Abbie Liel News

CU Boulder partners with Notre Dame to improve housing resilience

Susan Glairon — Mon, 07 Oct 2024 11:43:48 +0000

CU Boulder partners with Notre Dame to improve housing resilience Susan Glairon Mon, 10/07/2024 - 05:43

Susan Glairon

After the 2023 Lahaina Fire devastated Maui's historic town, killing 102 people and destroying more than 2,200 structures, two longtime friends teamed up to study housing resilience—an idea they first discussed in graduate school.

Abbie Liel, a professor of civil, environmental and architectural engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder, and Susan Ostermann, an assistant professor of global affairs at the University of Notre Dame, are exploring solutions for building homes that can withstand disasters like hurricanes and fires, each approaching the issue from different perspectives.

Liel, a structural engineer, brings expertise in buildings and their hazard and climate-related vulnerabilities. Ostermann, a political scientist and attorney, studies how to achieve desired outcomes, such as resilient housing, through a combination of regulatory and non-regulatory means. Both are exploring how their research findings can inform policy recommendations.

“Everybody wants safe, resilient housing,” Liel says. “Many communities in America have building codes to support that. But, in some places, it doesn't work very well.”

Professor Abbie Liel interviews a resident who lost her home in the Lahaina fire while Bona Park, a Notre Dame student, looks on.

New beginnings
Their idea to collaborate fully emerged during the pandemic when Liel and Ostermann discussed how regulations impact the building industry. The two saw an opportunity to combine Liel’s engineering expertise with Ostermann’s background in political science and law, which led to an NSF proposal that outlined their collaborative vision.

Their Maui study is part of a larger National Science Foundation-funded project on housing resilience that also includes Alaska and Puerto Rico. Alaska experienced an earthquake in 2018 and several high-wind events that resulted in significant damage, while Puerto Rico was struck by Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017 and earthquakes in 2014 and 2020.

“In Alaska, regulations don't work very well because there's strong pushback against them,” Liel says. “There's no resistance to safe, resilient housing. But there's a strong resistance to a system that says you must do it, and you must do it in a specific way.”

The two are exploring which aspects of regulations are effective. Despite extensive building regulations, surprisingly little research has been done on their impact, Liel says.

One of the problems Liel identifies is the complexity of building codes and regulations.

“I believe in regulations as a mechanism. But they're this,” she says, pulling out several heavy, thick regulation books from her shelf. “And there's a bunch of other books that go with them. Regulations support the goals of safe, resilient housing, but they can also get in the way. We need to understand how culture and local building practices interact with regulatory processes and determine what needs to be tweaked about that system to support resilient housing.

“Builders want to provide safe, resilient houses. However, regulations frequently change. Do they really need three-inch nail spacing or would six-inch spacing be enough? Because using six-inch spacing might be much easier to construct.”

Remnants of a burned house from the 2023 Lahaina Fire.

Different but same
Puerto Rico, Maui and Alaska each have distinct local building practices but share similarities, Liel notes. All three locations are remote and expansive and have significant indigenous populations. Residents in all three areas recognize the uniqueness of their communities and face challenges distinct from more centrally located areas.

“Understanding the differences and similarities between the three locations helps us understand what's going on across America,” Liel says.

Maui faces distinct hazards, such as wildfire risk, in addition to high winds and earthquakes. Hawaii’s regulatory context, compared to Alaska, shows a more general acceptance of building codes and regulations. While Maui residents may feel these regulations don't always serve them well, the emphasis is on improving them rather than dismissing them entirely.

“I’m generalizing from many interviews, but it seems that with a more effective regulatory process—or even non-regulatory approaches— we could achieve better outcomes, enhance hazard management and gain fresh perspectives,” Liel says.

Strengthening research through collaboration
Essential to the project is a team of student research assistants, including three CU Boulder civil engineering graduate students and five Notre Dame undergraduates representing a variety of majors ranging from global affairs to psychology to mechanical engineering.

As part of the three-area study, the team identified key building safety characteristics crucial for protection from windstorms and earthquakes, then compared how homes in different areas varied in terms of walls, roof shapes, number of stories and the presence of large garages.

Brianna Clark, a CU Boulder master’s student who graduated in 2024, worked on the Alaska portion of the project, using drone imaging to assess the impact of regulations on construction. She compared areas with plan reviews and inspections to those without, to better understand how regulations influence building practices.

Diego Valdivieso, a CU Boulder graduate student from Chile, has been researching ways to support wood frame construction in his home country. In Puerto Rico, he and others explored the shift from timber to reinforced concrete—a material that increases embodied carbon and presents seismic vulnerabilities though it offers more safety in hurricanes. Their research investigates how timber could still serve as a viable, hurricane-resistant building option.

“Residents want to avoid roofs blowing off during storms, and it is preventable,” Liel says. “Our goal is to promote knowledge on building hurricane-resistant roofs and support safer construction practices.”

Through regular meetings, CU Boulder and Notre Dame students connect, and Liel and Ostermann engage with students from both universities. For example, Ostermann was on Clark’s master's thesis committee.

“The students support each other and share their perspectives, creating a rich learning environment,” Liel says. “Instead of working in isolation and combining efforts later, we collaborate on all aspects of the project, ensuring an interdisciplinary approach.

“We learned a lot from past disasters like the Marshall Fire, but my dream is to gain this knowledge before disasters strike. As we build communities, it’s crucial to understand not just safe construction, but also the processes supporting it. We shouldn't wait for the next disaster to figure out how to ensure safety and resilience.”

One example is in Alaska, where the team is exploring how to provide real estate buyers with information to assess a property’s resilience before purchase.

"The 2018 earthquake near Anchorage, showed that some homes withstood the event well, while others did not. Regulations are meant to set a baseline for safety and quality, but in areas where they are absent or poorly enforced, buyers may struggle to gauge a property’s true condition. We’re exploring ways to improve transparency in the home-buying process to address this.”

Next steps
The team will analyze more than 100 interviews completed in Puerto Rico, Alaska and Hawaii, for a comparative study. Next summer, the researchers plan to explore interventions that address the challenges they’ve identified. In Alaska, for example, they might focus on improving building information disclosure, while in Puerto Rico, the team will be exploring how providing information about hurricane straps—how they connect roofs to walls and their availability—could encourage their use.

“This project highlights the power of interdisciplinary collaboration,” Liel says. “Everyone listens and is open to learning from each other.”

The University of Notre Dame contributed to this report.

Two longtime friends, CU Boulder’s Abbie Liel and Notre Dame’s Susan Ostermann, are leading a collaborative NSF-funded study on resilient housing in disaster-prone areas lincluding Maui, Alaska and Puerto Rico. Their research combines Liel’s expertise in structural engineering with Ostermann’s background in political science and law, aiming to find solutions for safer, more resilient housing.

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Professors Abbie Liel and Susan Osterman, and Bona Park, a Notre Dame mechanical engineering student, walk next to a memorial for the 2023 Lahaina Fire on the island of Maui. Photos by Matthew Thayer, courtesy of University of Notre Dame.

Women’s History Month: A Conversation with Professor Abbie Liel

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Mar 2024 16:47:43 +0000

Women’s History Month: A Conversation with Professor Abbie Liel Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 03/26/2024 - 10:47

Professor Abbie Liel's work focuses on finding new ways to design and assess structures to withstand extreme conditions, aiming to make them safer and more sustainable.

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Colorado prisons vulnerable to natural disasters but may be ill-prepared

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 20:15:00 +0000

Colorado prisons vulnerable to natural disasters but may be ill-prepared Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 10/25/2023 - 14:15

Seventy-five percent of incarceration facilities in the state are vulnerable to climate-related hazards, such as wildfires, extreme heat, floods or landslides, and many are ill-equipped to handle them, new research by Geotechnical Engineering Professor Shideh Dashti suggests.

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Assoc. Prof. Shideh Dashti & Prof. Abbie Liel on Incarceration in a Warming World panel, Sept. 29, 3-4:30, DLC 1B70

Anonymous — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 16:11:26 +0000

Assoc. Prof. Shideh Dashti & Prof. Abbie Liel on Incarceration in a Warming World panel, Sept. 29, 3-4:30, DLC 1B70 Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 09/15/2023 - 10:11

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Studying the Marshall Fire recovery to help communities rebuild

Anonymous — Fri, 16 Sep 2022 17:24:06 +0000

Studying the Marshall Fire recovery to help communities rebuild Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 09/16/2022 - 11:24

Jeff Zehnder

Related News

Webinar: Building Capacity for Safe, Disaster-Resilient Housing - Sept. 20

Tuesday, Sept. 20 | 12:00 p.m. | Zoom - Register Now

Safe, disaster-resilient housing is critical to our way of life, prosperity, and sense of security. Yet, many houses remain vulnerable to damage from earthquakes, hurricanes, and other hazards, affecting communities in the near and long term.

In this webinar, Professors Amy Javernick-Will and Abbie Liel will describe findings from research that their team conducted to enhance housing safety in the multi-hazard context of Puerto Rico.

Considering that a large portion of housing stock is built informally, where building codes and regulations may not be followed, they argue that how builders and residents perceive housing safety influences how housing is designed, built, and maintained.

Focusing on one misalignment, the installation of hurricane straps, they will discuss their initial efforts to build capacity in the region by partnering with a community-based organization.

Find out more and register to attend

The Marshall fire screamed across the prairie, exploding into homes with 80 mph winds and destroying entire neighborhoods. It caused over a billion dollars in damage in less than a day and took everything from more than 1,000 homeowners in Superior and Louisville, Colorado, leaving behind little more than ash and concrete foundations.

Nine months have passed since the disaster, and as families work to rebuild, an interdisciplinary team of University of Colorado Boulder researchers has received a major National Science Foundation grant to study long-term community impacts to help improve outcomes from future disasters.

“In this project, we’re really interested in how jurisdictions and homeowners are rebuilding, particularly in light of future risks,” said Amy Javernick-Will, a professor of civil, environmental and architectural engineering and lead investigator on the grant. “There have been other fires in California and Oregon, but the scale of this destruction was pretty dramatic.”

As disasters increase, destroying homes and infrastructure, families and governments have to make decisions on how to rebuild. Those decisions include adoption and enforcement of building codes that can have a long-term influence on community outcomes in resiliency and environmental sustainability. Those codes, however, come with a tradeoff, including potential increased costs and time to rebuild.

It is an obstacle facing one member of the research team first-hand. Matthew Koschmann, an associate professor of communications, owns a rental property in Superior that was destroyed by the fire.

“Do I want to incorporate this new ordinance or opt out? I’m part of these conversations on Slack channels online. Some people are saying we should upgrade our houses to be more fire resilient, that it will help protect the entire neighborhood, but others are saying the added cost to their rebuild is insurmountable,” Koschmann said.

The research is particularly focused on the social aspect of rebuilding: how communities are connecting, influencing each other, and making major decisions about moving forward. A goal of the grant is to provide guidance on the decisions and uncertainties homeowners and governments face during the rebuilding process and identifying the processes and codes that meet collective goals after a disaster.

“In fires, what your neighbors do affects your property,” Javernick-Will said. “This shared action is really important, and we want to uncover this process. Most studies look at just the immediate response, the first couple of weeks. There are far fewer long-term studies.”

Much of the work will be conducted through personal interviews with homeowners, as well as builders, insurance companies, and municipal government officials. Noah Gershon, a civil engineering PhD student, is leading this part of the effort.

“There is a complicated interplay between the different groups,” Gershon said. “We want to study each to see how we can make things better. There’s a perception that after a disaster, everything is taken care of and funding is available for everyone. It’s just not true. Homeowners have to figure out a lot themselves. We want to improve that process.”

A goal of the work is to bridge the gap between engineering and human social interaction to understand the real-world impacts of decision making after disasters.

“There are complex social interactions here. It isn’t just technical scientific stuff. It’s both,” Koschmann said. “There’s a level of stress and tension that’s part of it and dealing with different insurance policies, neighbors, building codes. This isn’t abstract. It has real personal impact.”

In addition to Javernick-Will, Koschmann, and Gershon, the research team also includes Abbie Liel, a professor of civil, environmental and architectural engineering, and Megan Ellery, a civil engineering PhD student.

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Webinar: Building Capacity for Safe, Disaster-Resilient Housing - Sept. 20

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Sep 2022 20:42:52 +0000

Webinar: Building Capacity for Safe, Disaster-Resilient Housing - Sept. 20 Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/14/2022 - 14:42

Tuesday, Sept. 20 | 12:00 p.m. | Zoom - Register Now

In this webinar, Professors Amy Javernick-Will and Abbie Liel will describe findings from research that their team conducted to enhance housing safety in the multi-hazard context of Puerto Rico.

Focusing on one misalignment, the installation of hurricane straps, they will discuss their initial efforts to build capacity in the region by partnering with a community-based organization.

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Researchers to explore link between women’s perspectives and resilient housing design

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Apr 2022 17:39:37 +0000

Researchers to explore link between women’s perspectives and resilient housing design Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 04/27/2022 - 11:39

Engineers have studied disaster resilience in housing for decades – exploring and creating better solutions to keep people safe and in place after events like earthquakes with minimal disruption to their daily lives.

New research from CU Boulder aims to take that work further by better incorporating the perspectives and attitudes of those living in impacted homes in that development process. Funded by the National Science Foundation, the project will look specifically at how the inclusion of women’s knowledge, priorities, and perceptions in the decision-making process changes both the policies proposed and ultimately selected, as well as the development of new approaches over time.

Professor Abbie Liel in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering is leading the work. She said she has become increasingly convinced of the vital importance of both engineering better, more resilient housing and the central role women will play in that process.

“In Turkey, I saw seismic safety education programs directed at children and their mothers that were more successful at addressing risks than other programs. And in Oklahoma I saw homeowners – the most visible of whom are women – filing class-action lawsuits about earthquake damage to their homes caused by deep injection of wastewater from oil and gas activities,” Liel said. “So while there has been a lot of progress made in building codes and construction standards, women’s and residents’ knowledge – and their ‘ways of knowing’ – are not well represented in this process and are underserved by our approaches.”

Liel said that while more than half of U.S. households – about 60% among Black households – have female heads, women continue to be underrepresented in the building engineering, architecture, and construction professions, as well as in the development of standards and policies that govern design, construction, permitting, and inspection of homes.

“And despite decades of advances, houses still remain particularly vulnerable to damage from earthquakes, hurricanes, floods and other hazards,” she said. “This idea for this research argues that the problem of underrepresentation of women and women of color in the building industry and the problem of inadequate disaster resilience of housing are indeed linked together closely.”

Liel has conducted extensive structural resilience research in her career. However, this time she is approaching those questions through a diversity, equity and inclusion lens. The goal of this project, she said, would be to use focus groups and other activities to better understand perspectives around seismic upgrades and what makes a home habitable after an earthquake. Ideally, the information gathered could be used to improve building codes or shape construction standards over the next few decades.

“Safe, disaster-resilient housing is critical to our way of life, prosperity and sense of security,” she said. “I am really excited to start this project and see where the research goes with these new perspectives included.”

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Science Friday interviews Abbie Liel on infrastructure resilience

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Feb 2022 22:50:21 +0000

Science Friday interviews Abbie Liel on infrastructure resilience Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 02/25/2022 - 15:50

Professor Abbie Liel was interviewed by Science Friday, a weekly NPR program dedicated to science and technology.

She discusses bridge infrastructure and new ways of building more resilient structures in a segment produced following the recent bridge collapse in Pittsburgh.

Liel's research focuses on ways to make communities safer and more resilient in the face of natural hazards.

Listen to the interview at Science Friday

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CEAE Professor Abbie Liel Awarded ASCE SEI Fellowship

Anonymous — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 17:19:50 +0000

CEAE Professor Abbie Liel Awarded ASCE SEI Fellowship Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 12/11/2018 - 10:19

Dr. Abbie Liel of CU Boulder’s Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering will advance to the title of Fellow within the American Society of Civil Engineers Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) at the annual Structures Congress in April 2019. This title honors Dr. Liel as a leader and mentor in the profession of structural engineering. Dr. Liel is well known for her contributions to structural engineering education and research on extreme loading, such as that due to earthquakes and snow.

The SEI is committed to improving the field of structural engineering by reinforcing the relationship between academic research and the engineering industry. At the annual Structures Congress, over 1200 structural engineers meet to discuss and exhibit innovations in the industry. Dr. Liel and the other new Fellows will be honored at this event. Dr. Liel will become our department’s only current SEI Fellow.

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