A Framework for Performance-Based Engineering in Multi-Hazard Coastal Environments

Abstract

The devastation inflicted on civil infrastructure by natural disasters has the potential to result in numerous deaths and huge economic losses. Natural hazards such as hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, and tornadoes have led to extreme property damage and the loss of many lives. While the occurrence of these hazards is beyond our control, novel structural engineering approaches to design and construction have the ability to reduce their consequences. Structures along the coast are particularly susceptible to a variety of natural hazards. Coastal construction practices, however, as they exist today, may not be sufficient to resist their extreme loads. Design and construction in a coastal environment must consider the effects of multiple hazards concurrently rather than focusing on each hazard in isolation. Multi-hazard engineering strategies can be incorporated into design to enhance the inherent resilience and improve the robustness of structures. Current design approaches also lack a probabilistic backbone that can be used to relate specific structural performances with different hazard intensities. Performance-based engineering (PBE) allows for a structure to be designed for specified levels of performance under particular hazard scenarios. Currently, arbitrary importance factors are integrated into design to account for uncertainties in hazards and their loads. In comparison, PBE uses direct analysis procedures to predict the performance of a building under hazard loads over the entire life of the structure. The probabilistic basis of PBE allows future changes in hazard frequencies and intensities due to global climate change to be taken into account. An integration of multi-hazard engineering with PBE promises to significantly improve structural reliability for a wide range of loading scenarios. A possible methodology for assessing response of structures in coastal environments vulnerable to winds, storm surge, tsunamis, and earthquakes is presented.