Coastal Construction Manual - National Ready Mixed Concrete ...

SITING 4
information should be combined with knowledge about the site and local conditions to estimate future
hazard effects on the site and any improvements.
Designers should consider the effects of low-frequency, rare events (e.g., major storms, extreme water levels,
tsunamis, earthquakes), and multiple, successive lesser events (see Figure 4-6). For example, many of the
post-storm damage assessments summarized in Chapter 2 show that the cumulative erosion and damage
caused by a series of minor coastal storms can be as severe as the effects of a single, major storm.
BEFORE HURRICANE BERTHA
Figure 4‐6.
Cumulative effects of
storms occurring within
a short period at one
housing development in
Jacksonville, NC,
July–September 1996
SOURCE: JOHN ALTHOUSE,
USED WITH PERMISSION
AFTER HURRICANE BERTHA
AFTER HURRICANE FRAN
4.4 General Siting Considerations
It is always best to build in lower risk areas. However, when building in more vulnerable areas, a variety of
factors must be considered in selecting a specific site and locating a building on that site. These factors are
outlined in Figure 4-1 and include:
Building code and land use requirements
Local floodplain management requirements adopted to participate in the NFIP
COASTAL CONSTRUCTION MANUAL
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