Multi-hazard Approaches to Civil Infrastructure Engineering: Mitigating Risks and Promoting Resilence

Abstract

Natural and anthropogenic hazards cause billions of dollars of damage every year around the world, as well as several thousand fatalities or injuries and other societal impacts. While the frequency of damaging natural events is expected to increase due to climate change, new engineering solutions can help mitigate their impact and accelerate the recovery process. This volume is dedicated to the critical issue of creating successful solutions to multiple hazards. It examines a range of specific topics, including methodologies for vulnerability assessment of structures; new techniques to reduce structural demands through control systems; instrumentation, monitoring, and condition assessment of structures and foundations; new techniques for repairing structures that have suffered damage during past events, or for structures that have been found in need of strengthening; development of new design and construction provisions that consider multiple hazards; novel considerations toward resilient infrastructure; as well as questions from law and the humanities pertaining to successful management of natural and anthropogenic hazards. This book contains contributions from some of the world’s leading experts in each of the fields covered by the edited volume.

The volume is organized into six main parts, after the introduction (Part I). Part II focuses on probabilistic methods and formulations needed for risk analysis. Part III starts the discussion on multiple hazards, by presenting recent advancements in earthquake engineering and then introducing concepts on disaster resilience and optimization. Part IV begins with a discussion of fires following earthquakes and then continues with other contributions specific to fire and blast, including both modeling and testing. Part V summarizes recent advances related to wind hazards, specifically considering tornadoes and hurricanes. Part VI focuses on geo-hazards, including the modeling of physical phenomena, condition assessment, and treatment of uncertainties. Finally, Part VII looks more generally at the impact of extreme events on society by discussing risk management, strategies for resilient communities, and new policy approaches. While each of Parts III–VI is primarily focused on a particular hazard, many of the parts include at least one chapter that looks beyond the specific hazard by bringing in considerations from a multi-hazard perspective and related to overall infrastructure resilience.