What role does structural health monitoring play in disaster preparedness?

One thing I have come to realize is the work of a structural engineer spans across the whole life cycle of the project. But Often times we ignore the fact that we need the services of a structural engineer.Well beyond building erection and building occupation. One area that is critical for a structural engineering after building erection is SHM. Being able to track the functionality of the structural members when critical loading has been applied to a building cannot be underestimated. SHM can span from basic methods of building check up like checking on deflection,cracking structure translations. To more advanced methods of building check up using sensors.

I my experience, structural health monitoring plays an important role in disaster preparedness. However, its implementation is difficult. Majority of DOT perform monitoring on their structures on exposed structure to prevent disasters during normal service loads and extreme events like wind or seismic. On the other hands, the building industry is reluctant to monitor due to political and legal issues. As a reactive society, we deal with building monitoring only after loss of human lives events. In an area with those events, monitoring might be enforced after forensic analysis of the events, and it is up to the local governments to draft such plan.

la surveillance de l'état de structure s'avère très indispensable pour prévenir les éventuelles catastrophe face aux aléas de différentes natures tels que le tremblement de terre.

To predict potential risk to commercial infrastructures and to identify structural defects such as cracks, deformations, etc

SHM plays a very important role in preparation to avoid larger disasters.It monitors the performance for safety during the life of the structure.As we need regular health check up , similar is true for structures like Industrial buildings, bridges,dams ,pipelines even roads also. Different methods such as visual inspection followed by sensors, can be deployed to acquire the data, storage of data & converting same in useful information ..It also gives us timely ALERTS. Analysis of information help us to take preventive measures to avoid larger mishaps & subsequent damage

SHM is very important for a cost-effective prioritization process for the critical infrastructure. It will work as an early warning tool and help taking appropriate measures on time, which will reduce the impacts of probable disasters and consequent economic losses.

la prévention faites à temps permet de se prémunir et d'éviter les éventuels dégat dans la structure. d'où l'importance de la surveillance de structure.

Early warning / alerts help us to take preventive measures .We can not only save money but also extend the life of structure.Disaster management team can act fast in the case of eventuality & minimses total losses.

SHM help to do Root cause analysis also, which subsequently help us to take remedial measures & help us to reduce downtime & further losses.

SHM build the confidence of stake holders & totally helpful for whole society .It gives peace of mind .In future, SHM , their proposed action plan & further implementation will be mandetory for each organisation .

Structural health monitoring for the crucial structures like dams, bridges, roads, hospitals are getting mandatory especially during the natural disaster which are seasonal nowadays. It is also far more important to design any structure proactively for the unforeseen disaster components like wind & flood during the design stage itself.