91ÊÓƵ

Meetings and presentations continue to address the challenge of seismic resilience in Oregon. The apostles of this effort convey the message that the sky is falling. The message is shrill – the Cascadia earthquake will render fuel, power, water, business and transportation resources inoperable, and buildings will collapse.

While the sky might be falling, and the predictions of the experts are accurate, the message is clearly not getting through to the public. Recent examples such as the Vernonia School rebuild and the Portland Public Schools bond measure indicate that the public is not willing to spend the additional dollars necessary to make these facilities earthquake-proof. And these facilities house our most precious resource: our children. While schools will be upgraded to code requirements, they will not be functional or available for reuse after the predicted earthquake.

Those proselytizing the resilience message should take a lesson from the sustainability conversation, which is now a mature one. Many of the advantages of sustainability have been monetized and are a routine part of projects. Schools, hospitals, government buildings and private developments tout their Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design accreditation. Indeed, LEED accreditation allows project owners to charge premiums for their facilities.

The sustainability conversation has matured and become mainstream. It is now time for the resilience conversation to rise to the same level.

The current resilience message is so daunting that the public has difficulty grasping it. It has not been monetized the same way that the sustainability conversation has been. The challenge for monetizing resilience is that the costs incorporated have a much longer return on investment. Incorporating sustainability has an immediate return; it can increase revenue streams for projects. The costs of incorporating resilience will be seen only after a major event demonstrates its value.

The resilience message must also rely on success stories from other countries. Chile is an excellent example of a country that anticipated a seismic event. After the last significant event, the country mobilized its resources and was able to carry on after a relatively short period of time. It makes resilience part of the day-to-day conversation.

Domestic success stories such as Home Depot’s already exist, and should be made part of the resilience conversation. Many high-tech companies realize that their ability to continue to exist as a business depend not only on their incorporation of resilience protections in their facilities, but also utilities. For example, without water or roads many high-tech businesses’ facilities would not be operable or accessible to employees.

The challenge for structural engineers and others is to devise resilience measures that have lower initial costs and are easier to incorporate. New materials and techniques must be developed.

The concept of incorporating resilience should be broken down into small pieces that individuals can control themselves. For example, demonstrating how residences can be improved puts average citizens in control of their own destiny.

While experts in the field fully grasp the importance of this issue, it is the communication outward that will be critical to ensuring that Oregon as a whole faces this challenge.

Christian Steinbrecher is president of Columbia River Port Engineers Inc. and the immediate past president of the Oregon Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers. He is the editor of ASCE Oregon’s Report Card on Oregon’s Infrastructure. Contact him at cfs@[email protected].