The cheaper we build our buildings, the more they will cost after an earthquake, wildfire or hurricane

A tornado cut a 270-kilometre path through Kentucky in mid-December 2021, killing 80 people, many in their homes or workplaces, and leaving thousands homeless. The accident prompted David Privat, a professor of structural engineering at the University of Florida, to write an opinion piece for the Washington Post, reminding Americans that new buildings can be hurricane-resistant, but they are not.

We are learning similar facts in Canada. Barry, Ont., which was hit by a group of tornadoes on July 15, 2021, is still recovering. So are those who survived the fires in Fort McMurray, Alta, in 2016, and in Leighton, British Columbia, in June 2021. It’s the same story after floods in British Columbia in November 2021 and Derecho that hit southwestern Ontario in late May, raised roofs Some buildings are destroyed by others.

Engineers, architects, and builders can design and build affordable new buildings that can withstand hurricanes, floods, and wildfires without turning buildings into bunkers. We can also design earthquake-resistant buildings, but we don’t.

I am a Structural Engineer and an expert in Performance Based Engineering and Disaster Risk Management. I think the only way to achieve this is to order our building code to reduce the total cost to the community of owning new buildings. We’ve always been free to make it happen, but we now have a rare window to shape that future, as nation and code developers urgently respond to the climate crisis.

Why don’t we build flexible buildings?

Building code writers, engineers, and others often tout the benefits of modern building codes. But the new buildings keep us relatively safe. They are not disaster proof. Why don’t we build better buildings? Because it will cost a little more.

We build to reduce initial construction costs while maintaining a reasonable degree of safety and avoiding damage where practicable, a strategy known as ‘least cost-first’ construction. We save a small amount on initial construction costs and call the savings ‘affordability’.

But that kind of affordability is an illusion, like a bewilderingly low sticker price for a flimsy car. Wise car buyers know that low cost is just the beginning of a series of bills.

In new construction, each dollar saves $4 or more in future costs to pay for unexpected disasters: severe storms, massive earthquakes, and catastrophic wildfires. This future cost is not a condition, but a time – or rather a series of times that are becoming more frequent and severe because of the climate crisis.

A man looks at a partially collapsed building in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, September 4, 2021, in Homa, Los Angeles (AP Photo/John Locher)

In research by the US Federal Emergency Management Agency and others, my colleagues and I applied simple methods to designing buildings to be stronger, more solid, or above a flood plain than US building code currently requires. (Canadian national building code is similar). We found that the community would initially pay about one percent more for new construction, but avoid future losses many times greater, reducing the long-term cost of ownership to the community.

Read more: Contrary to popular belief, eastern Canada is at greater risk of earthquakes than imagined

Engineers could use these ideas a long time ago. If we had it, Canada would lose no more than $2 billion a year to natural disasters, which is the equivalent of four days of new construction.

Our losses grow 9 percent every year, like a credit card that is charged more each month than is repaid. But unlike a credit card bill, nature requires a massive, unpredictable payment any time you want it, from anywhere in the country. No Canadian society is immune.

Canada’s annual losses from disasters have increased about nine percent annually, ten times faster than population growth. The author introduced we can solve the problem

Prime Minister Trudeau has committed to taking bold and swift action on climate change and the disasters associated with it, and better building codes can be a part of it. We can install sewage backflow valves in homes and workplaces, use non-combustible siding instead of vinyl in the wild-urban facade (where the built environment blends with nature) and install shockproof asphalt shingle roofs in cold country. Engineers have long lists of turnkey solutions for both new buildings and those we already have.

Read more: The tragic wildfires will continue until we rethink our societies

Building codes created those problems. They aim for safe and maximally affordable construction, ignoring the long-term cost of ownership. We build cheaply but not efficiently.

Ruins of homes in Moore, Oklahoma, after a tornado on May 20, 2013 (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Three killer tornadoes in 15 years have convinced city officials in Moore, Oklahoma, that national building codes do not protect them. Therefore, they decreed to make new buildings resistant to all but the most severe hurricanes.

Developers have warned that stricter requirements will cause housing prices to rise and that development could dry up or move out of Moore. Nothing happened. A few years after the law was passed, researchers found no effect on housing prices or development.

Other jurisdictions could do better, too, just as Florida did after Hurricane Andrew in 1992. The state leaped ahead of US building codes with its strictest and most cost-effective code. The Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety has developed a voluntary standard called a “bonus”, which reduces future losses and pays more of itself at a higher value on resale.

Disaster Resistant Buildings That Also Cost Less

The climate crisis is forcing major energy efficiency changes to building code, providing a rare opportunity to fix our growing disaster liability and reduce the cost of ownership in the long run. An update might include these three steps:

Enact a building code goal to reduce the total community cost of ownership for new buildings. The Canadian Commission on Building and Fire Laws can formalize the principle into Canada’s national building code.

Request code change requests (proposals by people to the Canadian Building and Fire Codes Commission for inclusion in the national building code) to be accompanied by estimates of incremental building costs and benefits in terms of reduced energy use, future repair costs, improved health and life safety outcomes, and other economic impacts whose monetary value can be roughly estimated reasonable.

Limiting code committees’ freedom to reject cost-effective code change requests.

These changes will eventually reduce your credit card balance in Canada. As Canada rethinks energy efficiency, it can also tackle the faulty economics of less expensive construction. With slightly higher up-front costs, our buildings will be more resilient to disasters and will cost less to own in the long run.

With wiser code, we can have better, safer, and more efficient buildings for ourselves, our neighbors, our children, and all Canadians in the future.

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