Impact of Strengthening Residential Buildings Based on Future Hurricane Risks in a Changing Climate

Bibliographic Data

ID21738366
AuthorsBowei Song (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), Yihan Jiang (0009-0003-3050-4576, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), Eun Jeong (0000-0003-1512-7760, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), Eun Jeong Cha (Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
Year2025
Volume26
Issue4
Publication date2025-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueNatural Hazards Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1527-6988 • E-ISSN: 1527-6996
PublisherAmerican Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1061/nhrefo.nheng-2345
OpenAlexW4412700505
LanguageEN
References cited48

Hurricanes are one type of significant natural hazard, causing widespread and severe physical damage to buildings. Hurricane risks are projected to worsen under climate change. Many studies suggest an increasing need to protect buildings from hurricane damage, prompting research into both general strategies, like building code changes, and the specific mitigation strategies to strengthen building components. However, due to the slow pace of building code updates, the low adoption rates, and the focus on new constructions, prioritizing building code changes will have a limited impact on reducing hurricane risk for the entire building inventory. Implementing specific mitigation strategies to strengthen building components offers a practical way to protect both new and existing buildings from increasing hurricane risks. This study aims to conduct a comprehensive impact assessment for building component-strengthening strategies. We investigate the benefits of installing add-on building components (accordion windows, perforated parapets, and hurricane clips) and their effectiveness in reducing hurricane losses at the building inventory level. We propose a dynamic building inventory model that accounts for maintenance, construction, demolition, and risk mitigation implementation timing to project future building inventory considering hurricane mitigation strategies. Additionally, an artificial neural network (ANN) is developed to estimate aggregated regional loss based on hurricane parameters and building inventory, efficiently assessing hurricane risk in eight southeastern states in the US at the census tract level. The risk assessment results indicate that the average annual regional loss reduction by mitigation-enhanced new structures is estimated to range from approximately $5.85 million to $12.33 million per county under representative concentration pathway 8.5 (RCP8.5) climate conditions for the periods 2050–2060 and 2090–2100, with further increases when retrofitting existing buildings

Climate change · Disaster mitigation · Environmental planning · Environmental resource management · Forensic engineering · Geography · Meteorology · Natural hazard · Earthquake and Tsunami Effects · Engineering · Environmental Science · Tropical and Extratropical Cyclones Research · Wind and Air Flow Studies · Geology

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