The Role of Engineers in Managing Risks from Natural Hazards

Speaker:

Robert Gilbert

13 Oct 2009

8:00 PM

Alliant Energy-Lee Liu Auditorium, Howe Hall

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Robert Gilbert is the Hudson Matlock Professor in Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. His expertise is the assessment, evaluation and management of risk in civil engineering, including building foundations, pipelines, dams and levees, and landfills. His recent research has focused on analyzing the performance of offshore platforms and pipelines in hurricanes; managing earthquake and flooding risks for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in California; and performing a forensic analysis of the New Orleans levee failures. Gilbert earned a Ph.D. in civil engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and practiced with Golder Associates Inc. as a geotechnical engineer. Sigma Xi Fall Lecture.

This talk will address the important role of engineers in managing risks from natural hazards. Topics will include establishing goals, mitigating consequences, considering system effects, including physical factors in statistical models, avoiding both too much and too little conservatism, maximizing the value of information, and communicating effectively to decision makers and the public. Applications from around the world, ranging from offshore facilities to coastal flood control systems, will be used to illustrate and demonstrate the main ideas.