Hydrological disasters : designing to shelter in place

Abstract

The focus of this thesis is hydrological disasters and the question it attempts to answer is: how can we design and implement housing structures along U.S. coastlines that fully withstand hydrological disasters? Priority and severity is shown by increasing trends in natural disaster occurrence frequency and damage and reconstruction costs. Cost increase is due in part because disaster events are more destructive, but also because of overbuilding and high housing density located within high risk areas. First, using several literature sources, this thesis analyzes various aspects of natural disaster response and education. This paper achieves its goal to increase awareness about the flaws in government risk management and lack of disaster awareness and mitigation design curricula amongst architecture institutions. As a design thesis, alternative housing models are presented in the later sections. The design process begins with hazard-risk identification and then outlining important building regulations. FEMA Coastal Construction Manual along with other sources were useful in understanding necessary mitigation measures required for coastal development designs. After research, a new design solution is presented. Design inspiration was drawn from similar technology and the need for innovative, resilient, and economical designs. This thesis hopes to use idealized designs to start more conversation about natural disaster defensive architecture.