CEE New Millennium Colloquium
March 20-21, 2000
Wong Auditorium, Tang Center, MIT Building E51
Wind Hazard Mitigation Challenges in the
21st Century
AHSAN KAREEM
University of Notre Dame
Recent disasters have clearly demonstrated that natural hazards inflict very high losses on the built environment. These losses coupled with economic, social, political and psychological costs of disasters to a community can leave behind deeply rooted scars on the populace that linger indefinitely. One storm event, Hurricane Andrew, inflicted the highest level of direct and indirect economic loss ever sustained in the U. S., causing housing destruction, disruption of local/regional and international businesses, and precipitation of environmental deterioration. If a severe hurricane makes a landfall in Miami, New Orleans, or New York City, the damage could reach $100 billion in each case.
The overall severe weather picture is being theorized to be compounded by an apparent increase in hurricane activity due to global climate change. This increase in hazard coupled with rapid growth in our vulnerability to hazard as evidenced by shifting population density to coastal regions clearly points at the escalating risk to life and property.
This problem is compounded by the fragmented nature of the design and construction industry and a declining capability in the U. S. academic system to create and distribute new knowledge and techniques and to educate professionals knowledgeable in wind hazard mitigation.
Lessening the impact of high wind events on homes, cityscapes and civil infrastructure, as well as coastal and offshore installations is a problem that needs to be addressed before the price becomes too great to bear.
A systematic approach to successful mitigation of wind-related hazards begins with risk assessment with a holistic approach attentive to both material and societal losses, cost-benefit analysis of mitigation measures, stricter zoning, implementation and enforcement of building codes and risk-consistent design procedures based on performance, measures to improve building envelope and structural integrity, total quality management paradigm in construction practice and preventive means of protecting structural contents to ensure resumption of business after disasters.
In order to better manage the impact of future wind related disasters, we need to better educate our graduates with rudiments of wind effects on structures. More elective courses dealing with holistic treatment of wind hazard risk and its mitigation, which is not only limited to concerns related to structural loading and failure, but also attentive to socio-economic issues are needed. Introducing in the civil engineering curriculum new developments in areas such as research, design innovations, cost-benefit analyses, risk assessment inclusive of direct and indirect economic losses, computers and information technologies will equip future cadre of civil engineers with improved capability for analyses, simulation, data acquisition, data mining and fusion, and appropriate technology transfers. Such an implementation can be conveniently made through technical elective courses and by adding material to current design and analysis courses. A more systematic approach would be to address the issue of multi-hazard mitigation, which includes wind, waves, earthquakes and floods.
By focusing on the mitigation measures and implementation of educational
initiatives summarized above we can be assured of minimizing the impact
of wind hazard on the built environment in the 21st century.