Hurricane engineering

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Hurricane engineering is a specialist sub-discipline of civil engineering that encompasses planning, analysis, design, response, and recovery of civil engineering systems and infrastructure for hurricane hazards. Hurricane engineering is a relatively new and emerging discipline within the field of civil engineering. It is an integration of many recognized branches of engineering, such as structural engineering, wind engineering, coastal engineering, and forensic engineering, with other recognized sciences and planning functions such as, climatology, oceanography, architecture, emergency management and preparedness, hazard mitigation, and hazard vulnerability analysis. Hurricane engineering aims to minimize threats to human safety, the natural and built environment, and business processes.

As a result of the tremendous threats to life safety and economic disruptions caused by the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons, governmental organizations, such as the National Science Foundation, have recognized the need to better understand hurricane threats and further establish this discipline. In September of 2006, the National Science Board released recommendations to Congress calling for major new investments in hurricane science and engineering.

Accredited university engineering programs, such as the Louisiana State University civil engineering department, are establishing programs to better understand these catastrophic storms and their interaction with the environment. The LSU Hurricane Center has begun to offer hurricane engineering courses with the focus of educating students on the unique threats caused by hurricanes.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• NSF Hurricane Engineering and Science Recommendations
• LSU Hurricane Engineering curriculum development