The New Normal for Natural Disasters
| Created: | 2013-03-05 11:35 |
|---|---|
| Institution: | Office of External Affairs and Communications |
| Editors' group: | Editors group for "Office of Communications". |
| Description: | The effects of the Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami, Canterbury Earthquake Sequence, and Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy are discussed with respect to their impact on regional and international economics, national practices for security and recovery, and worldwide energy policy. The severity and far ranging consequences of these extreme events have established in effect a new normal for natural disasters.
The lecture explains why these events require a fundamental re-thinking of the way we evaluate the risks of extreme events, as well as define and protect critical infrastructure. Examples of critical infrastructure at risk are discussed with respect to earthquake effects on the water supply of Southern California and hurricane effects on New York City. Selective lessons learned from recent earthquakes are described with respect to mitigation measures. To address the need for protection against rare, high consequence events with limited financial resources, a strategy for improving infrastructure resilience is proposed. Image courtesy of: pennstatenews from Flickr Creative Commons Tom O’Rourke is the Thomas R. Briggs Professor of Engineering in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University. He is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science. For more information please contact csic-admin@eng.cam.ac.uk |
Media items
This collection contains 3 media items.
Media items
20130117 Inaugural CSIC Lecture: Prof Tom O'Rourke : The New Normal for Natural Disasters
1,621 views
The Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (www.centreforsmartinfrastructure.com) presents the inaugural CSIC Lecture.
The lecture explains why hurricanes (Hurricanes...
Collection: Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction
Institution: Department of Engineering
Created: Tue 29 Jan 2013
20130117 Prof Tom O'Rourke interview: the New Normal for Natural Disasters
537 views
Before delivering the inaugural CSIC Lecture on 17 Jan 2013, Prof Tom O'Rourke of Cornell University was interviewed by Prof Robert Mair for a more personal take on his lecture...
Collection: Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction
Institution: Department of Engineering
Created: Mon 28 Jan 2013
Seminar 4 Lord Martin Rees
16,912 views
Collection: Adaptation to Climate Change
Institution: Judge Business School
Created: Mon 21 Mar 2016