Risk-Based Assessment of Sustainability and Hazard Resistance of Structural Design
Publication: Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 30, Issue 2
Abstract
This paper provides a risk-based assessment of the sustainability of structural design alternatives in hazard-prone regions. Little systematic research has been done to assess the economic, social, and environmental cost of sustainable construction in relation to hazard resilience or the impacts of hazard-resilient design on system sustainability. However, some studies have suggested that green construction practices might compromise the objective of the design of hazard resistance of a building, whereas others have highlighted that the impacts of natural hazard damage are unsustainable, given the costs of reconstruction and threats to public safety, among other consequences. This paper extends the performance-based engineering paradigm beyond traditional metrics of structural performance to quantify such sustainability metrics as monetary cost, embodied energy, emissions, casualties, and downtime. The upfront environmental and economic costs of sustainable design alternatives are then compared with hazard-induced risks, considering uncertainties stemming from the hazard, damage assessment, or sustainability analysis. The sustainability analysis is illustrated for both bridges and buildings sited in seismically prone regions, revealing the potential trade-off in upfront costs and lifetime sustainability attributable to hazard exposure.
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Acknowledgments
The first author would like to acknowledge the contributions of Citlali Tapia for technical assistance with the execution of the bridge case study. The second author thanks graduate students Ruiqiang Song and Carley Feese for their assistance in the building case study. The research presented in this paper was supported, in part, by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant No. CMMI-1055301 and CMMI-1100423. This support is gratefully acknowledged. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 30 • Issue 2 • April 2016
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 19, 2014
Accepted: Nov 9, 2014
Published online: Dec 22, 2014
Discussion open until: May 22, 2015
Published in print: Apr 1, 2016
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