Hold Your Buildings to Higher Standards... of Resilient Design

Building codes are modeled to safeguard public health and safety, not necessarily to limit damage or maintain a building’s function after a natural or man-made disaster. As a result, performance based design guidelines have been developed allowing structural engineers to design structures to a certain structural performance objective. This can include reductions in damage, repair costs and/or recovery time. Structures designed to perform to higher than code standards will typically require more...

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What Do Structural Engineers Have to Do with Disaster Resilience and Climate Change Adaptation?

Structural Engineers have the most direct impact on the disaster resilience of new and existing buildings and their ability to adapt with ever-changing climate. Although we typically cannot impact the location of a new structure, we can often impact its orientation, shape and exposure to various risks. The orientation and shape of the structure and the location of movement joints may significantly impact how much force is transferred to the building cladding, framing and lateral system during a...

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Disaster Resilience and Sustainability White Paper

Structural engineers can make a significant contribution to the sustainability of the built environment by considering disaster resilience in their designs. Download the SEI Sustainability Committee Disaster Resilience Working Group's definitive guide and learn how to design more resilient structures. Click here and look for the link to download at the bottom of the page. Executive Summary The importance of sustainability within structural engineering has become more widely accepted in recent...

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How are disaster resilience, climate change, and sustainability related?

Sustainability has many definitions and applications. A long view of the future is one important aspect of sustainability. The Brundtland definition of sustainable development supports this by stating, “sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” The application of sustainable development pertains to three different spheres of life: economic, environmental, and social. These are sometimes...

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Sustainably Designing for Acts of God

Yup, they thought about that too... Resources are available to aid the Structural Engineer in improving disaster resilience for building structures in flood plains, coastal regions, hurricanes, tornadoes, hail, and wildfires. Flood plains For flood damage resistance, structural components should comply with ASCE/SEI 24 as well as state building codes. Coastal regions Foundations located in FEMA Coastal Zone A should be designed to the same criteria as those located in FEMA Coastal Zone V. Levees...

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