Abstract:
A community comprises of not only the physical infrastructure for its daily functioning, but other essential social services and economic structure. The dimensions of resiliency and sustainability for each are different. They are also interdependent. At systems level, they need to work coherently and synergistically for the benefit of a community.

Although the broad definitions of Resilience and Sustainability are accepted universally, the implementation of these concepts in practice are context dependent and thus, the outcome varies significantly depending upon the location and situation. Developing countries versus developed countries, social and cultural acceptance, governance structure, and economic level are among the issues that determine the steps a community is willing to take towards achieving the needed levels of resilience and sustainability. It is, therefore, necessary to develop a framework of measurable common attributes that are needed to make resilience and sustainability basic criteria in all community functionality decisions. Such a framework then, can be customized to suit the situation of any particular urban community.

Speaker Biography:
Dr. Vilas Mujumdar, D.P.A., P.E., S.E., Dist. M.ASCE, FACI, FPCI, F.I Struct E. (U.K), is a consulting engineer based in metro Washington D.C. area. For thirty-five years, he was engaged in executive management in the private industry and high‐level administration in the public sector. In the private sector, he worked as Chief Executive Officer, President, & Partner in many engineering organizations. In the public sector, he served as Chief of Operations for the Division of the State Architect, State of California, and as the Program Director at the National Science Foundation (NSF) for Engineering Research Centers and for the Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) Programs. His range of experience includes consulting engineering, project management, teaching, research, and research management. His focus is to integrate engineering and social science to reduce natural hazard risk to society. Mujumdar has a doctorate in Public Administration/Policy Seismic Risk), a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering, a Master’s degree in Civil Engineering, and a Master’s degree in Business Administration. Among his many accolades, he is the 2017 recipient of the Kenneth Andrew Roe Award from the American Association of Engineering Societies (AAES) “for his leadership contributions that have helped shape public policy for natural hazard reduction through a holistic systems approach; for representing U.S. engineers to the World Federation of Engineering Organizations, and as a member in the Pan American Academy of Engineers.”

Sponsored by the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering & Earth Sciences.