Missing the Big Picture in Mitigating Natural Hazards

Author: Malhotra Praveen K.  

Publisher: International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering

ISSN: 1016-8664

Source: Structural Engineering International, Vol.22, Iss.3, 2012-08, pp. : 336-341

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Abstract

Natural hazards pose risk to individuals as well as to the society. People are harmed by the damage to structures they own or occupy. People are also harmed by the damage to other structures around them—schools, hospitals, shops, utilities, bridges, etc. As the purpose of engineering design is to reduce the risk, the design standards should attempt to reduce both individual and societal risks from natural hazards. The current design standards attempt only to reduce the risk to individual structures. They are not very effective in reducing the societal (aggregate) risk as will be shown in this paper. Hurricanes in the coastal US are used to illustrate the main point. A new approach is proposed to reduce the societal risk from natural hazards.