University of Delaware
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

CIEG 467 Engineering for Disasters
Engineering Solutions for Mitigation and Recovery from Disasters/Crises

Semester: Spring 2008

Credits: 3

Meetings:  Mondays, 1:00-4:00pm, Dupont Hall 140. The three-hour block is intended to allow time for presentations, guest speakers, work sessions etc. There will be a short break in the middle of each class.

Schedule

The project oriented course will focus on important engineering problems presented to the practicing engineer and planner that must be solved in order to reduce the impacts in communities from natural and man made disasters. The class will be broken up into teams of approximately equal size and each team will work on a specific disaster type. The first half of the semester will be spent on developing a mitigation action plan and projects that would reduce the losses from an event. The second half of the semester will focus on developing projects that will speed recovery from the event. Each team for each disaster will be given a set of parameters for the event at the beginning of each semester segment. Projects will focus on scenarios relevant to the Mid-Atlantic region.

Proposed Projects:

• Hurricane/Coastal flooding of Delaware beaches
• Seismic event in New York City
• Terrorist attack in a Baltimore train or highway tunnel

Topics:

• Risk and risk perceptions
• Mitigation concepts
• Emergency evacuation
• Building design and codes important to disaster resistance
• Restoring utilities
• Environmental impacts (short term and long term)
• Who are the players in a disaster
• Who pays
• Rebuilding/recovery
• Security
• Damage assessment (Repair versus replacement)
• Impacts on different systems

Course Objectives:

• Introduce students to the concepts and terminology related to disasters, disaster management including mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery.
• Develop an understanding of the organizations involved and their roles in disaster management.
• Meet people in the fields related to disaster management to get an idea of how their organizations contribute to reducing losses from disasters
• Understand the role engineers play in disaster management and mitigation.
• Gain hands-on experience developing a mitigation action plan and projects and a recovery project plan related to a hypothetical (but potentially real) disaster in the mid-Atlantic region.

Course Coordinator:

Bill Coulbourne
703-850-2891 (cell)
360H DuPont Hall
coulborn@udel.edu

Course Requirements::

The two reports and presentations given just prior to the spring break and at the time of finals are the most important parts of this class. A separate handout documents the project requirements.  In addition there could be homework assignments and brief writing assignments for each of the guest speakers. The requirements for writing assignments are outlined in separate handouts.

Grading Scheme:

• Homework, questions, and writing assignments – 20%
  
• Project – 80% (40% each for the mitigation report and for the recovery report)
  
• Report Outline – 5%
  
• Report – 20%
• Presentation – 15%

Resources:

Websites

• http://www.dgs.udel.edu/Geology/Earthquakes/index.aspx
• http://www.fema.gov/hazard/dproc.shtm
• http://mceer.buffalo.edu/
• http://www.swc.dnrec.delaware.gov/Flooding.htm
• http://www.swc.dnrec.delaware.gov/CoastalConsBeachPres.htm
• http://dema.delaware.gov/
• http://www.udel.edu/DRC/
• http://www.colorado.edu/hazards
• http://www.usace.army.mil/public.html
• http://www.saw.usace.army.mil/floodplain/Hurricane%20Evacuation.htm
• http://www.nap.usace.army.mil/HES/Delmarva/index.html

Reports

• American Public Works Association “Emergency Management: Writing Your Emergency/ Disaster Plan,” Kansas City Missouri, September 2005.
• American Public Works Association “Emergency Management: Field Manual for Public Works,” Kansas City Missouri, September 2005.
• Department of Homeland Security, Emergency Preparedness and Response could Better Integrate Information Technology with Incident Response and Recovery, Office of Information Technology, September 2005. http://www.dhs.gov/interweb/assetlibrary/OIG_05-36_Sep05.pdf Accessed 2/7/06.
• World Trade Center Report, National Institute for Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland. http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/releases/wtc_briefing_april0505.htm http://wtc.nist.gov/
• New Orleans:  Preliminary Report http://www.ce.berkeley.edu/~inkabi/KRTF/CCRM/levee-rpt.pdf

Online Resources
Web courses - FEMA and emergency management. 
http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/Programs/
Click on any course to learn more.  Of particular interest is the "Professional Development Series," which can be found under "Featured
Programs"

Scholarly Expectations:

The basic assumption of this course is that learning results from a continuing process of rational discourse.  Within the course there are both opportunities and responsibilities. The course is largely one of research since there is not sufficient class time to cover all the many aspects of disasters and engineering solutions for them that would be required for a complete and practiced understanding.  In this course you have the opportunity to learn.  Your responsibilities are to maximize your learning from the course (i.e., improve your intellectual understanding), maximize and assist in the learning of your classmates, and to apply what you learn to your work.  To take advantage of the opportunity and to meet your responsibilities you are to

• Master the basic concepts, theories, methods, and heuristics.  You are expected to know a great deal more after taking this course than you did before.
• Think critically about the course content and topics to gain understanding and insights.
• Explain precisely to several classmates your learnings, insights, and conclusions.  Your learning is not complete until you teach what you know to someone else and can describe precisely what you have learned and what you understand.
• Ask others to share their knowledge, conclusions, and insights with you.  When they do so, listen carefully, elaborate by explaining how what you learned from them fits in with previous knowledge you have learned, and thank them.
• Engage in intellectual controversy by taking positions counter to those of your classmates, developing clear rationales for your positions, challenging their reasoning and conclusions, and arguing the issues until you or they are logically persuaded. 

Plagiarism:

When using material developed by others, it should be properly cited. Otherwise you are plagiarizing. If you don’t understand what plagiarism is take a look at the following website produced by the School of Education, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.
 http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/plagiarism.shtml

The specific university policy related to Academic Honesty can be found at: http://www.udel.edu/stuguide/05-06/code.html#honesty

Your responsibilities:

• Attend and be attentive in class. Participate where appropriate.
• Read email regularly
• Check the class syllabus for the schedule and visit the class website regularly for updates.
• Turn off your cell phone before you come into class
• Complete and turn in all homework and reports in a timely and professional manner

Schedule: