Extreme weather events, such as hurricanes and excessive rains causing severe flooding, seem to be increasingly in the news and on the public’s mind. This briefing addresses the legal and ethical responsibilities that design professionals must consider with respect to climate volatility when designing projects. Is resiliency such an important obligation that a design professional must design for it based on current science – and the evidence and facts at hand – even if the law, regulations and government agencies do not require it? This paper concludes that complying with code may not be sufficient and that designers may have an enhanced standard of care to design against the extreme weather events that are increasingly foreseeable.
This article is published in ConstructionRisk.com Report, Vol. 20, No. 9 (Oct 2018).
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