Case Study Review

By Sean Williamson

After a long 5 week holiday break, we are back in studio and back to working! For this blog I would like to discuss a book I recently read titled ‘Investing in Resilence’ written by the Asian Development Bank that discusses the importance investing in resilient structures within our cities.

Natural disasters the world have recently faced has highlighted the exposure of urban cities to natural disasters and emphasized the need for making cities resilient to disasters. Recent disasters have highlighted the vulnerability of the built assets to natural disasters and therefore it is very much important to focus on creating a disaster resilient built environment within cities.

The case study goes on to discuss natural disasters related to Asia and the Pacific. From the years 1970 to 2010, 1.7 million hazard related deaths were recorded in the region. Earthquakes and storms have been the leading cause of hazard-related death in Asia and the Pacific, together accounting for 85% of total loss of life from 1970 to 2010. With Flooding and earthquakes causing the largest direct physical losses, with floods accounting for 35% of total losses and earthquakes accounting for 32% of total losses in Asia and the Pacific. These statistics prove that any resilient building techniques used to design a structure in the United States could be applied to Asia and the Pacific to drastically reduce deaths from natural disasters. 

The reading then goes on to discuss the aftermath these natural disasters leave behind. The real toll of a disaster includes a wide range of indirect impacts and secondary effects as a consequence of the direct human and physical losses. These indirect impacts take the form of disruption of flows of goods and services stemming from the direct losses. For instance, such effects can include reduced output; higher production costs; disruptions

to domestic, regional, or even global supply chains; and even job losses.

After reading about different parts of the world and how they are effected by natural disasters, I hope my research in this field can improve the quality of lives for people all over the world.

Source: http://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/publication/30119/investing-resilience.pdf