The built environment is the result of people human activities on Earth; in the nar- row sense, it refers to human-made buildings and structures. According to ’s work to enable and enhance
Wikipedia (2012), the term built
environment refers to “the human-made surroundings
that provide the setting for human activity, ranging in
scale from personal shelter and buildings to neighborhoods and cities that can often include their supporting infrastructure, such as water supply or energy
networks.” Disasters of all sizes, especially large-scale
ones, cause considerable damage to the built environment and disruption to power and communication
systems, making normal human and emergency management activities difficult. This paper briefly examines the impact of several large-scale disasters on the
built environment and explores what engineers can do
to be better prepared to deal with future disasters. The
disasters examined in this paper are Hurricane Irene
(2011), the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Hurricane
Katrina (2005), and the terrorist attacks of September
11, 2001