Collapsing Structures And Public Mismanagement

Author : Wolfgang Seibel
Publisher : Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 9783030678173
Total Pages : 183 pages
Book Rating : 4.72/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Collapsing Structures and Public Mismanagement written by Wolfgang Seibel and published by Palgrave Macmillan. This book was released on 2021-07-27 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is about mismanagement of public agencies as a threat to life and limb. Collapsing bridges and buildings kill people and often leave many more injured. Such disasters do not happen out of the blue nor are they purely technical in nature since construction and maintenance are subject to safety regulation and enforcement by governmental agencies. This book analyses four relevant cases from Australia, New Zealand, the USA and Germany. Arguing that, while preventing disaster through public oversight is essentially easy, the difficult part for public officials and private contractors and consultants alike is to resist incentives that threaten professional skills and standards. Rather than stressing well-known pathologies of bureaucracy as a potential source of disaster, this book argues, learning for the sake of prevention should aim at neutralizing threats to integrity and strengthening a sense of responsibility among public officials.

Author : Wolfgang Seibel
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3030678180
Total Pages : 193 pages
Book Rating : 4.80/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Collapsing Structures and Public Mismanagement written by Wolfgang Seibel and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-01-07 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This open access book is about mismanagement of public agencies as a threat to life and limb. Collapsing bridges and buildings kill people and often leave many more injured. Such disasters do not happen out of the blue nor are they purely technical in nature since construction and maintenance are subject to safety regulation and enforcement by governmental agencies. This book analyses four relevant cases from Australia, New Zealand, the USA and Germany. Arguing that, while preventing disaster through public oversight is essentially easy, the difficult part for public officials and private contractors and consultants alike is to resist incentives that threaten professional skills and standards. Rather than stressing well-known pathologies of bureaucracy as a potential source of disaster, this book argues, learning for the sake of prevention should aim at neutralizing threats to integrity and strengthening a sense of responsibility among public officials.

Author :
Publisher : BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN 13 : 1837695539
Total Pages : 176 pages
Book Rating : 4.39/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Advances in Structural Integrity and Failure written by and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2024-02-21 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The purpose of this book is to expand the knowledge and skills of civil and structural engineers and researchers and help them better understand, design, and analyze civil engineering applications. This book examines advancements in structural integrity and failure and underground construction. It offers profound insights into the mechanisms that can lead to the integrity or failure of structures and result in safe underground construction. It provides details on the fundamental principles, theories, behavior, and performance of different structural elements and underground construction. The book delves into the mechanics, design, and construction of reinforced concrete structures. It explores the design principles applied to reinforced concrete structures and considers critical structural elements like beams, slabs, columns, and foundations. It also demonstrates various advances in reinforced concrete technology, including high-performance concrete, fiber-reinforced concrete, self-compacting concrete, and the use of nanomaterials. It describes methods for the analysis and evaluation of reinforced concrete structures, non-destructive testing methods, structural health monitoring, finite element analysis, and causes of failure. In addition, the book proposes a design model for determining the flexural bearing capacity of reinforced concrete beams having reinforcement steel with reduced modulus of elasticity. Moreover, the book investigates the effects of loading rates on the mechanical properties of structural steel. It also evaluates the formation of welding defects in the process of connecting steel structures, which is inevitable, from the aspect of failure mechanics. In addition, it utilizes an equivalent shell-wire model to propose a simple accurate technique for nonlinear assessment of reinforced concrete shear walls with less computational cost. The book introduces tunnel design theory and method, support structure systems, construction technology, and equipment under complex geological conditions. Furthermore, it highlights procedures to design efficient dewatering systems considering the working conditions, stability, and impacts generated in the vicinity of construction, and to examine the state of retaining walls by using hydrogeological tools. Finally, it outlines the online monitoring and intelligent diagnosis mechanism of key equipment in the subway ventilation system.

Author : Phillip Wearne
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 264 pages
Book Rating : 4.15/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Collapse written by Phillip Wearne and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What happens when the very ground beneath your feet gives way? In Collapse, Philip Wearne tells the stories behind the worst structural engineering disasters of the last fifty years, and the forensic engineers who investigated their causes. Using expert testimonies from scientific investigators, Wearne studies eleven high-profile cases of catastrophic structural collapse, from The Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City and the Hartford Civic Center in Connecticut, to the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Sometimes, if these disasters have a single cause, it is a small flaw that spawns a chain reaction -- for instance, the miniscule flaw in the metal of one eyebar of the Point Pleasant Bridge on the Ohio River. Usually, though, and more alarmingly, the causes are human. Mistakes, misunderstandings, incompetence, greed, and corruption: every facet of human failing is represented in these structural collapses. This makes the investigation of these failures -- by agencies like the Failure Analysis Associates, who can have close to two thousand investigations ongoing at any one time -- dirty and dangerous business. Wearne's case study takes us deep inside the ever-growing industry of forensic engineering, revealing a group of professionals dedicated to determining the cause of a collapse at any cost, while learning and applying valuable lessons from each failure. Provocative and well-written, Collapse is essential for deepening our understanding of -- and readiness for -- catastrophe.

Author : Keith Smith
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1351261622
Total Pages : 715 pages
Book Rating : 4.23/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Environmental Hazards written by Keith Smith and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-11-29 with total page 715 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The seventh edition of Environmental Hazards provides a much expanded and fully up-to-date overview of all the extreme environmental events that threaten people and what they value in the 21st century globally. It integrates cutting-edge materials to provide an interdisciplinary approach to environmental hazards and their management, illustrating how natural and human systems interact to place communities of all sizes, and at all stages of economic development, at risk. Part 1 defines basic concepts of hazard, risk, vulnerability and disaster and explores the evolution of hazards theory. Part 2 employs a consistent chapter structure to demonstrate how individual hazards occur, their impacts and how the risks can be assessed and managed. This extensively revised edition includes: Fresh perspectives on the reliability of disaster data, disaster risk reduction, risk and disaster perception and communication, and new technologies available to assist with environmental hazard management The addition of several new environmental hazards including landslide and avalanches, cryospheric hazards, karst and subsidence hazards, and hazards of the Anthropocene More boxed sections with a focus on both generic issues and the lessons to be learned from a carefully selected range of up-to-date extreme events An annotated list of key resources, including further reading and relevant websites, for all chapters More colour diagrams and photographs, and more than 1,000 references to some of the most significant and recent published material New exercises to assist teaching in the classroom, or self-learning This carefully structured and balanced textbook captures the complexity and dynamism of environmental hazards and is essential reading for students across many disciplines including geography, environmental science, environmental studies and natural resources.

Author : Adriana Mica
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1000775682
Total Pages : 668 pages
Book Rating : 4.86/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Routledge International Handbook of Failure written by Adriana Mica and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-01-30 with total page 668 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Handbook examines the study of failure in social sciences, its manifestations in the contemporary world, and the modalities of dealing with it – both in theory and in practice. It draws together a comprehensive approach to failing, and invisible forms of cancelling out and denial of future perspectives. Underlining critical mechanisms for challenging and reimagining norms of success in contemporary society, it allows readers to understand how contemporary regimes of failure are being formed and institutionalized in relation to policy and economic models, such as neo-liberalism. While capturing the diversity of approaches in framing failure, it assesses the conflations and shifts which have occurred in the study of failure over time. Intended for scholars who research processes of inequality and invisibility, this Handbook aims to formulate a critical manifesto and activism agenda for contemporary society. Presenting an integrated view about failure, the Handbook will be an essential reading for students in sociology, social theory, anthropology, international relations and development research, organization theory, public policy, management studies, queer theory, disability studies, sports, and performance research.

Author : Mark Rhinard
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1350342920
Total Pages : 521 pages
Book Rating : 4.27/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Crises and Challenges for the European Union written by Mark Rhinard and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2023-10-19 with total page 521 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The crises of the European Union extend beyond the challenges of Covid-19, Brexit, the Eurozone, and mass migration, cutting to the core of the EU itself. Taking a structural rather than event-based approach, this text unpacks all aspects of the EU in crisis and analyses the implications of these crises for the EU and its member states. This edition argues that crises and challenges are no longer unique and discreet events facing the EU, but rather, they are better understood as sustained conditions that have changed the relationships between member states, the functioning of institutions, the nature of public engagement and the prospects for integration. Chapters broach institutional issues as well as specific policy challenges, covering questions of legitimacy and leadership and offering a full chapter on democracy and Euroscepticism. Working within both historical and theoretical frameworks, this is the perfect companion for those studying and researching contemporary challenges facing the EU, European integration, political crisis management and transboundary crises more broadly.

Author : Guy D. Middleton
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 110715149X
Total Pages : 463 pages
Book Rating : 4.99/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Understanding Collapse written by Guy D. Middleton and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-06-26 with total page 463 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this lively survey, Guy D. Middleton critically examines our ideas about collapse - how we explain it and how we have constructed potentially misleading myths around collapses - showing how and why collapse of societies was a much more complex phenomenon than is often admitted.

Author : Joseph Tainter
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521386739
Total Pages : 268 pages
Book Rating : 4.3X/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Collapse of Complex Societies written by Joseph Tainter and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1988 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dr Tainter describes nearly two dozen cases of collapse and reviews more than 2000 years of explanations. He then develops a new and far-reaching theory.

Author : Arjen Boin
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3030726800
Total Pages : 137 pages
Book Rating : 4.05/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Governing the Pandemic written by Arjen Boin and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-05-10 with total page 137 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This open access book offers unique insights into how governments and governing systems, particularly in advanced economies, have responded to the immense challenges of managing the coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing disease COVID-19. Written by three eminent scholars in the field of the politics and policy of crisis management, it offers a unique ‘bird’s eye’ view of the immense logistical and political challenges of addressing a worst-case scenario that would prove the ultimate stress test for societies, governments, governing institutions and political leaders. It examines how governments and governing systems have (i) made sense of emerging transboundary threats that have spilled across health, economic, political and social systems (ii) mobilised systems of governance and often fearful and sceptical citizens (iii) crafted narratives amid high uncertainty about the virus and its impact and (iv) are working towards closure and a return to ‘normal’ when things can never quite be the same again. The book also offers the building blocks of pathways to future resilience. Succeeding and failing in all these realms is tied in with governance structures, experts, trust, leadership capabilities and political ideologies. The book appeals to anyone seeking to understand ‘what’s going on?’, but particularly academics and students across multiple disciplines, journalists, public officials, politicians, non-governmental organisations and citizen groups.