Coastal Construction - Determining Site-Specific Loads

This online engineering PDH course provides the design professional and others with guidance on how to determine, by calculation or graphical interpretation, the magnitude of the loads placed on a building by a particular natural hazard event or a combination of events. The calculation methods presented in this course are intended to serve as the basis of a methodology for applying the calculated loads to the building during the design process.

All coastal residential buildings should be designed and constructed to prevent flotation, collapse, or lateral movement due to the effects of wind and water loads acting simultaneously. Throughout this course, the recommendations of the engineering standards ASCE 7-10, Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures (ASCE 2010) will be followed unless otherwise noted. ASCE 7-10 includes procedures for calculating dead and live loads; loads due to soil pressure, fluids, wind, snow, atmospheric ice, and earthquake; and load combinations.