Paper ID #27371 Education and Building Capacity for Improving Resilience of Coastal Infras- tructure Prof. Ismael Pagan-Trinidad,´ University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez Campus Ismael Pagan-Trinidad,´ Professor (1982-date) and Chair (1994-date), Department of Civil Engineering and Surveying, University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez¨ (UPRM); Principal Investigator/Program Man- ager of the Educational and Research Internship Program (ERIP) under the UPRM-ERDC (US Army Corp of Engineers) Partnership Agreement (1994-date) awarded the ”Examples of Excelencia in Educa- tion” award in Graduate Category-2018 by Excelencia in Education organization; Principal Investigator of the Education for Improving Resilience of Coastal Infrastructure project under the Coastal Resilience Center of Excellence (CRC) sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security (2016-2020); Cofounder and Member of the Latin American and Caribbean Consortium of Engineering Education (LACCEI). He earned a BS in Civil Engineering, MS in Civil Engineering (Environmental) at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez,¨ and conducted PhD (ABD) studies in Hydrosystems at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1978-82). His education, research and service interests are in hydrosystems, hydrol- ogy, hydraulics, urban drainage, education, and resilience of built and natural infrastructure. Dr. Ricardo R Lopez P.E., University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez Dr. Lopez-Rodriguez,´ Professor, Department of Civil Engineering and Surveying, University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez.¨ He is Associate Director for Graduate Studies and Director of the Civil Infrastructure Research Center. Co-Principal Investigator of the Education for Improving Resiliency of Coastal Infras- tructure project under the Coastal Resilience Center of Excellence (CRC) sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security (2016-2020); He received his PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois- Urbana-Champaign in 1988, his scientific publications include 41 publications in refereed journals and proceedings. He has participated as member of the teams for damage evaluation caused by earthquakes in Mexico City, Mexico; California, USA; Puerto Plata, RD; and Chile. He has conducted research projects supported by National Science Foundation (NSF), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), among others. He is member of the Earthquake Engineer- ing research Institute (EERI), the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the American Concrete Institute (ACI), and is secretary of the Earthquake Commission of the Engineer’s Professional Association of PR. Ernesto Luis Diaz MEM, Puerto Rico Climate Change Council Coastal and Marine scientist. Director of the Puerto Rico Coastal Management Program and coordi- nator of the Puerto Rico Climate Change Council. Served as Administrator of the Natural Resources Administration. Specializes in coastal dynamics, coastal hazards mitigation and nearshore environments processess assessments. Served as Regional Lead Author of the US Caribbean chapter of fourth National Climate Assessment Report ( NCAR-Ch:20). Has published extensively on coastal issues, sea level rise, climate vulnerability assessments and adaptation. c American Society for Engineering Education, 2019 Education and Building Capacity for Improving Resilience of Coastal Infrastructure Abstract Coastal environments in the Caribbean and around the World host communities and critical infrastructure that are exposed to extreme risks generated by natural multi hazards, namely, floods (storm surges and swells, tides, waves, rivers, urban drainage, tsunamis), winds (hurricane), earthquakes, soil instabilities (erosion, sedimentation, liquefaction, landslides), corrosive environment, and many combinations of those. The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has established the need to protect and upgrade the state of the nation’s critical infrastructure to a more resilient and sustainable state. The paper will present the outcomes of the educational project sponsored by the DHS to help improve the resilience of coastal infrastructure by means of education and building capacity. The goal of the project is to educate engineering students, university faculty and staff in principles of resilience for both built and natural coastal infrastructure through formal education. The project also helps educate members of the community by teaching first responders and other professionals through informal education through conferences, workshops, seminars, lectures and short courses in resilient coastal infrastructure. Educators also work with partners who focus on resilience of coastal and island communities. All the island of Puerto Rico is considered coastal environment. Over 400,000 people live within 1 km of coasts and 44 municipalities with over 60% of the island population are at the coast. A tremendous amount of the critical civil infrastructure like airports, seaports, highways, water and wastewater, power, and communication infrastructure are located at the coastal communities. Puerto Rico before and after Hurricanes Irma and María has been the vivid field setting of the project. Billions of dollars of Federal and Commonwealth funds will be invested to enable recovery. As Puerto Rico aims to be resilient recovery efforts’ investment must integrate the best science and knowledge available. Capacity building to all the sectors in resilient infrastructure is achieved through formal and informal education. The project aims to teach end-users about the effects of natural hazards on coastal infrastructure, conditions of existing structures and rehabilitation alternatives to mitigate future damage and potential risks. Education focuses on infrastructure performance before, during and after hazard events and includes courses on the causes and effects of riverine and coastal flooding, storm surge, ocean waves, tsunami loads, earthquakes and extreme winds. It is expected to create pipelines for students and professionals to move into the coastal infrastructure resilience field. The paper addresses the needs for the community to better understand the stages of coastal infrastructure hazard prevention, preparedness, response and mitigation. The lessons learned regarding the impact of the hurricane to the island with emphasis on coastal environments and its infrastructure during the past, including the most recent catastrophic Hurricanes Irma and María in 2017, will be addressed. Introduction Natural and technological hazards have been the priority for federal and local government for the tremendous physical, economic, social and environmental impacts they bring the community. Climate change, weather modification and technological activities continuously increase the level of risk the community is exposed to. Special interest has been identified at coastal communities including the seashores and inland areas. For Caribbean Islands, like Puerto Rico, the whole Island activities are closely related and correlated to what happens in coastal communities. Coastal environments in the Caribbean and around the World host communities and critical infrastructure that are exposed to extreme risks generated by natural multi hazards, namely, floods (storm surges and swells, tides, waves, rivers, urban drainage, tsunamis), winds (hurricane), earthquakes, soil instabilities (erosion, sedimentation, liquefaction, landslides), corrosive environment, and many combinations of those. The island of Puerto Rico has approximately 3.6 million of USA citizens who not only experienced Hurricanes Irma and María, but also are continuously exposed to high multi hazard hurricane risks. Figure 1 shows a satellite image of Hurricane María at the moment the eye wall made landfall on the Island. Figure 1. Hurricane María made landfall over southeastern Puerto Rico as Category 4 Hurricane with 155 MPH. GOES 16 (NOAA) Vulnerability of Infrastructure Facing Extreme Multi Hazard Events There are multiple reasons why civil infrastructure fails when they are exposed to extreme events. The following are possible causes that must be taken into consideration for providing appropriate resilience to civil infrastructure. Why infrastructure is vulnerable and fails? Because one or more of the following: Construction without appropriate engineering design or construction inspection (informal construction): This refers to construction out of formal engineering design or inspection which have been a common practice in Puerto Rico in the past. Because these constructions are neither designed nor supervised, there is a high possibility these constructions do not withstand expected standard design events. Obsolete or under designed: Appropriate and regulatory design standards are updated based on new knowledge and increase in safety requirements for new constructions. Many existing constructions may be obsolete to the actual standards, although they had been well designed under existing standards at that time. Outdated design codes, regulations or standards may be a source of structural weakness. A new updated construction code has been approved recently for Puerto Rico considering lessons learned from Hurricane María data. Improper design, operation or construction: There are instances that either the structural design, loading pattern or structure operation are inappropriate or the construction is not done according to plans and specifications. Lack of appropriate maintenance: Although many constructions are designed and built appropriately,