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7 Conclusions and Recommendations This chapter summarizes the issues, conclusions, and recommendations developed from the discussions in the previous chapters. The Pane! on the Assessment of Wind Engineering Issues in the United States concludes that the key to implementing these recommendations is the immediate establishment of a National Wind Science and Engineering Program. This national program, enacted by the U.S. Congress and backed by a sustained budgetary commitment, would revitalize wind-hazard research. To minimize human suffering and property losses in the future, it is important to encourage the professional community to proceed with research, to develop effective technology transfer methodologies, and to implement existing technologies. This program must be established now to reach the goals set forth herewith with a minimum funding level of $20 million per year for the first five years. The following focus areaslisted as key needsand recommendations are derived from the previous chapters: WIND HAZARDS AND RELATED ISSUES Key Needs 1. To provoke a national awareness of the imminent hazard of wind- related disasters, especially upon vulnerable coastlines. 2. To address the nation's wind vulnerability through a federally coordinated plan to pursue necessary wind research and to apply this expanded knowledge base at the local level. Recommendations 1. Establish a National Wind Science and Engineering Program (NAWSEP) to fund and coordinate research in wind science and to transfer this knowledge to local communities, code bodies, the design professions, the construction industry, and other user groups. 2. Through the NAWSEP, encourage the development and continuous refinement of research-based design standards and building codes, which together are the most powerful and direct tools to reduce the impact of wind hazards. 3. Promote the adoption and enforcement of such standards by a vigorous program of informing local governments of their vulnerability to wind hazards cog
Conclusions and Recommendations 109 4. Address the problem of cost-effective retrofit of existing structures to make them wind safe through technical research, as well as through communication to property owners about the soundness of such investments in terms of avoided losses. 5. Encourage innovative community land-use planning to locate structures away from areas most vulnerable to wind, acknowledging that this is often a costly and controversial mitigation strategy. NATURE OF WIND Key Needs I. To improve the verification of, and the data base for, extreme wind events, including interdisciplinary quick-response assessments of damage from ground and aerial surveys, and to maintain a quality publication on storm data, including reasons for F-scale assignment to a given event. 2. To quantify, through actual data analysis and mode! simulations, the relative roles of wind, pressure drop, and flying debris in overall damage production by extreme wind events. 3. To improve models and techniques for warnings and forecasts (0 48 hours) of extreme wind events (such as tornadoes, downbursts, and hurricanes). 4. To provide for the archiving of digital data from new observing systems such as Next-Generation Radar (NEXRAD), Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS), and profilers, especially for near-surface wind. Recommendations 1. Augment the climatology of the United States through improved Observations and instrumentation, digital archival programs for current and new observing systems, and new quality control and analysis techniques. 2. Establish an extreme winds data base through improved and expanded instrumentation, using field programs (e.g., STORM) to augment the existing national observing network. 3. Improve wind-hazard forecasting through the development of better numerical prediction models coupled with hazard-specific technique development. University and private sector collaboration could be sought at Expenmental Forecast Facilities at National Weather Service offices. These facilities should include an evaluation program for all models and techniques developed. 4. Maintain and expand postdisaster quick-response surveys for forecast validation, impact assessment of wind hazard, and wind measurement retrieval and intercomparisons with damage assessment. The effort should
110 Wnd And the Built Environment also include follow-up research on data from damage surveys to refine estimates of the distribution and probabilities of peak wind speeds. WIND ENGINEERING Significant advances have taken place over the past three decades in the field of wind engineering. Much of this research effort has been directed toward tall buildings, long-span bridges, and other major developments funded directly by end users, and such research should continue. However, it is time to focus attention on those problems that have a greater impact on society. Key Needs I. To implement existing methods to improve the performance of nonengineered buildings, such as single-fam~ly dwellings, light industrial buildings, and small commercial structures. Specifically, to refine w~nd-Ioad requirements as put forth in codes and standards so that design practice and construction of nonengineered structures are put on a more scientific basis. 2. To enhance the ability to conduct state-of-the-art wind research and computer modeling by upgrading experimental facilities and making use of the increasing computational abilities of computers. 3. To address the economic and societal impact associated with the dispersion of pollutants, the urban wind environment, the tapping of wind energy, and soil erosion. Recommendations I. Pursue research to quantity the benefit/cost ratios for various strategies to mitigate wind damage. 2. Use the results of quick-response postdisaster studies to assess the performance of structures and lifeline facilities during severe winds and to validate or improve design methodologies. 3. Enhance risk analysis procedures for structures subjected to extreme winds. 4. Improve codes and standards by researching wind effects through wind tunnel testing and full-scale measurements. 5. Conduct research on building structures to develop efficient frame and ciadd~ng systems to resist wind Toads while decreasing constructed cost. 6. Develop improved physical simulation facilities with more quantitative measurement capabilities for downbursts, tornadoes, and hurricane winds. 7. Develop numerical modeling capabilities using supercomputers to simulate windstorms, w~ndflow around structures, and associated w~nd-Ioad effects. Improve measurement capabilities and assessment of the performance
Conclusions and Recommendations 111 of the built environment using recent developments in sensor technology (e.g., piezopolymers and advances in computer architecture, intelligent signal interpretation, and processing and information storage and retrieval capabilities). 8. Develop experimental facilities for w~nd-Ioad measurements of full- scale structures and assemblages. 9. Develop more innovative and quantitative procedures for studying dispersion of pollutants (including of} spills and dispersion in air). 10. Study problems associated with offshore wind environments and wind energy. MITIGATION, PREPAREDNESS, RESPONSE, AND RECOVERY Key Needs I. To mitigate life and property Tosses by improving building codes and especially by encouraging their wider adoption and enforcement; to develop economically feasible land-use management practices. 2. To improve emergency preparedness, response, and recovery, especially lifeline systems protection and restoration through special attention to hazard warnings, evacuation, sheltering, and public education. 3. To reduce the current fragmentation and diversity of disaster planning and emergency response. 4. To more closely link disaster recovery to postdisaster mitigation measures such as retrofitting, land-use planning, and building code enforcement. Recommendations I. Encourage research to be multidisciplinary and to study the linkages among mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. 2. Use quick-response field studies to assess public/official response and preparedness. 3. Adopt and implement applicable mitigation measures (codes and standards and land-use planning) at the local level, including effective enforcement of these measures through insurance incentives or other methods; conduct research into government and business recovery planning to identifier policies and institutions that discourage future mitigation efforts such as retrofitting, land-use planning, and building code enforcement. 4. Develop and utilize new technology for improving local warrung systems. 5. Study the epidemiology of death and injury due to wind hazards with a focus on determining the relationship of structural and nonstructural `damage to occupant behavior and casualty levels.
112 Wind and the Built Environment 6. Increase research into hurricane evacuation and refine the criteria for the selection of safe public shelters. EDUCATION AND TECHNOLOGY lllANSFER Key Needs 1. To institute a major thrust in w~nd-engineering education and training, including other closely related disciplines such as meteorology and sociology. 2. To begin a coordinated effort to transfer the developing knowledge base in wind engineering through traditional and Innovative means. In this regard, the most important needs are improved education and knowledge transfer to both developers and users of codes and standards; a clearing house for wind-engineering literature and data; and the periodic compilation of recent wind-engineering research activities. Recommendations 1. Enhance continuing education for design and construction professionals to improve wind analysis, design, construction, and inspection by creating seminar series, short courses, television courses, v~deo-based classes, interactive courseware, intelligent computer-aided instruction, and un~versity/industry internships and by circulating research abstracts. 2. Revitalize undergraduate and graduate education in wind engineering by widening the availablity and breadth of coursework and by providing 20 competitive undergraduate fellowships for pursuing wind-engineenng programs. 3. Educate decision makers at the national, state, and local levels through bnefings, workshops, and personal contact on the imminent risks of wind hazards and the benefits of research and development. 4. Promote media programs, in nontechnical language, to educate the public on the likelihood and consequences of wind hazards and on effective mitigation measures. 5. Encourage active participation by design professionals in the formulation of codes pertaining to w~nd-Ioad provisions, and develop automated w~nd-related codes and standards in a computer data base. 6. Establish a w~nd-engineering information center for archiving pertinent materials dealing with all aspects of wind engineering, including laboratory- and full-scale data, damage assessment information, and software; develop, using the latest technology, knowledge-based systems for real-time problem solving related to meteorological predictions of extreme winds, risk, and damage assessment and decision making for hurricane evaluation.
Conclusions arid Recommendations 113 COOPERATIVE EFFORTS Key Needs I. To maximize research efforts by sharing findings and conducting cooperative work. This cooperation should involve interaction among academia, industry, international associations, and the news media. Such cooperative work should be approached on a multidisciplinary and multihazard basis. 2. To increase support from the private sector for w~nd-engineer~ng research. Recommendations I. Encourage the building industry and industrial manufacturers to financially support nonproprietary wind research and development uroiects within both academic and industrial laboratories. 2. Pursue joint international wind research efforts (e.g., wind charactenzation and structural response) under the rubric of the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction with a special emphasis on developing a mutual research program with Japan, whose state-of-the-art research facilities provide important opportunities for study not available in the United States. 3. Actively solicit industry involvement in developing building codes and standards and encourage U.S. input to the development of the International Standards Organization's code on wind Toads. 4. Encourage the organization of and participation in national, regional, and International seminars, conferences, symposia, and workshops to disseminate research findings. 5. Fund active participation in post-w~nd-disaster studies for mutual sharing of postdisaster survey findings and lessons learned. ~ - - r -~-
