Combined Flood and Wind Mitigation for Hurricane Damage Prevention: Case for Amphibious Construction
Publication: Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 143, Issue 6
Abstract
Some initiatives that are intended to mitigate extreme flood events do not fully consider the impact of less catastrophic but more commonly occurring wind-induced damage, which is a significant issue particularly in regions that are prone to hurricanes. The policies of the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) encourage homeowners to implement permanent static elevation (PSE) to increase their flood resilience. However, substantial elevation can increase a structure’s vulnerability to wind. In effect, by protecting against a rare but catastrophic flood occurrence, these houses are made considerably more vulnerable to less severe but more regularly occurring wind events and thus face an increased likelihood of wind damage. This study introduces amphibious construction as an innovative retrofit flood-mitigation and climate-change-adaptation strategy. It also evaluates the increased vulnerability to wind damage that accompanies PSE, to which amphibious retrofit construction is an alternative. The results of our investigation suggest that amphibious construction could provide a beneficial alternative solution to mitigating hurricane damage because it is a strategy that can reduce vulnerability to flood damage without increasing vulnerability to wind damage.
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Acknowledgments
Orooji and Friedland acknowledge funding from FEMA Grant Number 1603-DR-LA, Project 0039 Statewide Hazard Mitigation Community Education and Outreach Project, CFDA # 97-039 through the Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP) “Get a Game Plan” Program as a subrecipient through the LSU AgCenter.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 143 • Issue 6 • June 2017
Copyright
©2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 1, 2015
Accepted: Nov 14, 2016
Published ahead of print: Feb 16, 2017
Published online: Feb 17, 2017
Published in print: Jun 1, 2017
Discussion open until: Jul 17, 2017
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