Investment in the built environment, including private and commercial real estate, and civil infrastructure development is an important driver for our economy. Each year, the United States has roughly $2.1 trillion dollars invested in construction, representing hundreds of thousands of jobs and income. Unfortunately, recent trends in natural disaster losses, exceeding as much as $500 billion per year, are a growing concern in the financial community.
Recent efforts by ASCE, ASTM, and other standard setting bodies include working with public and private sector entities to increase resilience to natural hazards for both horizontal and vertical development. These efforts have demonstrated that technical solutions to reduce risk through design and operational change is both feasible and cost effective. Yet resistance to change in practice, especially in the adoption of hazard-based building codes based on civil engineering standards produced by ASCE and other bodies, remains a significant impediment.
Through a facilitated discussion with leaders in the engineering, risk management, and financial sectors, the panel will explore how ASCE and the civil engineering community could work to support technical solutions that reduce future risk to natural hazards and thus promote a more resilient built environment.
