2018 Best Paper in the American Society of Civil Engineers Journal of Structural Engineering awarded to a paper on tsunami-resilient design co-authored by Gary Chock and Lyle Carden
“Tsunami-Resilient Building Design Considerations for Coastal Communities of Washington, Oregon, and California”, which appeared in the ASCE Journal of Structural Engineering (JSE), was selected as the 2018 Best Journal Paper in the Structural Hazards category. The paper was selected by a committee comprised of Associate Editors from about 300 papers accepted for publication in JSE last year. It provided guidance on implementing the ASCE 7-16 tsunami design provisions by state and local jurisdictions on the west coast, connecting the technical considerations of structural engineering with community resilience objectives and land use zoning coordination. Taller structures in a community can provide effective secondary alternative refuge when evacuation out of the inundation zone is not possible or practically achievable for the entire population. Other co-authors included Ian Robertson, Yong Wei, Rick Wilson, and John Hooper.
“We hope this will help those who are in the process of adopting the 2018 International Building Code with its tsunami design requirements referenced to ASCE 7-16. As we stated in the paper, these considerations require input of structural engineering expertise applied to the geographical (physical and man-made) context of local community regions.” Gary Chock, Distinguished Member, ASCE