Safety and Sustainability—the Structural Engineer's Role

The mission of structural engineering is to design and construct safe structures by making appropriate decisions. At the same time, society also has a strong demand for sustainability, to which structural engineers can contribute through their decisions. Such decisions are necessary at every step of the design, construction, maintenance, and demolition process. The appropriateness depends on people’s expectancy for a structure, which varies according to their cultural background and economic well-being, as well as technological development. Historically, when quantitative information of a design variable was not available, the structural safety was deter-mined by engineers, based mainly on their own experiences. Materials and construction systems simply followed what had been successful in the past.