Communicating in Civil Engineering

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Tom Siller, Civil Engineering Professor

In earthquake engineering, you might write policies about the types of buildings that should be built in a particular municipality. These "sets of requirements" determine which buildings will survive the quake and the amount of damage they can withstand. In other words, you can design a building to withstand any earthquake. However, decisions are made that some buildings may collapse while others won't. Policies state which classes of buildings are built so that they can fall down during an earthquake and which classes of buildings need to survive an earthquake. For example, a hospital should be built so that it can withstand any earthquake. This way, it won't have to be repaired afterwards. On the other hand, an office building should be built so that it will not collapse, but it may take more damage than the hospital. A decision may be made that after the quake, an office can be torn down and built again.