Water Adaptive Structures

This is another area I only have a layman’s experience in, but like everyone else I have a vested interest in human structures. I’m curious because parts of my previous duties exposed me to Firefighter structural  considerations, and I believe we are being afforded new opportunities to review structural disaster resiliency as well. Such a program should be in accordance with national disaster objectives and the Uniform Building Code. I hope Convergence Conference attendees can assist me in finding further references and examples. Since I’m at the Conference I will add my name to the fascinated on this topic.

It’s becoming harder to find a place safe from flooding. This type of natural disaster seems to be very common and covers vast areas. In Washington State I’ve even witnessed Salmon swimming up highways during floods. Floods happen nearly every year here, some had even submerged Interstate 5 in the past.

We are all expecting storms of greater intensities in the future and thus we must explore habitats and building codes that will keep us warm and dry from this calamity. Recent US heartland flooding suggests we as a society should consider implementing approved practices that utilize re-useable amphibious structures, otherwise we face the possibility of replacing non floating structures that will just end up underwater again. We have several examples of human kind thriving while floating in their homes, what can we in the we learn from them? More importantly, how can the US develop and enforce building codes that incorporate amphibious designs into our disaster resistant structures? How can this be implemented and distributed?

Seismic adaptive water foundations have also apparently been explored, which are structures that someone from the PNW (like me) should take an interest in. It is hoped Natural Disaster Stratagem Investigations has a chance to examine the nuances of implementing such technology for a PNW Cascadia event.

It would appear soil liquefaction will be a major PNW problem with significant seismicity, and I look forward to learning about any remedies we can take beforehand.

Please share any experiences you have had on this topic!