ABSTRACT
There is now clear and irrefutable evidence that the climate is changing due to anthropogenic actions, including emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, and fluorocarbons. Some of the effects of climate change will put buildings and communities at increasing risk. These vulnerabilities include: rising sea levels causing coastal flooding, more intense storms causing both coastal and inland riverine flooding, increased frequency of drought (which in severe situations can result in reduced power plant output or even power plants having to shut down, due to lack of cooling water), wildfire, more severe winter storms, and stronger convection cells that can spawn tornadoes and derechos. A secondary impact of all of these conditions can be power outages. In addition to climate change-related power outages, earthquakes, tsunamis, magnetic storms (magnetic interference from coronal discharges), and terrorist actions (including cyber-terrorism) can also result in power outages. Given the growing risk of power outages, our buildings should be designed and built to ensure that they will passively maintain habitable temperatures in the event of lost power—this is the concept of “passive survivability.” New methodologies and metrics are emerging to help us quantify the passive survivability of buildings. Such measures could eventually be incorporated into building codes as important life-safety measures. This chapter establishes the context for passive survivability, reports on methodologies, and metrics for assessing passive survivability, and provides recommendations for needed research to advance this agenda.
