Highlights
Helping communities survive the powerful forces of nature
Most people know that earthquakes are powerful forces of nature, even more so when they occur in coastal areas, where they often generate tsunamis of catastrophic levels. Most members of coastal communities, however, do not necessarily know what it takes to fully survive and recover from a natural disaster of this grandeur.
Professor Ioan Nistor has dedicated his career to researching the impacts of extreme natural events on coastal communities at an international scale. Through his research, Nistor contributes to the development and improvement of new standards for designing infrastructure capable of resisting extreme disasters.
The only international member of the two main tsunami committees in the world (ASCE in the United States and JSCE in Japan), Nistor bridges many gaps on both committees, providing a cross-cultural viewpoint and a wealth of engineering experience and knowledge. As a leader in hydraulic and coastal engineering, he works with communities to design critical infrastructure, such as hospitals, bridges, ports, shelters and army bases that will resist and survive the impact of extreme events.
To do so, Professor Nistor and his team travel to impacted communities to conduct Tsunami Forensic Engineering Surveys. This process involves taking various measurements of the buildings, interviewing locals about what they saw and experienced, and surveying the damaged infrastructure. By doing this and conducting thorough research and analysis, he is able to help communities develop higher standards for resistance infrastructure that can make the difference between several thousand and few lives lost.
To learn more about Professor Nistor’s research, please visit his website.
