Engineering: issues, challenges and opportunities for development ...

ENGINEERING FOR DEVELOPMENT: APPLICATIONS AND INFRASTRUCTUREFigure 1: Number of natural disasters per year (1900-2009)Number60050040030020010001900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010Yearparedness, in emergency response, in rehabilitation and reconstructionas well as in long-term risk mitigation measures.Over the last three decades, knowledge of the intensity anddistribution in time and space of natural hazards and the technologicalmeans of confronting them has expanded greatly.Progress in the science and technology of natural hazards andof related coping mechanisms have also made it possible tointroduce significant changes in the approach to the problemof disasters. Major advances have been made in the developmentof global meteorological models and their application tolarge-scale weather prediction – enabled by the developmentof supercomputers. Although earthquake prediction is stillnot possible, considerable ability exists today to make moreaccurate forecasts, and to give warning, of several impendinghazard events. Engineers have developed technologies andtechniques that decrease the vulnerability of buildings – bethey schoolhouses or skyscrapers – and other elements ofsocio-economic life to earthquakes and hurricanes.Earthquake-resistant design has proven very effective, notablyin some instances witnessed/demonstrated during the recentearthquakes that have occurred in Kashmir in Pakistan andSichuan in China, where good constructions behaved quitewell compared to the numerous other structures that collapsedcompletely. Most experts believe that better earthquakeresistant-building designs and construction practices wouldhave greatly reduced the consequences of the earthquakesin Bam, Iran; in Kashmir, Pakistan; and in Sichuan, China. TheIndian Ocean tsunami’s death toll could have been drasticallyreduced if a tsunami early warning system, similar to the oneexisting in the Pacific, was in place and if the warning, alreadyknown to scientists, was disseminated quickly and effectivelyto the coastal populations. Warning of violent storms and ofvolcanic eruptions hours and days ahead save many lives andprevent significant property losses in some countries of Asiaand Latin America.In November 1970, the Bhola tropical cyclone left 500,000dead and 1,300,000 homeless in Bangladesh. In May 1985, acyclone of comparable strength struck the same area; the lossof life totalled less than 10,000 deaths; the death toll caused byCyclone Sidr in 2007 was just over 4,000. The difference withthe 1970 tragedy relate to improvements in hazard prediction,early warning and evacuation infrastructure in Bangladesh.Outlook for engineering and technology in disaster riskreductionEngineering and technology are among the principal driversof reducing vulnerability to disasters. Modern technologiesshould be further applied and developed that mitigate theexposure to natural hazards of the physical and built environment,and other elements of socio-economic life. One componentof the expected breakthroughs in disaster reduction,in some instances, shall be enhanced capacity to control ormodify the disaster events themselves including through engineeringmeasures. Technologies based on new methods ofcommunication, information handling and computation bringunprecedented opportunities for the hazard-prone communitiesto become better prepared.Building a culture of disaster prevention entails a great responsibilityfor all professionals active in engineering and technology.273