What’s evolving is the difficulty determining the nature and magnitude of the loads on a structure. But design and construction engineers realize this difficulty and are providing for it with higher factors of safety. This is resulting in higher costs, thanks to climate change – the real challenge.

A factor of safety ensures a structure can withstand greater live and dead loads than normal. Live loads are like the weight of a person walking on a floor or the pressure of the wind on a tall chimney. These loads change daily. Dead loads are like the weight of the floor and the weight of the chimney. These loads don’t change.

Someone coined the term resilient design to describe what is taking place. This is good. But the definition on Dr. Google is a lot about process and planning. Not about hard-core engineering design and construction.

The definition has relevance to planning for the effects of earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, long, shaking suspension bridge decks, and multi, multi story buildings like in New York that wobble back and forth at the top.

But not so much about the design engineer everywhere in the world slogging away on a daily basis dealing with the effects of climate changes. Nor about the construction engineer out in the field getting his or her hands dirty and mud on their boots building the structure.

Read about resilient design then, next time you’re out for a walk or a drive, look around you at the nature of engineering on a daily basis in the built and natural environments. You’ll see that low-rise buildings and the infra-structure serving these are the structures most often erected in the world, by far. Not shaking suspension bridge decks, wobbling multi, multi story buildings, or big waves crashing on our shores.

Engineers know about climate change. We also know about the difficulty designing for it. And owners are learning about the increased costs.

Engineers get the available data and design for the effects. Wharf decks in the Atlantic provinces are being built higher, based on a lot of data collected over the years on rising sea levels. Existing structures are being raised and new structures built higher because of rising sea levels. Power grids are being designed for greater windfall. Storm water drainage systems are being designed for greater runoff. Building Codes are being revised. You name you the effect, and engineers are having a go at providing for it.

Possibly on an upbeat note, highway pavements are being designed as solar panels because the days are getting hotter – which is an effect of climate change that in some ways is not too hard to take.

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Blog posted by Eric E. Jorden, M.Sc., P.Eng. Consulting Professional Engineer and Forensic Engineer, Geotechnology Ltd., Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, February 28, 2026 ejorden@eastlink.ca