In California, resilient design has emerged as the critical focus of structural engineers' efforts with the goal of truly protecting our communities from seismic events and other disasters. Resilient design includes pre-disaster mitigation in the forms of community initiatives, mandatory retrofits, and planning for post-disaster recovery. To implement resilient design, collaboration between engineers, city planners, architects and the public is necessary. The exact role of the structural engineer varies by project and location, but the engineer can always serve as a key technical advisor for resilient design. The ASCE/SEI Sustainability Committee's Disaster Resilience Working Group (DRWG) has been actively tracking resilience strategies, codes and initiatives to clarify the role of the structural engineer within the realm of resilience. Very often resilience operates beyond the scope of structural engineering codes and standards. Therefore, incorporation of resilient design very often is beyond the typical scope of work of the structural engineer. While a more robust structural system may sustain less damage during an earthquake, the remainder of the building systems (i.e. water, power, gas) need to be operational for the building to be occupied after an extreme event. In addition, if the neighboring buildings are heavily damaged, very often the region will be cordoned off or restricted due to the threat of collapse of the damaged buildings. Therefore, a building could be undamaged, but not occupiable due to the surrounding buildings' performance in an earthquake or extreme event. How does the structural engineer assist an owner and a design team to provide a resilient building? Traditional metrics of sustainability have in the past provided benefits to using limited amounts of materials in a building and may be considered to work against the goal of resilience to build more robust building systems. However, when reviewing performance across a building's service life, sustainability and resilience goals can be seen to work together. This paper aims to provide examples and context for the role of the structural engineer in promoting resilient design. This goal is accomplished by summarizing resilience efforts to date in the context of structural engineering. This will include initiatives around the United States, strategies, and examples of successfully implemented city codes/mandates.
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