Bringing Building Science and Meteorology Together for Community Mitigation

Flooding, drought, hurricanes and temperature extremes are being experienced at alarming rates across the country and at magnitudes unseen in the past. However, our existing infrastructure and buildings have not been designed to respond to these new challenges. Our new infrastructure and buildings are being designed with an awareness of these effects, but the exact performance requirements and the real pressures placed on them are largely unknown.

In 2005, on behalf of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the National Institute of Buildings Sciences Multihazard Mitigation Council conducted a groundbreaking study on the benefits of hazard mitigation. The effort found that $1 invested in mitigation related activities resulted in $4 of long-term savings.

With the changed paradigm of the impacts and frequency of hazards, most recently evidenced by the landfall of Hurricane Sandy in the northeast, a re-examination of the role of mitigation and the need to adapt the built environment to such challenges is necessary.

Only through a holistic approach engaging representatives from the building science and meteorology sectors can an effective community-based resiliency strategy develop. This presentation will explore potential pathways for implementing such an approach.