| Dr. Geoff Thomas |
| Wed 31 May 2017, 13:00 - 14:00 |
| AGB Seminar Room AGB Building, King’s Buildings, EH9 3JL |
If you have a question about this talk, please contact: Martina Manes (s1688520)
Perceptions of Risk – Fires and Earthquakes
Abstract:
Professional Engineering is principally about managing risk, however risk and mitigation are concepts that are poorly understood by the public, decision makers and not necessarily well understood by engineers. Recent earthquakes in New Zealand have changed the perception of earthquake risk amongst the public and politically, and although the relative risk from fire is still significantly greater than that from earthquakes, the perceived risk from earthquakes is much much higher than for fire. This presentation will show how perceptions of risk from earthquakes in New Zealand has changed and affected public policy along with the less public changes in fire safety in buildings, using examples from research into fire risk and earthquake damage.
Bio:
Dr. Geoff Thomas is a Senior Lecturer in Structures and Fire Safety at the Victoria University of Wellington. Dr. Thomas has been working on a wide range of fields, which include post earthquakes fires, fire resistance of timber structures, structure resistance of light timber frame domestic dwellings, development of performance-based building codes with respect to fire safety in buildings.
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