ISBN: 978-93-5156-340-2
ROLE OF CIVIL ENGINEERS IN DISASTER
MITIGATION AND MANAGEMENT-
A SWOT ANALYSIS
Civil Engineering Department, BRCM College of Engineering & Technology, Bahal-127028,
Abstract
Disasters, either natural or man-made have severe
impact on the individual society to the whole nation.
The increasing frequency of disasters has become one
development of the nation. The ironic fact is that
disasters are not avoidable completely. In this
perspective, civil engineering can play crucial role by
contributing to the disaster management field in two
important ways: in the setting of design and safety
standards, and the actual design and construction of
infrastructure used to prevent damage and losses
caused by hazards. In this paper the potential role of
Civil Engineers in disaster management has been
critically reviewed using SWOT analysis. It has been
recognized that civil engineers have been in the
forefront in developing safe built environment, public
policy, global performance-based codes and standards
and research agenda as a mitigation tool to combat
with various disasters. It has been also realized that
despite of several challenges and constraints, civil
engineers can play very crucial and even much more
diversified role in disaster management activities.
Keyword: Disaster management, mitigation, risk
assessment, civil engineering, SWOT analysis
1. Introduction
Disasters are adverse or unfortunate events or
great and sudden misfortunes which have a profound
effect on society and the nation. They may occur due
to natural causes such as earthquakes, tsunamis, floods
or cyclones or due to man-made causes such as
terrorist attack, war and industrial accidents etc.
Disasters cause a considerable amount of damage
around the world each year. The United Nations
Human Settlements Programme (UNHSP) notes that
in the first half of 2001 alone, natural disasters caused
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Arabinda Sharma, Nishant Sharma
Bhiwani, Haryana, India
Email: arbind_78@rediffmail.com
over US$24 billion in damage globally. India has been
traditionally vulnerable to natural disaster and around
six crores of people are affected by disasters every
year on account of its unique geo-climate conditions
(Patil, 2012; Daya, Md. Ayaz, and Lohitkumar, 2011).
Generally, during a large- scale disaster, civil
engineering structures like buildings, bridges, dams,
roads, water supply projects, coastal structures,
infrastructure facilities etc are severely affected,
causing immense inconvenience to people and
disrupting routine life. Natural disasters identify the
mistakes made in the process of development of civil
engineering structures in that particular locality, and
teach important lessons for the future. If the learning
from such undesirable even ts is utilized, hazardous
effects can be reduced in the coming years. Civil
engineers can play a major role in disaster mitigation
by creating safe structures through the integrated
efforts of all those involved in the construction
process (Patel, 2010).
The recent occurrence of several disaster events
have increased the degree of uncertainty faced by
policy makers, challenged emergency arrangements
and raised issues regarding their appropriateness.
Jigyasu (2004) describes an increase in the
vulnerability of local communities after the Latur
1993 earthquake in India, where sustainable recovery
interventions were poorly planned and implemented.
As per ASCE (2006), the world of 2025 presents a
high-risk environment, with the ongoing threat of
large-scale natural disasters and possible acts of
terrorism. Moreover, under the worldwide trend of
urbanization and ever increasing frequency of
disasters, the need for management of State-of-the-art
lifeline system (Water supply, Energy supply, waste
disposal system, transportation system and
telecommunication system) has been felt strongly
(Kameda, 2000). Simultaneously, disaster planners
have begun to realize the link between disaster and
ISBN: 978-93-5156-340-2

economic development of a country. In this

perspective the role of civil engineers in developing
and implementing the disaster management strategies
is paramount (Hamada, 2009). In particular, post-
disaster reconstruction has been the subject of a
significant body of research with particular emphasis
on developing countries that are less able to deal with
the causes and impacts of disasters (Haigh,
Amaratunga and Kerimanginaye, 2006; Pande, 2006).
In this research communication the role of civil
engineers in disaster mitigation has been critically
reviewed using SWOT analysis.

2. Disaster Management and Risk Reduction

Disaster management can be defined as the range
of activities designed to maintain control over disaster
and emergency situations and to provide a framework
for helping at-risk persons to avoid or recover from
the impact of the disaster. Disaster management is a
cycle of activities that deals with situations that occur
before, during, and after the disaster. The different
phases of disaster management are: Mitigation,
Preparedness, Response and Recovery (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Phases of disaster management cycle
The activities in one phase may overlap those in
the previous one. Beginning with mitigating the
vulnerability and negative impacts of disasters,
preparedness in responding to operations, responding
and providing relief in emergency situations such as
search and rescue, fire fighting, etc., and aiding in
recovery which can includes physical reconstruction
and the ability to return quality of life to a community
after a disaster. Interestingly, the civil engineers can
play important role in all the phases of disaster
management cycle.

(a) (b)

Figure 2. Risk reduction as a disaster mitigation measure

A complete prevention of natural disasters is not
possible or even sometime not desirable. The risk to a
community on the event of a disaster is basically a
function of magnitude of hazard, exposure of the
community to the hazards and the vulnerability of
community to a particular hazard. Thus, reduction in
the undesirable risk/effects of disasters can be a
promising way to cope with those disasters. It has
been depicted in the Figure 2.

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3. Role off Civil Engineeering Figure 3. Prosp

pective role off Civil engineeer in
d
disaster reducttion
“Whilee many peoplee are aware oof the terriblee
impact of ddisasters throug ghout the world, few realizee H
However, thee two of thhe most im mportant
that this iss a problem that we can do something g contrributions of civil enginneering to ddisaster
about”. (K Kofi A. Ann an, a UN Secrretary-General, manaagement have been in the setting of coddes and
2004). Reallizing their resp ponsibility, civvil Engineering
g standdards, and the actual design
n and construcction of
community has contrributed to the disasterr infrastructure usedd to prevent damage and losses
managemennt field in several ways. Thhe role of civill causeed by hazards.
engineeringg communities in mitigationn and recovery y
activities foor a given disasster, both naturral and human-- 4. C
Civil Engineeering Contriibution to H
Hazard
caused, is well documen nted (Aktan, 1999; Hamada, R
Reduction – A SWOT analyysis
2009). Firrst, it has contributed
c too our overalll
understandiing of naturall hazards whhich results in n A SWOT anallysis has been carried out to review
better foreccasting of natuural hazards. Seecondly, it hass the sstate-of-art of civil engineeering knowledgge that
contributed to understaand the impaacts and thee can bbe applied to m minimize the effect
e due to ddisaster,
vulnerabilitty of the built environment
e too these hazards. consttraints in iimplementing civil enginneering
These lead to more effecctive disaster pprevention and d practtices and futuure trend and d potential oof civil
mitigation practices an nd preparedness planning. enginneering in mitiigating the variious disasters. SWOT
Finally, it hhas been helpinng communities to reduce thee analyysis basically iinvolves speciffying the objecctive of
risk from naatural and techhnological hazaards. a givven task or projject and identiffying the internnal and
Civil enngineers are at
a the forefrontt in developing g exterrnal factors thaat are favorablle and unfavorrable to
appropriate approaches an nd designs to managing and d achieeve that objecctive. SWOT is an acronyym for
r of civil enngineers for thee
mitigating rrisk. The first role Strenngths, Weakne sses, Opportunnities and Threeats. By
natural dissaster mitigation is the deevelopment off definnition, Strengtths (S) and W Weaknesses (W W) are
technologiees for enhancem ment of infrastructures, such h consiidered to be innternal factors over which yo ou have
as technologgies for the immprovement of soft soil, high-- somee measure of o control. A Also, by deffinition,
performance structures, and warningg and rescuee Oppoortunities (O) and
a Threats (T)) are considereed to be
systems. Thhe second rolle is actual cconstruction off exterrnal factors ovver which youu have essentiaally no
infrastructuures with high h natural disasster resistance. contrrol.
The third roole of civil enggineers is the iinvolvement in n
the rescuue operation n, and resttoration and d 4.1 S
Strength
reconstructiion works after a natural disasters. A
comprehenssive role of civil engineers in disasterr IIn this sectionn the engineeering contribution to
reduction iss depicted in Fiigure 3. hazarrd reduction iss presented byy type of hazarrd. The
potenntial role of civvil engineers inn reducing hazaard due
to eitther natural orr man-made diisaster is hugee and is
preseented in summaarized form in Table 1.

Table 1. Dissaster wise pottential contribuution of Civil Engineers

E

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Disaster type Potential contribution of Civil Engineers

Improving the understanding of earthquakes and their effects. Improving techniques to reduce
Earthquakes seismic vulnerability of facilities and systems (e.g., through the adoption of updated seismic
building codes and better construction practices), and improving seismic hazards identification
(e.g., development of earthquake hazard maps) and risk-assessment methods and their use,
retrofitting of older buildings (Heaney et. al., 2000).
Flood mitigation involves structural and non-structural measures. Civil engineer can contribute
Floods in both ways. The other methods flood control wherein the role of civil engineers is flood
forecasting through watershed simulation, water harvesting etc.
Engineering hazard reduction measures can be taken to minimize the loss of life and property
Cyclone during hurricanes. One of the main threats of a tropical cyclone is the high wind speed.
Engineering design codes are used to insure that buildings and structures are constructed to
withstand particular wind speeds depending on the climatic characteristics of each region. The
design wind speeds have been updated over the years, and in general the new codes require the
use of higher design wind speeds (Cruz et. al., 2001).
Heaney et al. (2000) point out that too often hurricane damage to residential structures is due to
failure of roofing materials, doors and windows, and that these failures lead to weather
penetration and damage. They note that during Hurricane Andrew, most damage losses in
buildings were due to penetration of the weather envelope and not by the failure of major
structural components. ASCE (2006) has incorporated provisions for protecting the building
envelope.
Landslide hazard reduction includes both engineering and non-engineering measures.
Landslide/mass Engineering mitigation measures used include construction of earth-retaining structures,
movement construction of surface water drainage systems, slope surface protection such as hydro-seeding,
sprayed concrete and reinforced concrete grids, and re-compaction of fill slopes (Kwong et al.,
2004). Tunnels, although expensive, usually prove to be cost effective in the long term to avoid
landslide hazard in transportation routes with slope problems (Bhasin et al., 2001). Spiker and
Gori (2005) observe the need to establish standardized codes for excavation, construction and
grading in landslide prone areas.
Droughts involve issues related to the supply and demand of water resources (Hayes et al.,
Drought 2004). Drought hazard mitigation need for a holistic approach involving applications of
sustainable integrated water resources. Engineering approaches include assessment programs,
water supply augmentation and development of new supplies, technical assistance on water
conservation and other water-related activities, and demand reduction/water conservation
programs.
Disaster including acid rain, photochemical smog, global warming, climate change related
Atmospheric phenomena such El Nino, La Nina can be control by sound understanding the interaction of
disaster various environmental pollutant with global atmospheric process. Civil Engineers may develop
techniques which may either reduces the emission of gaseous pollutant or treated the emitted
green house gases and other pollutant more effectively.
Civil engineering being the oldest and most mitigation are discussed with reference to various
diversified branch among all engineering discipline major civil engineering specializations. The major
can play very specific role according to specialization. contributions of civil engineers with specific
In the current section role of engineers in disaster specializations are highlighted in Table 2.

Table 2. Potential role of civil engineers according to specialization

Discipline Potential contribution

Structural Structural engineer should be involved from the planning stage of the structures and should

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Engineering follow all specifications laid down by the Code of Practices. The structural engineer needs to use
the latest methods of analysis and provide well-detailed structural drawings including ductile
detailing. Advanced methods like Performance Based Design (PBD) must be followed for high-
rise and irregular buildings rather than following simple code-based approaches. Advanced
materials like High Performance Concrete, Fiber Reinforced Concrete, Self Compacting
Concrete, Fiber Reinforced Polymers etc. should be used whenever required in the construction
of new buildings and in the retrofitting of existing structures. Soft storeys, floating columns and
other structural irregularities need to be avoided.
Geotechnical Geotechnical engineer should provide a detailed investigation of the subsoil, which would be
Engineering particularly useful for earthquake-resistant design. The site-specific ground response and the
liquefaction potential must be assessed before the planning and execution of a project.
Water resource An irrigation engineer can provide hydrological data for structures like bridges and dams that
Engineering have to be constructed on rivers. A hydraulic engineer can suggest food control measures
including early warning systems. Water resource engineer also play very important role in a
managing and supplying the water during drought. They also help developing efficient water
supply and irrigation techniques not only to lessen the water requirement but also transform a
water deficient region to a water sufficient region.
Transportation Disaster like Earthquakes, landslide, flood etc disrupt transportation highway, railway track etc.
Engineering Damage to lifelines can have detrimental effects on emergency response activities.
Geomatics About 80 % of daily decisions on national or local level, either in economy, finances / taxation,
demography, spatial planning, environment, hazard areas, infrastructure, housing etc. are spatial
in nature. That demonstrates clearly, wide scope of surveyor’s abilities including land
management, geodetic engineering, geo-informatics, satellite technology, and remote sensing can
make an important contribution to improve, simplify and to shorten the disaster management
process. In addition to these engineering skills and knowledge, good governance and capacity
development are central components regarding the process and implementation of disaster risk
management and sustainable development (Magel, 2005).
Environmental Environmental Engineer can help reducing the emission of green house gases and other pollutant
Engineering in surrounding environment; may provided safe drinking water and help keeping overall
sanitation status in the event of disaster.
Construction Construction manager can schedule the activities on site so that there will be enough time,
planning & material and manpower to execute the job. He must also ensure quality control of each activity.
Management The project manager can liaise between all the agencies involved in the execution of the
construction project and should monitor the progress of the project. The importance of improving
the construction industries of developing nations is widely recognized, highlighting a need to
equip them to manage the post-disaster scenario (Ofori, 2000). Construction is typically engaged
in a range of critical activities: temporary shelter before and after the disaster; restoration of
public services such as hospitals, schools, water supply, power, communications, environmental
infrastructure and state administration; and securing income earning opportunities for vulnerable
people in the affected areas (World Bank, 2001).
Architect/City The majority of damage during natural disasters is caused due to the improper planning of
Planer cities and various infrastructure facilities, lack of site investigations

Besides above a Civil Engineer (with or without
specialization) can diverse capacity at different
positions like such as:
Site supervisors or site engineers execute various
construction activities. It is their responsibility to use
appropriate material and appropriate construction
technologies, and get the work done as per the detailed
drawings and specifications. Also ensure that
materials used in construction like concrete,
reinforcement (ductile steel) must be tested for quality
and to maintenance of necessary documentary
evidence (in the form of drawings, reports,
photographs etc.) of all construction activities that are
undertaken. Risk assessment (before disaster) and
damage assessment (after disaster) are other areas
where civil engineers can contribute a lot.
Researcher and Academician: Civil engineers
provide critical guidance for determining public policy
and defining the research agenda. Civil engineers can
develop newer and disaster resistant technologies for

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construction of safer built environment with all vital
amenities. For this purpose, the civil engineers are
need to keep themselves updated about the latest
research and developments in construction
technology, advances in construction materials and
analysis or design procedures. A convenient way of
achieving this goal is by attending seminars,
workshops, training programmes and conferences.
Also civil engineer can involve in training and
teaching basic and applied knowledge required for
mitigation of various natural and man-made disaster.
Policy makers and planners should prepare the
development plan of an area considering the
vulnerability of the area to various hazards.
Specifications and guidelines for construction
activities should be carefully laid down particularly
for vulnerable areas. Before sanctioning any project,
all the details need to be scrutinized by the authorities.
A third party check or peer review should be insisted
upon at the design and supervision stages. Local
authorities must check for compliance of the project
with all the requirements or specifications before
granting Building Use (BU) permission.
Once the construction work is completed, it
becomes the responsibility of the users of the
buildings to ensure proper maintenance. If any
addition or alteration in the structure or building use is
required, a structural engineer should be consulted.
Finally, civil engineers also play an important role in
post-disaster conditions – in rescue operations,
damage assessment and the retrofitting of structures.
Civil engineers should also take support from other
branches of engineering for the better planning,
execution and functioning of their building and
infrastructure projects.
4.2 Weakness
Majority of the disasters occur irrespective of the
political boundary and cause serious damage to
various civil amenities and disrupt the basic facilities
vital for daily life. However, due to poor
representation civil engineers in political, policy and
decision making bodies cause hindrance in the
development of proper mitigation formulations.
Besides above, civil engineers face many distractions
in performing their duties in various roles (Patel,
2010). Some of these hindrances are:
(a) Pressure from political or builders' lobbies
(b) Inadequate investigation and feasibility studies
(c) Delay in sanction of projects and in other
administrative processes
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(d) Pressure of time limit
(e) Builders not interested in quality
(f) Inadequate time for investigations and design
(g) Conflicting interests of the agencies involved
(h) Tendering system and specifications
(i) Inadequate resources and adverse working
conditions
The above distractions may not allow the civil
engineers to follow the standard practices lead to
corruption and increased hazards during a disaster
(Penny, 2005). Because of these, a prevalent saying is
that “CIVIL stands for Corruption Is Very Important
in Life”. However, a civil engineers (in every role)
should try their best to overcome the above limitations
and should perform their duty with utmost care which
may leads to complete paradigm change in
engineering practices and the word CIVIL should
stand for “Courage Is Very Important in Life”.
4.3 Opportunity
In spite of several constraints before civil
engineering practices, a lot of scope is there to
improve upon itself. Few collective, long-term actions
are suggested by ASCE (2006). If those suggestions
are substantiated in soul and action then the
opportunity for civil engineers can be further
increased many-fold.
(a) A more robust educational path for civil
engineers that prepares them for leadership
and provides the multifaceted non-technical
skills to serve on projects affecting the public
good.
(b) A more clearly defined organizational
structure for the engineering team, where the
licensed civil engineer takes on the role of
master program/project integrator.
(c) More civil engineers involved in public
policy forums where future directions for
society are developed and where civil
engineers can gain the public’s trust.
(d) More civil engineers elected to public office
where they can directly influence
infrastructure and sustainability policy and
legislation.
(e) A greater level of collaboration and
communication among civil engineers and
those non-engineer stakeholders, seeking to
balance a sustainable environment with
needed infrastructure.
(f) Increased research and development to
mitigate the effects of natural disasters, with

civil engineers playing a leading role in
devising and implementing the innovations.
(g) Development and practicing of sound disaster
management ethics will help implementing
suggestion more effectively.
(h) More research works are being promoted to
understand the mechanism of climate change
and its possible effect on the frequency and
magnitude of environmental/atmospheric
disaster.
To materialize all the above listed suggestions
will be a daunting task that will continue to challenge
civil engineering in future. However, an united civil
engineering community can start the hard work that
will ultimately fulfill that promise. The recent trends
in civil engineering profession may also be deciding
factor in increasing the potential of civil engineers
contribution in disaster management.
Facing daunting issues following multiple
global natural and manmade disasters in the first
decade of the 21st century, along with an apparent
lack of data pertaining to design, maintenance, and
lessons learned, an international commission was
established to define a strategic direction for global
investment in research and development. As a result,
civil engineers have led the shift from a remedial to
preventive approach. By 2025, the world will become
a high-risk environment, with the ongoing threat of
large-scale natural disasters and possible acts of
terrorism. Civil engineers are at the forefront in
developing and applying appropriate approaches and
designs to managing and mitigating risk, realizing that
high reward can come from high-risk solutions. As per
the survey conducted by ASCE (2006), the most
important issues in terms disaster management that
will be impacting civil engineering over the next
two decades are in the order of (a) maintenance of
the existing infrastructure , (b) prevention/mitigation
of natural disasters, (c) professional licensure of civil
engineers, and (d) engineering ethics.
Risk is clearly a major driver of innovation, as
engineers evaluate what new materials, processes, and
designs might be used while weighing the potential for
failure—balancing risk versus reward. To aid the
process, governments have instituted faster turnaround
times for new regulations, permitting ever accelerating
innovation. Project-specific risk decisions are made at
multiple levels as engineers become leaders of
enterprise risk management, with some carrying the
title of chief risk officer. Various civil Engineering
professional societies have sensed the heat of future
need and are already started working in this direction.
According to Parkash (2012), a greater education and
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ISBN: 978-93-5156-340-2
training of engineers on ethics in global engineering
practice is required to ensure engineers to serve as role
models. After 2001 Bhuj earthquake in India, doctrine
for inclusion of subjects of earthquake engineering in
civil engineering courses had been proposed (Doğan,
2010; Jain and Sheth, 2002). Recognizing the
importance of both housing and roads, the two prime
infrastructure required for the growth of the country,
the Central Building Research Institute, Roorkee
(CBRI) and the Central Road Research Institute, New
Delhi (CRRI), two prime laboratories of Council of
Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India, is
jointly started offering the two year PG research
course on “ Engineering ofinfrastructure and Disaster
mitigation” with the aim to promote disaster resistance
practice for the infrastructure like buildings and roads.
Recently, a certification and licensing programme for
professional structural engineers are also planned.
Although this licensing programme has not been
materialized till date, still it can be considered as a
giant step towards improving the safeguard of the built
environment.
In spite of several challenges and constraints civil
engineering will effortlessly continue to contribute to
hazard reduction as future human populace will
become increasingly more complex and
interdependent, and as new threats emerge (e.g.,
impacts of climate change, water scarcity, terrorism).
Engineers will be required to apply new knowledge
and skills to develop innovative and effective ways to
prevent, prepare for, and respond to future disasters.
In addressing the variations of local risk, engineers are
also educating society on the limitations of new
technology so that educated decisions can be made on
how infrastructure is constructed while also managing
expectations. Time to time of engineering codes and
standards to meet the local needs have been also
incorporated in disaster reduction policies. Finally, the
entire disaster management processes have witnessed
a paradigm shift recently around the world (Table 3).
Table 3. The shift in disaster management strategies
(Pearce, 2003).
From To
Hazards Vulnerability
Reactive Proactive
Single agency Partnership (Co-
ordination)
Science driven Multi-disciplinary
Response management Risk Management
Planning for Planning with
Communities communities
ISBN: 978-93-5156-340-2
Communicating to Communicating with
communities communities
It is hoped that, all these recent trends and
activities will certainly act as new stimulus for
formulating the future disaster management plan.
4.4 Threat
There are several threats identified from different
perspectives that are likely to put challenges to civil
engineer community. The very first threat is in the
form of geographical distribution and allocation of
resources during disaster response. Distribution of
resources during disaster response operations has been
characterized by various shortcomings that inhibit
efficient and effective decision making. These
challenges include prioritization of limited resources,
vehicle route selection, and resource location tracking.
Limited resources must be distributed efficiently to
first responders to facilitate lifesaving operations.
However, the supply of resources such as construction
equipment is usually not able to fulfill the demand in
large-scale disasters. This could lead to additional
damage and casualties. In addition to this, there are
also organizational and managerial challenges.
Resources owned by different organizations need to
be accessible and the coordination of resources across
them is a major obstacle in disaster response. The lack
of access, standardization, coordination, and
communication of critical information for situational
awareness and decision making are obstacles that need
to be addressed (Chen et al., 2011).
Presently, in most rapidly growing megacities
with high concentration of human exposure and
physical assets, disaster management is focused on
post-disaster response that pose serious challenges
implementation of pre-disaster mitigation strategies
such as planning and construction of new project
(Wenzel et al., 2007). Another constraint arises in risk
assessment which is an important phase in disaster
management cycle. In formulating and quantifying
risk acceptance criteria, the civil engineering
profession has to deal with clients, politicians, press
and public (http://www.training.fema.gov ). The
communication about these matters is a very complex
subject involving highly technical information,
psychology, presentational skills etc. The difficulty is
that most laymen in the field of risk analysis do have
completely different views on risks. The emphasis is
much more on the magnitude of the consequence then
on abstract notions like probability and frequency.
Especially in low probability high consequence events
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go often beyond the imagination. People are often too
optimistic about risks they are accustomed to but
overreacting to new and unknown risks. The fact that
probabilities in most risk analysis projects are partly
and sometimes even strongly based on judgments
rather than data is another (Vrouwenvelder et al.,
2001). Recently, climate change has emerged as single
largest challenge before the engineer working in the
direction of disaster management. The probability of
occurrence of environmental and atmospheric disaster
is highly susceptible to climate change (Fatima and
Safdar, 2011; Pittock, 2009). The risks associated with
climate changes are real but their predictions are
highly uncertain which make the job of civil engineers
even more challenging and cumbersome.
Besides above some other potential threats to
sustaining role of civil engineers in disaster mitigation
may come from as follows:
(a) Changing political scenario, international
policies leading armed conflicts, changing
public policies.
(b) lack of interest or insufficient co-ordination
among the different stake holders to share
facilities and information.
(c) Disasters are unpredictable and moreover,
their effect and behavior are also erratic.
(d) Lack of interest and/or awareness in
construction industry.
(e) lack of competent licensing authority to look
after the design criteria and their approval,
corruption construction industry and
bureaucracy.
(f) threats that have been generated by the
process of globalization and subsequent
environmental degradation.
5. Conclusions
This paper has critically reviewed the contribution
of civil engineering to the field of disaster
management. From the planning stage to the execution
of civil engineering projects, the paramount
consideration is that care should be taken by all
concerned to ensure public safety in the event of a
disaster. The contribution of civil engineering has
been utmost importance in the setting of engineering
codes and standards. The development of engineering
resources, tools, and methodologies for use in
mitigating the impacts of natural and technological
hazards on the built environment is another possible
avenue where civil engineers can contribute
significantly. However, engineered-hazard mitigation
options alone do not guarantee protection from natural

and other hazards. Therefore, a holistic multi-hazard
perspective that integrates social, economic, and
environmental issues to hazard reduction is preferred.
The engineering professionals, who contribute to
hazard reduction, will be increasingly required to
work across disciplines, and with many actors and
stakeholders. Professional discipline, sensitivity to the
needs of society, an interdisciplinary approach, and
integration of focused efforts towards the development
of built environment, building and infrastructure
projects will lead to a safer society in future. It has
been felt that civil engineers are required to play much
more important role in policy and decision making
process. It has been also realized that civil engineers
need to upgrade their knowledge in the area such as
impact of climate change on disaster scenario through
research activities. Finally, it can be said that as a civil
engineer whatever area one may choose in the
professional field, be it design, research, planning,
teaching or management, it is very important to
remember that there's no limit to the personal
satisfaction one will feel by reducing the risk of
damage to infrastructure during disasters and helping
to make our world a better place to live. Keeping in
view the above facts it is being rightly said that “a
civil engineer can save more life than a doctor” by
providing a safe built environment with uninterrupted
and safer provision of drinking water and
transportation network.
6. References
[1] Patil, P. 2012. Disaster management in India.
Indian stream research journal 2 (1): 1-6.
[2] Daya, K., Md. Ayaz, and S. N. Lohitkumar.
2011. Disaster Management in India. Term
project, Submitted at Civil Engineering
Department, IIT Kanpur, India
[3] Patel, P. V. 2010. Role of civil engineers in
disaster mitigation. The Indian Concrete
Journal XVIII (11): 29-31.
[4] Jigyasu, R (2004) Sustainable post disaster
reconstruction through integrated risk
management. In proceeding og 2nd int.
conference on "post disaster reconstruction,
Conventry University, UK.
[5] ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers).
2006. The vision for civil engineering in 2025.
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