Natural disaster management in civil Engineering
An article By Anup D Shirhatti Dtd. 27-08-2021
One of the major aspects in civil engineering is disaster management. Disasters like Earthquake, flood, Tsunami,etc. pose great challenges to Humanity. A lot of research is done on earthquake. Earthquake is sudden shaking of the ground due to which the buildings suffer damage. Earthquakes are common near tectonic plates. However if the building is designed for earthquake it generally performs better.
Recently, we saw in Orrissa, west bengal, Mumbai during cyclones we anticipate rain and heavy wind. During Heavy wind the tall structures are some times fail as they are not able to sustain load. Generally light structures like trussed roofs, Hoardings, etc are suceptible. However concrete buildings designed for earthquake it generally performs better.
Fire is also a very important aspect, Recently we heard that a cracker factory got burnt making damage to people and property. Fire requires the exhaustible material & initiator so combustible material and initiator like short circuits, etc to be avoided as far as possible.Also since large buildings have come up, exit routes with directions is necessary also lot of times smoke kills more than fire so ventilation is very necessary. and all in all precaution is better than cure.
In last couple of years we have seen lot of news that flood occurs the downstream area gets flooded with water. Generally cities are constructed, irrigation of land all require water and during summer there is requirement of water but During monsoon when the dams get filled during short time after a threshhold the water has to be left into the Downstream area in view of safety of dam structures after giving notice to people. After the flood recedes things come back to normal but is a great discomfort.
Although Disasters are not able to be estimated prior, precautions like Earthquake design and ductile detailing in High wind and Earthquake zones is necessary. Emergency exits and ventilation and fire exhausting services are necessary. The structures must also be designed for cyclones. draught and floods occurs which are not under human control. The key is to be prepared and reconstruct.
