In This Issue
Engineering for the Threat of Natural Disasters
March 1, 2007 Volume 37 Issue 1
Articles In This Issue
  • Thursday, March 1, 2007
    AuthorWilliam H. Hooke

    Engineers are in the business of improving public health and safety, facilitating economic growth, protecting the environment and ecosystems, and providing for national security. And, they attempt to accomplish all of this on a planet that does its business through extreme events. The ...
  • Thursday, March 1, 2007
    AuthorJohn T. Christian

    Geotechnical conditions and design flaws both contributed to the failure of the levees in New Orleans.

    The social impacts of Hurricane Katrina have been covered extensively in the media. As of this writing (December 2006), at least four hardcover books on the subject have been published in ...
  • Thursday, March 1, 2007
    AuthorMelvyn Green

    More information on constructing simple, seismically safe buildings could go a long way toward reducing fatalities.

    Studies of recent earthquakes have confirmed that loss of life occurs principally in single-family dwellings of unreinforced masonry, usually constructed by owners or local masons ...
  • Thursday, March 1, 2007
    AuthorT.D. O’Rourke

    Resilient physical and social systems must be robust, redundant, resourceful, and capable of rapid response.

    The concept of critical infrastructure is evolving. In the 1980s, concerns about aging public works led the National Council on Public Works Improvement (1988) to focus on infrastructure ...
  • Thursday, March 1, 2007
    AuthorYossi Sheffi

    Governments must understand the resiliency and risk management strategies of private-sector enterprises.

    The 9/11 attack, the SARS epidemic, Hurricane Katrina, and scores of other disruptions have made companies more aware of the need for active risk management. Governments in the West have ...