Hazards and the Built Environment: Attaining Built-in Resilience

Since the built environment and urban infrastructure provide the core framework for most human activity, it is crucial to develop them with an effective measure of resilience so they can withstand, and adapt to, the threats of natural and human-induced hazards. This book sets out to explore the challenges facing the built environment and examines the strategies that must be taken if built-in resilience is to be realised in the future and built assets safeguarded.The contributors portray a resilient built environment as providing the essential groundwork upon which the technical, organisational, social and economic frameworks so necessary for societal resilience can be founded. The range of issues covered within this book not only demonstrate the trans-disciplinary nature of the subject but illustrate that non-structural as well as structural adaptations need to be considered to reduce the threat, and impact, of disasters and that lessons can be learnt from a range of disciplines and socio-cultural contexts. Broad conclusions are drawn and seven guiding principles are provided in relation to the ways in which construction and developmental practitioners might adapt their modus operandi to better address a range of hazards.This book is essential reading for a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate students, managers and practitioners involved with the way buildings and infrastructure are planned, designed, built, managed and operated. Lee Bosher is a Research Fellow in the Department of Civil and Building Engineering at Loughborough University, UK. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and a Member of the Institute of Civil Defence and Disaster Studies.