Price, A.D.F. (2011), Earthquake Induced Structural and Non-structural Damage in Hospitals, Earthquake Spectra, 27(3), 617-634. Could be downloaded from: http://hdl.handle.net/2134/8854.
5. Achour, N. & Price, A.D.F. (2010) Resilience Strategies of Healthcare Facilities: Present and Future, International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment (IJDRBE), 1(3), 264-276. Could be downloaded from: http://hdl.handle.net/2134/8852 .
6. Achour, N., Miyajima, M, Ikemoto, T & Inagaki, J (2005) Damage Analysis of Health Care Facilities in the 2004 Niigata-ken Chuetsu Earthquake, Journal of Earthquake Engineering, JSCE, Vol. 28, 6p. (CD-ROM) (in Japanese).

1. Glass, J., Achour, N., Parry, T. & Nicholson, I. (2011) The Role of Responsible Sourcing in Creating a Sustainable Construction Supply-Chain, Proceedings of The CIB International Conference Management and Innovation for a Sustainable Built Environment - MISBE2011, 2011, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Accessible from http://misbe2011.fyper.com/proceedings/documents/31.pdf.
2. Achour, N. & Price, A.D.F. (2010) Resilience Strategies of Healthcare Facilities: Present and Future, Proceeding of the CIB World Congress 2010, May, Salford, UK.
3. Achour, N., Miyajima, M. & Price, A.D.F. (2009) Hospital Disaster Planning: An Injury Based Approach, Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Disaster Casualties, June 2009, Cambridge, UK. (CD-ROM)
4. Achour, N. & Price, A.D.F. (2009) Adaptability and Resilience of Healthcare Infrastructure to Extreme Weather Events Associated with Climate Change. Proceedings of the International Conference on Climate Change Impacts and Responses, January 2009, Pune, India.
5. Achour, N., Sheth, A. & Price, A.D.F. (2009) HaCIRIC: Organisation for Today's and Tomorrow's Sustainable Health and Care Facilities. Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability, January 2009, Mauritius.
6. Sheth, A, Price, A.D.F., Glass, J & Achour, N. (2008) Evaluating the Sustainability of Existing Healthcare Facilities. Proceedings of the 24th ARCOM Annual Conference, September 2008, Cardiff, UK, pp. 1193-1202.(CD-ROM)
7. Achour, N., Bosher, L. & Price, A.D.F. (2008) Seismic Hazard Mitigation and Construction Decision-Making: Learning Lessons for Flood Threatened Hospitals in the UK. In Imran, I. et al (eds), Proceedings of the International Conference on Earthquake Engineering and Disaster Mitigation (ICEEDM08), April 2008, Jakarta, Indonesia, pp.221-228.
8. Achour, N., Miyajima, M & Kitaura, M (2007) Response of Wheeled Equipment Without Restoring Force To Sinusoidal Wave. The 10th World Conference on Seismic Isolation, Energy Dissipation and Active Vibrations Control of Structures, May 2007, Istanbul, Turkey, pp. 28-31.
9. Achour, N., Shimazaki, T. & Miyajima, M. (2006) Experimental Study on Stability of Medical Equipment Under a Sinusoidal Pulse. The Eighth International Summer Symposium, Nagoya, Japan, 4p.
10. Achour, N. & Miyajima, M. (2006) Two Years On, What has been accomplished in Bam Healthcare Facilities. Symposium on recent Damaging Earthquakes around the World, JSCE, Tokyo, Japan, September 2009, pp.106-113.
11. Achour, N., Inagaki, J. & Miyajima, M. (2005) Japanese Health Care Facilities after the Hyogo-ken-Nambu Earthquake; Response to Recent Earthquakes. Proceeding of the Seventh International Summer Symposium, JSCE, July 2005, Tokyo, Japan, pp. 97-100.
12. Achour, N., Miyajima, M. & Fallahi, F. (2005) Lessons from the Bam Earthquake; Planning and Organization of Health Care Facilities. Proceedings of the International Conference on Geohazards, Natural Disasters and Methods of Confronting with Them, September 2005, Tabriz, Iran, 8p. (CD-ROM)
13. Achour, N., Miyajima, M. & Fallahi, A. (2005) Damage to Hospitals during the Bam, Iran, Earthquake of December 26th 2003. Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Urban Disaster Reduction (1ICUDR), January 2005, Kobe, Japan, 8p.
14. Achour, N. & Miyajima, M. (2004) Response of Hospitals after the Northern Japan Earthquakes. Proceedings of the Sixth International Summer Symposium, JSCE, July 2004, Saitama, Japan, pp. 81-84.
15. Miyajima, M., Achour, N. & Kitaura, M. (2003) Seismic Evaluation of Water Supply System in Health Care Facilities. Proceedings of the Third U.S.-Japan Workshop on Water System Seismic Practices, August 2003, Los Angeles, USA, pp.79-86.
16. Achour, N. & Miyajima, M. (2003) Performance Evaluation of Hospitals after an Earthquake, Proceedings of the Fifth International Summer Symposium, JSCE, July 2003, Tokyo, Japan, pp. 65-68.

1. Achour, N (2011), Healthcare Resilience Tool (HeaRT), Design and Decision Making to Improve Healthcare Infrastructure, In Shikder and Price (Eds), HaCIRIC Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK. Accessible from http://www.haciric.org/static/pdf/publications/HaCIRICLoughboroughRpt-Design_and_Decision_Making22.9_.11_.pdf
2. Achour, N., Buxton, D. & Price, A.D.F. (2009) Resilience of Healthcare Facilities, Health and Care Infrastructure Research and Innovation Centre (HaCIRIC) Interim Report, September 2009, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK.
3. Achour, N. (2009) Resilience of Built Healing Environment, In Price et al. (Eds), HaCIRIC BHE Final Study Report, Health and Care Infrastructure Research and Innovation Centre (HaCIRIC), Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK, pp. 119-133.
4. Achour, N. (2008) Post-disaster healthcare: What is missing? Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) Newsletter, 14(3), pp. 10-11. Accessible from http://www.adpc.net/v2007/ikm/asian%20disaster%20management%20news/2008/newsletter_10-mar_final(v2).pdf
5. Miyajima, M., Achour, N., Kosa, K., Tasaki, K., Uno, H., Salamy, M.R., Arai, Y, Fallahi, A. & Alaghebandian, R. (2005) Iran, Bam Earthquake (2003) Reconnaissance Report, December 2005, Tokyo.
6. Hamada, M., Meguro, K., Miyajima, M., Konagai, K., Takeuchi, M., Ono, Y., Yoshida, M., Ramdane, K.E., Achour, N. & Elkholy, S. (2004) Boumerdes Earthquake The 21st May 200, Japanese Reconnaissance Team, October 2004, Tokyo (CD-ROM). Accessible from: http://www.jsce.or.jp/library/eq_repo/Vol2/04/algeriareport.pdf.