Natural Hazards and Sustainability for Residential Buildings

This engineering online PDH provides a description of the interactions, both positive and negative, between common green building practices and the robustness of residential buildings to withstand natural hazards.

The course provides an overview of existing residential green building rating systems in the United States. It describes a range of common green building practices and their interactions with structural performance and durability. Specific concerns related to seismic, wind, flood, and wildfire are discussed along with a summary table that ties several specific green building practices to design, detailing, and installation considerations to enable those practices to be implemented without compromising natural hazard resistance.

Sustainable building design concepts are increasingly being incorporated into residential building design and construction through green building rating systems. While the environmental benefits associated with adopting green building practices can be significant, these practices must be implemented in a manner that does not compromise the building’s resistance to natural hazards, such as high winds, earthquakes, floods, or wildfires.