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Resilience System

  
The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (http://www.ipcc.ch/) issues their “Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability” report today.  The press release (http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/ar5/pr_wg2/140330_pr_wgII_spm_en.pdf) essentially highlights how our response to climate change will be central to our survival and the continued function of world economies.  They mention how adapting to past events caused by climate change may not protect us from future events.  As architects and the many stakeholders define what resilience is, we need to look forward as well as backward.  Predictive models of what is to come will be more important than ever.  Minimal baseline design requirements such as building codes may not be dynamic enough to explain the conditions our buildings and sites will actually face.  Architects will very likely be expected to design with certain levels of code plus resilience in the near future.  The expected life span of the project and how essential the facility is may drive what level of resilience we will be asked to factor in.  A Resilience System, a consensus system defining levels of resilience enhancements, will be required to support these efforts.
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