The building and construction industry in the current technologically advanced world has changed a lot and there are various emerging trends and best practices that have been adopted by engineers worldwide to cushion buildings against natural disasters. In the recent past, there have been tremendous efforts that have been made to ensure the structural integrity of buildings and other civilian structures, which has led to the rapid evolution of international building codes. The new systems are routed upon technological advancements, with cutting-edge methods to manage to build information through the use of Building Information Management (BIM) systems. The 20th century has overseen a real evolution in terms of building safety standardization, structural integrity, and healthy interaction between the built environment and the surrounding flora and fauna. As Hire et al (2021) explain the building industry has moved away from the “brick and mortar” age where everything was being manually and poorly documented, into a more technological-centric era that is more digitized and safety is given a top priority throughout the process of construction. Additionally, technical aspects that delimitate safety and structural integrity like tensile stresses, force distribution, and the response of buildings to loading are electronically monitored and reported. Therefore, the entire building process has highly been revolutionizing, ensuring that buildings are constructed with sufficient measures to survive unseen threats posed by natural calamities.
According to the research by Hire et al. (2021), the construction industry has been greatly exposed to catastrophic accidents that have left trails of destruction in their wake, sinking both resources and human life. Disaster management has been a core area of building and construction technology, with modern building techniques emphasizing core structure reinforcement and technology to help buildings withstand natural disasters. Hire et al. (2021) further note that due to the multidisciplinary nature of construction activities, there is a need for proper safety planning to ensure that safety requirements are well laid out and there is an empirical estimation of both the prevalence and might of perennial natural disasters in future, such as hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes. Civil and structural engineers leverage various design and structural variations and commodification to improve the resilience and preparedness of the building towards the destructive force associated with natural disasters like earthquakes, fires, flooding, and the abrasive effects of wind action especially among buildings in desert countries like Dubai.
Earthquake Resistant Building Designs
Earthquakes are a natural phenomenon that occurs due to various activities such as crustal displacement of the earth as a result of widespread tectonic movements, volcanic activities, mass movements, movement of trains, and human activities like construction of overweight dams and infrastructures before the exploration of the structural integrity of the weight bearing rock, among other causes. Several notable disasters have been attributed to earthquakes. Minnegal & Dwyer (2022) document the happening of massive 26th February 2018 earthquake in the Karius range, Papua New Guinea, that led to a wide scale of damage, including airstrips, roads, waterways, suspension bridges, and notably, a liquefied petroleum gas processing facility, which caused an enormous fire. The gradient of waterways was also tampered with and most of them rerouted course towards the built-up areas flooding human settlements. The earth shocks compromised the adhesion of materials on the mountain ridges, causing massive landslides that covered buildings. The earthquake left scores dead and Minnegal & Dwyer (2022) approximate that more than 140 people died from the destruction of the earthquake. Secondary problems like weakened underlying rock due to fractures caused by the shaking made it difficult to build high-rise buildings in that area after the disaster.
The above case scenario depicts that earthquakes are a serious threat to the construction industry. This risk has been heightened by the fact that there are no accurate methods for predicting the occurrence of earthquakes since they originate from the earth’s epicenter which is a host for other processes like volcanicity. This aspect has made it difficult to discriminate the shockwaves emanating from the interior of the earth as either to be caused by volcanic activities or just earth tremors. Despite the deep learning model for predicting and recording seismic activity proposed by Muhammad et al. (2023), the results from such a model are still not generalizable and conflict with the traditional methods of detecting seismic activities. The lack of a generalizable and scalable model to monitor seismic activities has posed a problem to the construction industry since the entire world is divided into seismic zones based on past seismic activities. These seismic zones are what shape building codes and policies. For instance, active seismic zones in Japan such as Hokkaido, sanriku, the Japanese coast, and Miyagi have been zoned for specific land use purposes. According to Katsumata et al. (2019), seismic regions are controlled by land development controls that control the heights of the building, the separation distance between high-rise buildings, and the setback distance from roads and utility infrastructure like power, telecommunication lines, gas ducts, and terrestrial pipeline networks (Katsumata et al., 2019). Therefore, the building and construction industry is so much affected by seismic activities, which has limited the development of buildings in some areas, with both commercial and residential buildings being restricted to only a few floors high.
Due to the threats posed by earthquakes, engineers and researchers in the field of structural ethics and integrity have evolved various remedies to improve building safety in earthquake-prone areas. The main goal when building in pro-seismic regions is to look for an innovative way to minimize both lateral and vertical shifts as a result of the vibrations and to ensure that the net force disturbance is being distributed or carted away from the main load-bearing components that hold the structure. One pioneering design that has been employed by engineers is base separation, where flexible structural members are used to isolate the mainframe building from its foundation, allowing it to shift laterally and safely absorb forces that are generated during earthquakes. Mohebbi & Dadkhah (2018) did an extensive review of the effectiveness of various base isolation systems in their semi-active form, including how such a system would perform in the event of multiple unidirectional earthquakes with almost overlapping epicenters. To determine the average weighting parameter of the structure in terms of its force which would lead to the quantification of the performance index of the base isolation system, a scalable three-story base-isolated frame was used to numerically simulated the various strengths of the earthquake. The study concluded that a system for multiple earthquakes can be implemented using a magnetorheological (MR) damper, with alternating switchable status between passive-off and passive-on (Mohebbi & Dadkhah 2018). This method will be effective in reducing the maximum acceleration of the building, hence reducing the overall base drift.
Wind Resistance Design
The wind is a serious factor that can damage various aspects of a building. it can undermine the structure, and damage the external components through wind abrasion, where gales of wind traveling in circles pick up aggregates and other small pebbles and hurl them against the structure causing massive damage. The National Academies Press (2023) published statistics relating to the sustained wind damage due to Hurricane Elena on the gulf coast that occurred in September 1991. The wind speed exceeded 58 mph, and various cities like Mississippi, Gulfport, Ocean Springs, and Dauphin Island were severely affected. Before the hurricane, the construction authorities for Harrison and Jackson counties had drafted building codes for insuring buildings against excessive wind forces (National Academies Press, 2023). The Gulf Regional Planning Commission had passed that structures in close proximity to the water line were supposed to be significantly elevated well enough to the measured flood level. A separate study by Unanwa et al. (2000) captures the extensive damage to property in the United States as a result of hurricanes fueled by wind speed, and the ongoing wind awareness in the building and construction landscape. The research employs an object weighting technique leveraged from various factors such as cost, the fragility of the structural members, and the locational parameters of a building. The study established that in the 60–81 m/s wind domain, differences in the damage response of individual mid-rise buildings are most pronounced, and these differences continue to depend heavily on the components and connections (Unanwa et al., 2000). Bands of damage caused by winds are used to develop, wind damage forecast techniques, wind mitigation strategies, and emergency management preparation.
Engineering research has resulted in various methods for mitigating wind damage on both residential and commercial buildings, and these measures depend on the cost, the location of the structure, the building materials involved, and the structural design adopted. The durability of building materials is an essential factor when reducing wind action on a structure. Various materials respond differently to wind abrasion and corrosion, depending on their tensile strength, stress, and strain values. A broad review of construction materials and their respective wind resilience was conducted by Watson et al. (2018) and the review focused on the efficiency of specially engineered timber that is capable of resisting the wind-driven soaking effect of the rain. The study also highlighted the importance of using wind-resistant fasteners with an efficient design that does not provide an aerodynamic design that encourages the grabbing and lifting of buildings by gales of wind (Watson et al., 2018). Additionally, the study established that third-party wind ratings on materials should be discouraged from a legislative perspective, and in its place, the manufacturers be encouraged to test and rate the materials themselves at the factory.
Another pioneering research by Li (2022) emphasized the importance of effective design conditioning at the onset of a construction project which will ensure the wind is fully factored in. The researcher recommended that dead load and wind load are equally important in determining the total load-bearing capacity of a building and they should therefore be combined during design and simulation to quantitatively arrive at the governing design criteria for both residential and civilian structures. Also, engineers across the world are harmonizing wind values as aggregates and communicating them to the international community of planners, engineers, and construction specialists as a way of creating awareness against wind destruction.
Flood Resistance Design
Global warming has contributed to massive rates of floods due to environmental and climate change. Waterfront properties have been affected by the increasing tide due to overwhelming ocean volumes caused by the melting of the polar ice caps. According to the facts and figures published by Statista (2021), structural damage due to flooding in the United States surmounted 13.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2022 alone, and empirical projections indicate that this rate could grow to 25% by 2052 due to climate change and increasing negligence towards building policies. By 2052, the country will have suffered 17 billion dollars worth of damage if nothing is done to mitigate this trajectory. It is argued that in the world, the building industry has mushroomed by malpractices and irregularities, and civilian infrastructure is being set up without appropriate topography assessment using geodetic, terrestrial, and ground-based survey methods to determine the average elevations of proposed building sites in relation to the surrounding landmasses. Aleem (2018) documents that site surveying plays an important role in controlling drainage hence helping mitigate flooding and controlling water movement around building sites. The report identifies various survey techniques like GPS, trigonometric and optical leveling that can be used to manage building elevations and the information integrated into a BIM system to support building decision-making for years to come.
Apart from fixing and analyzing elevations, another way engineers can map and mitigate flooding in the construction industry is by selecting materials that are resistant to flooding. According to Zhang (2011), there is a need for civil and structural engineers to look at or clone materials that are water-resistant and proof of flooding. Zhang (2011) notes that such materials need to be flood resistant and at the same time they must conform to safety and environmental standards. Such materials can remain submerged in water for a long without giving way and without compromising the structural integrity of the building. In the past, polyvinyl papers have been used in the construction industry to prevent wetness and dampness from ascending into the building, but this technique has been outdated since it only provided a water remedy that was coming from the bottom side of the foundation, and not accounting for moisture that would perforate the building laterally from rain of the surrounding humidity. Zhang (2011) suggested that the use of steel embedded in concrete could be used to mitigate the problem of flooding since the two materials are efficient in resisting water damage since they can absorb water without changing their density or any other physical attributes.
Additionally, the two materials have the same expansion coefficients and hence can be used together without worrying about differential expansion hence cracking of buildings. Zhang (2011) also noted that some types of wood like bamboo have high resilience to water and dampness, and hence can be used for flooring and fine finishing. It is important to note that building codes need to include special regulations for buildings near riparian areas, by not allowing developers to get too close to riparian areas since such areas tend to get waterlogged in the event of flooding. While several countries have enforced these measures, others are yet to introduce land use zoning and development controls separating riparian from normal land. Apart from materials, engineers can also factor in building designs that control flooding. One of the best use practices today is the use of elevated foundations that have some significant clearance above the mean sea level. Also, engineers have invented special design features like flood vents and early warning systems. Flood vent systems help distribute water pressure in the event of flooding, while an early warning system helps warn all the building occupants of imminent flooding risk and helps them evacuate the building in time before the situation can aggravate.
Conclusion
Conclusively, safety is a priority when designing structures and the mantle of this responsibility lies in the hands of civil engineers, who have to balance all the construction aspects to come up with ethical designs that can resist various tests of nature such as floods, earthquakes, and wind. Notably, the construction industry has progressively moved from the analog record-keeping methodologies that were prone to errors and absolution into the Building Information Management (BIM) systems that help consolidate all building information together for decision-making. This system is unique because aspects like tensile strength are electronically monitored and reported through an augmented system. Building codes must be evolved to govern the construction industry to ensure that buildings and civilian structures are ethically built with the safety of the occupants in mind as well as the future projection of natural calamities such as flooding, earthquakes, and wind abrasion. To help construct safe buildings in the seismic zones, engineers have evolved efficient building designs like base separation, the use of flexible structural members, and other innovative designs to make buildings more tolerant of earthquakes. On an overall score, the global building and construction industry has made significant progress in terms of building safety and preparedness against natural disasters, through evolving building designs that are highly resilient to flooding, wind, and earthquakes. With more evidence-based research in this sector, it is possible to have more structural innovations to mitigate natural disasters in the construction industry, making it possible to design, oversee, build, and maintain buildings with high structural integrity.
References
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