Online Discussion Forum Catastrophic Events, Effects, and Future Impacts on the City
Boston blizzard of '78, more images of snowy Boston from WBUR
Image: Fire raging in a Denver suburb last year
WHAT IS A DISCUSSION FORUM?In addition to our weekly lectures and discussions, we augment those discussions with an online free form debate, this is different from our usual online lecture responses and requires more active student participation. These debates are posted, and left open for comments for an extended period, the objective being that each student should check back frequently and monitor, read and add to the discussion in an evolving and ongoing forum.
THE TOPIC: What we're discussing
Image from UK newspaper The Telegraph photo essay, 2012
In the lectures so far this semester we have been (and will continue) to analyze and discuss the beginnings of cities, the history of civilization, and how what the iconic urban development we know as 'the city' has come into being.
But we are also interested in bringing the focus of your thoughts to the the present and future of the city as well. Many famous cities worldwide, but even more specifically here in America have had their geography of their urban structure influenced, even remade by catastrophic disasters - The Great Chicago Fire, Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans, Hurricane Sandy and New York City, San Francisco and it's numerous earthquakes, blizzards, power outages, flooding - the list goes on. A city is built up over a long period of time, but large scale catastrophic events can change the face of a city in a few days, tasking our architecture, infrastructure, and the way we citizens deal with the event.
To introduce this material please familiarize yourself with some of the articles previously submitted by your classmates in the 'Call for Resources' - and feel free to keep adding resources to the discussion.
Feel free to email Prof. Hart any links that you might want highlighted in this discussion as well.
This topic is not shy on resources on any of the many shades of this issue, there are plenty out there to back up your opinions and points, please make use of them.
In entering into a discussion of this topic, we are not interested in overly politicizing the issue, but to rather contextualize planning, policy, initiatives, and potentials; think beyond merely giving examples of past disasters and focus more keenly on how the effect or after-effects changed the way the city operates, is built, and plans for the future. What are the potential impacts, positive and negative that a future scenario might have? Emergencies (and emergency planning) have, are and will continue to occur which are actively shape the city around us. Here are a few suggested possibilities to consider:
- Analyze a particular event across the spectrum of the city it affected as a case study, relate event, the consequences, the after-effects, reactions, and post event planning particular to that event
- Relate a specific urban method, form, or infrastructure that has evolved to deal with catastrophic events - why did it start? how has it changed?
- Analyze, hypothesize, provide materials for current innovations in building type, urban form, or infrastructure that deals with protecting, warning, alleviating potential and future emergency events.
ADDITIONAL/UPDATED COMMENTS:
Via this posting on JelloSpace we have been + will continue to post hyperlinks which link, or could link into this discussion.
Check back, we will update the blog with more information and links in this space.
- US Govt' post on Earthquakes in the 21st Century - Thanks former student Adam
- Wildfires in the Pacific Northwest - Thanks Jillian
- Japan Tsunami effects - Thanks Ronelle (amoung many more that Ronelle submitted!!)
- Top Disasters of 2013 - Thanks Jagroop
- Disaster Index from FoxNews - Thanks Linglin
- How The Levee's Broke documentary - Thanks Sarah
- War damages in the Middle East (a human caused catastrophes) - Thanks Kaitlyn
- 2015 Flooding in Japan - Thanks Masako
- Fukushima Accident (natural trigger, from man made site) - Thanks Chris
- Many more! Check out this post on Jellospace blog thus far for collected resources posted by your classmates
THE FORUM: How participation works (and counts towards your grade)
The Forum for our discussion will be open until 10PM EST Monday Sept 21st.
Each student is responsible to contribute to and continue the discussion. Unlike the lectures, this means that you must not only submit your own response but read the responses of your classmates and respond to them (with questions, challenges, defense, additional references/resources, or hypothesis). You are encouraged to share your opinion, as long as you can back it with a well reasoned and supported argument.
Each student should plan on commenting at least three times (3x) at a minimum during the course of the forum, to keep the discussion moving along. (Think this weekend, mid-week, and late week)
36 comments:
Natural disasters, like hurricane Katrina, impact lives negatively all around the world. Although these disasters bring injury, death, destruction, and chaos in an area it can also bring communities together. After hurricane Katrina people from all over the US were reaching out with donations and physical help. The disaster brought the community that was destroyed closer together and brought the nation as a whole together in giving aid to this cause.
I received a lecture over the summer about post-Katrina architecture. Its unfortunate that it takes a tragedy at this level to make people understand the importance of thoughtful design. The practice of building homes on stilts, elevated above the ground plane, is now common in the gulf area.
http://thearchitectstake.com/editorials/new-orleans-post-katrina-making-right/
Agreeing with Jillian, it is truly unfortunate that it takes such a tragedy to for people to understand the importance in these design techniques in areas with high risk of natural disaster. In the link Jillian posted, some of the homes that were reconstructed with elevation were intricate and had beautiful designs. Although homes that were not prepared for the disaster were destroyed, this leaves room for more thought to be put into more stable reconstruction designs.
Karina Marchione
Regarding tsunami in Japan.
I watched the tsunami video that was posted on this blog. The tsunami was occurred by Japan Tohoku Earthquake 2011. 11 prefectures suffered damage from the tsunami. (there are total 47 prefectures in Japan). I read a report about the tsunami damage and plans for the future by Science Council of Japan. One of their plans for preventing future disasters is that dividing use of lands depending on how far each land from sea. For example, an area that is expected flooding when an earthquake which is equivalent to Japan Tohoku Earthquake happened cannot be allowed to use for human residences. Also, local governments have been planning reconstructing taller breakwaters. However, a possibility of tsunami would have been expected in the areas before the earthquake. Tall breakwaters, that professionals assume it is enough, were already built. I am a little bit skeptical whether the plan will protect people when other earthquake happened.
Masako Y
I agree with Karina, while natural disasters bring negative effects, people in the areas that suffer damage communicate tightly.
Then, from those disasters, people have learned what stronger city structures are. I do not think that human can prevent any damage of natural disasters by constructing well-planned cities, but at least we can and we should improve city structures that can rescue victims when a natural disaster happened.
Masako Y
I read the news on BBC that regard Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan, China in 2008. The magnitude 7.8 earthquake disaster that really hurt Chinese people in Sichuan province. BBC also reported "Eighty kilometres away (50 miles) from the 7.6-million-person megacity of Chengdu, 19km under the Earth, the fault began to rupture. The fault broke over a length of 240km". While this strongest earthquack disaster happened in China, there were 87150 people killed and missing. Since the poor infrastructure in middle of China that collapsed by earthquake, local government planning to improve city structure in following years.
Linglin Z.
I agree with Masako's view that "human can prevent any damage of natural disasters by constructing well-planned cities, but at least we can and we should improve city structures that can rescue victims when a natural disaster happened". I think city planning is very important for human safety. Having a lightning rod could avoid thunder，the strong ground foundation could avoid light earthquake，the dam could avoid flood.
Linglin Z.
Since after the Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan, government start to rebuild all public infrastructure in the affective area with the high tech and modern standard building. they also use the anti-shacking material on rebuilding buildings, bridges and railways in affective area. The area in Sichuan province in China is highly affective by earthquake, so government are starting to check safety of building or other public service facility every frequently to prevent sudden disaster happen again in the future.
Linglin Z.
There are stuctures that have survived natural disasters surprisingly well, as I have posted in the link below. We should be building more structures today with the fortitude of some of these buildings.
http://www.oddee.com/item_99162.aspx
The technology of the Shinbashira in ancient Japanese pagodas is part of the reason these structures can be thousands of years old, and survive hundreds of earthquakes, and still be standing while concrete buildings around them fall to the ground.
http://gizmodo.com/5846501/how-japans-oldest-wooden-building-is-still-standing
Jillian B.
Linglin, Thank you for your comments on my post.
I read the articles that Jillian posted. These were very interesting to me ( because I'm a Japanese).
I think technology for building stronger city structures would be improved by experiences and knowledge. Japan has been experienced many earthquakes historically. In fact, not many buildings broke down simply by shaking ground at Japan Tohoku Earthquake 2011, however, many victims lost their lives by tsunami that was happened by the earthquake.
The technology, constructions, and city planning had been prepared for earthquakes, but these were not enough for tsunami damage, unfortunately. However, I assume that new preparations would be improved, including well-planned rescue ways because we experienced. So, I think and hope that human will learn how to construct better and more secure cities from catastrophe. As a result, city structures would get better and better.
Masako Y.
Masako, you are right, water damage and control is an important facet of building design for almost every building but especially for those in flood prone areas. With sea levels rising within the next hundred years, more buildings will be subject to this kind of damage than there ever have been before.
Jillian B.
It is an interesting point of view to think of natural disasters such as these as shaping the cities they occur in. Although cities all have possible catastrophes that could occur, they can never be planned for, only anticipated.
Typhoon Haiyan, which occurred in the Philippines, not only resulted in over 6,000 deaths but displaced over 3 million people. That is something that could not be planned for. Luckily, there are organizations such as World Vision, who were able to reach 150,000 displaced people within the first month of the typhoon. However, that is still a lot of people left without stable food, water and medical attention. It is tragic to think about as no one can plan these unfortunate events and they change the history and the shape of the city and it's people forever.
Kelsey H
Jillian, I am amazed by the tree in the first article you posted. It's incredible that as humans we have developed such advanced technologies that still cannot prevent disaster, but a tree could remain standing after a tsunami wiped out a forest of 70,000 trees. I really like the idea that the area artificially rebuilt the tree once it had died from the tainted soil, after the tsunami. I see this as symbolizing that even strong, sturdy structures cannoy last if they are not being preserved. It is important to not only construct strong structures to prevent complete destruction, but just as important to maintain these structures with new technologies.
Karina M.
In July 28, 1976, Tangshan City, Hebei Province in China has 7.8 earthquake epicenter was located downtown Tangshan. It caused 24 million deaths, 160,000 disabled people and property losses up to 30 billion yuan. The earthquake occurred in the middle of the night, 80 percent of urban people a chance to react, buried under the rubble. The Jingshan railway meizoseismal area includes the north and south sides of the 47 square kilometers. All the buildings are almost all gone the region. A 8 km long, 30 meters wide ground fissures, and cross fences, houses and roads, canals. Earthquake zone and its surroundings, a large number of fractured zone, water take sand, blowout, gravitational collapse, the Rolling Stones, slope collapse, slippery, ground subsidence, caverns and goaf collapse and collapse.
Yaowen H.
On the Tangshan earthquake was get to the root of the complete recording and scientific analysis from the perspective of history and science. For ten years in Beijing, Tianjin, Tang, Bo, Zhang regional earthquake "tracking" History and earthquake action from the central to the business sector, for professionals and amateurs scientific activities, analysis, debate, Tangshan "regret" the intensity delineated and fortification construction history of the Tangshan earthquake "omission" after the central position and shock "omission" of academic summary, over the years a major omission social crisis events, doing archival history, identification and detailed scientific analysis. Tangshan earthquake precursor of various occurrences to grasp the extent of scientific capacity was the largest of its analysis, and thus the Tangshan earthquake "can not predict," the major issues were one aspect of the answer, in addition to the earthquake the "false negative" issues reflection.
Yaowen H.
I agree with Linglin's point of view that she indicate "city planning is very important for human safety. Having a lightning rod could avoid thunder，the strong ground foundation could avoid light earthquake，the dam could avoid flood". Since we cannot avoid the natural disaster, but we can prevent our home when it is coming. So government should be good prepared on building public facility that prevent the loss from the disaster.
Yaowen H.
Jillian, the home designs in New Orleans 9th district demonstrates a progressive loss of understanding of the needs of life and cultural identity. These celebrity inspired home designs are seemed to be almost 'robotic' and 'paranoid' in its design. The architects are trying their best to provide leverage between the aesthetics of the home and the homes vulnerability to natural disasters. The home was only vulnerable due to the failure of the levy. When systems fail we become temporally conscious of the extraordinary force and power of design, and the effects that it generates. This failure provided a brief moment of awareness of real life for new orleans residence. However the vanity rebuilding is irrelevant at this time. Though the personal tragedies are incorporated into these designs, the world of design be an significant deterrent in the design of world. The focus in new orleans should be home lifestyle but rather the system that support them.
I think Masako has a really good point. It's tough to now how to prepare for these catastrophes before they happen. Experiences lead to better technology and planning, although we hope the cities never have to experience them again.
Kelsey H
Natural disasters are impossible to plan for. It's unfortunate that we have to go through things like tsunamis, earthquakes, and other natural disasters over and over again but it's reality. Despite this, however, we still try to anticipate the event of a natural disaster. This is even more true in recent years, especially with the occurrence of extreme weather in places like Japan. For example, since the 2011 tsunami/earthquake catastrophe, disaster prevention and preparation has been one of the country's top priorities. This can be seen in the story Masako posted about the insane floods in Japan. Although Japan can prepare as much as they'd like for a natural disaster (such as with specialized structures, early prediction technology, etc) they can never truly prevent a disaster. Unfortunately, it's impossible for them to shield away a huge tsunami wave, so most of what they can do is hope the disaster isn't as bad as the last one.
The aftermath of hurricane Katrina was immense. Because of the instability of the leeves in specific neighborhoods, the hurricane consumed many lives of children, adults, infants, and elders. It is sad to say that the American government did not step in at a suitable time to help with the relief efforts. While President George W. Bush (at the time), claimed he was not aware of what was taking place, Condoleezza Rice was out shopping for shoes. And worse than that, the mayor of Louisiana at the time was too busy venturing in business motives to be in the least bit concerned about what was taking place right in his own city. People were in boats, they tried to cross a bridge to leave and were stopped by the police, they were all gathered in the Superdome where the storm eventually penetrated through the roof of the dome-and when help did come, families had to leave their home and move to other southern states across the country. Yes, it is true that many have gone to New Orleans in order to help repair the damages caused by Hurricane Katrina. However, this would never have been the case if the hurricane never occurred in the first place. Although people assume that Katrina was a natural disaster that just happened, as I've mentioned before, the leeves that broke and caused the flooding were constructed by man, and victims who survived the hurricane will be the first to let it be known in "When the Leeves Broke." In order to move from the effects of the hurricane into relief efforts, the government should have been more quick to react. The aftermath of the hurricane lasted about 5-7 days before help finally arrived. That is ridiculous. People went without food, showers, clean clothes, etc. Some people were even in boats trying to escape while others were trapped in their flood water homes and had to wait for help. And what was the Bush Administration doing at the time? Trying to develop stronger political, social, and economic relations with foreign powers. Relief should have come earlier and an evacuation plan should have been initiated by the mayor. Weather reports predicted the severity of Katrina so it still amazes me how America, which is deemed a "first world" country, couldn't step in or decided not to step in quick enough to save lives. Help from foreign countries came to aid the victims of New Orleans before the American government stepped in. And although I do agree with other students' posts about people going to help out and the community being united, I can't help but stop and think that this huge problem that consumed so many innocent lives could have been prevented.
Here is a link to an article that indicates a judge ruling Hurricane Katrina as a monumental neglect. In this article, I found out that this was the first time that the Army Corps had been held responsible for the damage it had caused in New Orleans. This is not the first time that the negligence of the Army Corps led to flooding in a state and New Orleans is no exception. In 1965, a hurricane called Betsy caused flooding in Louisiana. What I don't understand is why it took Katrina for the Army Corps to be held responsible for its careless decisions. Think about this-America has spent billions of dollars overseas and has gone particularly in the Middle East to drill for oil-when the American government is too busy getting involved in foreign relations, who is helping the citizens of this country and looking out for their best interests? Now don't get me wrong. Diplomatic relations with other counties are important and having allies is essential for business relations, etc. But the people of America should come before anyone else. We have to be able to take care of ourselves before we can tend to the needs of others. Other countries do more for their people to ensure safety, protection, and benefits than America does for its people.
Link: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/11/091119-us-katrina-AP.html
"I think Masako has a really good point. It's tough to now how to prepare for these catastrophes before they happen. Experiences lead to better technology and planning, although we hope the cities never have to experience them again."
My comment to Kelsey H: I understand that natural disasters cannot be prevented. However, this was not the case with Hurricane Katrina. That was a natural disaster that could have been prevented. Ironically, the so called "natural disaster" of Hurricane Katrina was not so "natural" after all. If the leeves were well constructed and perhaps rebuilt or inspected on, the problem could have been solved-but most likely, you will never read about how the disaster really started-and that is the fault of the media as well. Media outlets only depict certain stories on television because they know those stores will draw the most audiences and attention. It amazes me how the media was quick to run in and capture pictures of the despair and hardship people faced but no one jumped in and helped until it was too late. Now, for safety reasons, I could understand why people would be skeptical to help out but after about a week, the hurricane had calmed down. The US government should have stepped in the day of and after the hurricane took place.
I agree with you, Sarah. I meant more in broad terms but you make really good points. I agree that help should have been present sooner for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. I also think it is very important to mention how the media can portray disasters like these in certain ways and that was an important point to bring up. When dealing with horrible catastrophes like these that affect so many people, the media should be used more to gain attention for others to help, not just display tragedy and gain viewers.
Kelsey H
In order to begin talking about the architecture of New Orleans, one thing I can say is that installation of new leeves should be on top of the list so that the regulation of flooding can be less attainable. Personally, I have never been to New Orleans but if I am able to go, I would love to help build new and redefined structures or houses for those who still reside there. That is what part of being an architect is all about. One day, I want to help people through architecture and want architecture to be more than physical-I want it to have a positive emotional effect on my clients so they can establish a sense of hope.
Sarah R: I think that you make some really good points about New Orleans and the breaking of the levy. I also think you are right that the government needed to use more of its resources to help its citizens in those types of cases. I think one of the biggest reasons these issues are created in the first place is money. By taking risks and hoping that natural disasters won't happen (or not caring if they do and cause harm) companies and the government can save money by completing less repairs or not making a building as strong as it potentially can be. This way they can use the money for other things. Now I am not saying this is a good thing and I do believe that many natural disasters could be a lot less devastating if this was not an issue. It just so tends to happen that in a profit driven economy, people will do anything they can to save money. Therefore, I do believe people need to be a little less focused on the profit as a whole and then we can have much safer cities with adequate disaster prevention planning all over the United States and the rest of the world.
Chris K.
I agree with you Kelsey H. that the media tends to play a very negative roll in the covering of natural disasters. They always tend to show the bad that happens for long periods of time while barely touching on the people that give up their own time and resources to help. If the media were to focus more on some of the feel good stories surrounding the disasters and providing information on how people could get involved, there would probably be a bigger citizen based relief effort. Thus, there is huge potential for the media to provide support and really kick start the process of getting people's lives back on track after a disaster instead of just trying to increase their viewership and ratings like you said.
Chris K.
Chris: I think you make some really great points in your response to Sarah. At the same time, however, I think that as much as we'd like to be less profit focused when it comes to natural disasters, it will never happen. We are always planning for the future and how much debt a certain situation may or may not get us in. In your hopes that we can be a little less profit focused, do you have any ideas that could help achieve this?
Sarah, I agree with you for the most part and I think you made some really valid points. While the actual hurricane could not have been prevented, other things, such as the breaking of the levees could have. I think that there should've been much more inspection and maintenance behind the levees before Katrina hit. If that happened, maybe there wouldn't have been fifty levee/flood wall failures.
One of the greatest catastrophes that struck out to me, and I will mostly focus on NYC is, the attack on the world trades center. I would like to reference this tragic event in our nations history because it set new standards in how the city and nation operates. Airport travel became a lot more scrupulous, emergency evacuation procedures and emergency response teams have altered protocol to thwart and improve response time and efficiency. The aftermath of 9/11, left the entire city scared and almost single handedly made all prior protocol obsolete. Now training for chemical, ware fare is a routine thing for the New York Fire Department (NYPD). New York city was shaken to its core literally and figuratively and is in a constant state of high vigilance.
Since this catastrophic event a new building rose to take the twin towers place and it is bigger and stronger in every aspect. The new tower is blast-resistant, has extra fire proofing in place and it even has biological filters place. If a future disaster of the same magnitude were to occur the city would be a lot more equipped to handle the situation, to include the building itself.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/2005/06/29/revamped-freedom-tower-has-safer-design.html
I highly agree with Sarah R. and the link (article) you've presented was very intriguing. To me i get very upset when the government puts the needs of other countries before the American people in order to gain respect or a stronger bond? Im not sure... Yes, it took Katrina to shake the governments eyes and see how this natural disaster can reshape or better the city of New Orleans. This is why I think listening to Trump's views on how he plans on reshaping the country for the future is great. Good Job Sarah, it was straight forward and to the point.
This is question is for Karina Marchione, so do you think that certain cities should be reconstructed to withstand any catastrophes? Do you think that cities should redesign certain homes with the city that are likely to be affected by a natural disaster? I mean it's something no one really talks about but can be done. Certainly the media doesn't portray that but anythings possible.
As others have said, natural disasters do a lot to expose the structural integrity of cities. It is important to reflect upon this after a catastrophe happens in order to better prepare for disasters of the future. It won't be possible to prevent every kind of damage to a city or its residents, but the damage can always be further minimized with more up-to-date inspections of structures and better funding for preparation and relief efforts.
Jeremy S
Ian A: As much as I do think we need to become less profit motivated, I do agree that it might never happen. I think the best chance we have at changing the cycle is to better inform people about some of the true issues that can be raised when profits are the only things that are thought about. The individual consumers need to force companies to change. If the companies know they can keep things the way they are they have no reason to change. However, if consumers choose to buy certain products over others maybe because they are better for the environment or the company itself provides benefits to their community, then other companies will be forced to do the same to compete. One other issue with this stems from investment. Many people who have others who invest for them, don't usually know everything about their investments they just want to know what returns they can achieve and how risky they are. Therefore, people need to be more aware of their investments and only invest in the do-good companies that focus on more than just profit. This is why it may be unrealistic. Only through educating people and getting a point across that not changing can have drastic consequences to their lives, will we be able to get the average person focused on the good of the whole world and not themselves.
Chris K.
I also agree that cities can prevent damages from all these natural disasters by taking preventive measure by building infrastructures and constructing well planned cities. This way, they would be ready for any upcoming disasters. it might be tough to know how to prepare for the catastrophes like Masako said, but I think these cities that are still being developed can learn from other cities around the world, so they know what to expect. Water damage and control is an important part of building design for almost every building and not only for buildings, but for the ones that are around bodies of water.
The rising coastlines of the future worry me. We are rebuilding and building on areas that are in going to be in danger within the next 20 years. It may sound depressing, but some areas need to face the facts and start to move out of the area. I do think that preventative measures should be taken in areas where it possible to be destroyed in the near future.
People like to make their own mistakes. Living in disaster prone areas is something they should have thought of before the disaster hit. Unless someone is stuck in an area or a disaster was unpredictable. Luckily, people tend to help each other out when disaster strikes.
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