The US and Japan Cooperative Program in Natural Resources (UJNR) Panel on Wind and Seismic Effects (WSE Panel) is a formal government-to-government mechanism for cooperation in earthquake and wind effects and hazard mitigation between these two countries. The panel established its charter in 1988 and its five-year strategic plan in 2001. At its annual meeting in May 2006, the panel developed its second five-year strategic plan for 2006-2010 including the Task Committee B, entitled "Next Generation Buildings and Infrastructure Systems," The Committee proposed a joint workshop, as is proposed here, to be focused on "High-Performance Buildings for Occupant Safety, Security and Health (wind, earthquake, fire and indoor air quality)".
It is well understood that to advance the performance of buildings emerging materials and technologies (both hardware and/or software systems) can play a significant role. For individual hazards, it has been shown, to various degree, that advanced technologies (high performance construction materials, sensing and actuating systems, etc.) can be an effective approach to reduce the damages of structures through R&D efforts of individuals fields of earthquake engineering, wind engineering, etc. Research activities for multiple hazard resilient buildings, however, are still in their infancy, due to the fact that there are too many elements of different characteristics to be integrated and too many unknowns in each individual element. There is actually no agreement today among interested researchers on how to approach the problem systematically. Yet, multi-hazard resilient buildings for occupant safety, security and health are an important societal demand. This workshop intends to map out a 5-year cooperative research program on how to best develop and/or utilize advanced technologies for multi-hazard resilient buildings (new or existing) by considering one or two real-world buildings. The high intensity hazards to be considered, in addition to the normal loading conditions, are earthquake, wind, fire and indoor air quality. There is a considerable challenge to integrate these knowledge areas, each has different characteristics and affects occupant safety, security and health in different ways, to effectively improve the living conditions and increase the performance of the buildings. The development of early career researchers is emphasized by inviting them to take part in this workshop because the research horizons to be considered are complex and of long term duration.
Broader Impact:
On the broader perspective, although US and Japan have continued cooperative efforts for many years on wind and seismic effects, only in the current five-year strategic plan is the "Cluster" concept emphasized. The "Cluster" concept involves integration of multiple expertise to accomplish a generic approach to Multi-Hazard Risk Reductions for Building Systems". This new strategic approach will open up many new research frontiers and application opportunities.
