Abstract
Catastrophic failure of solid media, such as earthquakes, landslides and avalanches, collapse of buildings, crash of aircraft, and failure of machines, cause tremendous economic and societal loss. Early in 1987, in his address at the Opening Ceremony of the Eighth World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Frank Press said “I believe there is great need, and much support can be found, to establish an International Decade of Hazard Reduction. This special initiative would see all nations joining forces to reduce the consequences of natural hazards.” Afterward, at its 42nd session, the UN General Assembly designated the 1990s as the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Science Press and Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Bai, Y., Xia, M., Ke, F. (2019). Introduction. In: Statistical Meso-Mechanics of Damage and Failure: How Microdamage Induces Disaster. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9192-8_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9192-8_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-32-9191-1
Online ISBN: 978-981-32-9192-8
eBook Packages: Chemistry and Materials ScienceChemistry and Material Science (R0)