Ethics in Engineering and Natural Disasters

The assignment discusses the integral role of ethics in every profession, including engineering. It emphasizes the need for engineers to abide by codes of ethics, such as ASCE's Code of Ethics, to ensure integrity and honesty in their work. The document also touches on sustainable development and backup plans for natural calamities.

FINAL REPORT ON
HURRICANE KATRINA FROM
THE SUBJECT ENGINEERING
INNOVATIONS AND ETHICS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Hurricane Katrina is acknowledged to be one of the biggest natural disasters that have
ever taken place across the globe. This calamity was the result of engineering and management
decision making failures which lead to a massive destruction within United States. The
destruction caused by this disaster indicated the breach of ethics and engineering code of conduct
done by the engineers who constructed structures within New Orleans and its surrounding
locations. Further, it has been analysed that if the decisions taken by engineers in relation to
design of sleeves and pumps had been effective and right, the scale of devastation owing to the
occurrence of Hurricane Katrina would not have been so large. Engineers working within any
nation are expected to abide by the code of conduct laid down by professional bodies so as to
ensure that their conduct does not cause any harm to public. The case of Hurricane Katrina
reflected that engineers acted against the code of conduct which states that “Engineers should act
in a manner that ensures safety, health and welfare of public” and this was the major reason that
United States had to bear such massive loss in terms of human lives, money and infrastructure.

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
HURRICANE KATRINA......................................................................................................1
OVERVIEW OF CASE STUDY...........................................................................................2
ENGINEERING ETHICS IN RELATION TO EA CODE OF CONDUCT.........................2
CHALLENGES FACED BY ENGINEERS..........................................................................3
ANALYSIS OF HURRICANE KATRINA IN THE LIGHT OF CODE OF ETHICS.........3
APPLICATION OF EA CODE OF ETHICS TO ADDRESS IF SUCH DISASTER TAKES
PLACE WITHIN AUSTRALIA............................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Engineering ethics lays down the principles that tend to safeguard the legal framework
associated with engineering and also the preservation of environment with a view to lay down
the foundation of sustainability and ethics within engineering sector across the globe (Moraga
and et. al., 2017). In this regard, many a times, natural calamities such as cyclones, hurricanes,
tornado etc. take place as a result of carelessness displayed by engineers while developing the
building structures and other infrastructures. To deal with this, innovation plays a great role as
this tend to provide ways in which the disaster can be tackled by way of gaining lessons from the
damage caused and taking measures to carry out development to rectify the damage caused. The
following assignment is based upon the Hurricane Katrina.
Structure of Report: This assignment will gain an insight into the overview of case study along
with the analysis of ways in which the dominant causes of this disaster contrasted with the EA
Code of Ethics. Further, it will explore the ways in which EA code of ethics will apply if such
disaster takes place within Australia.
Focus of the Report: The focus of the paper is to evaluate the case study in the light of EA Code
of Ethics.
Background Information: Hurricane Katrina was a disaster that took place on 28th August 2005
owing to the engineering failure and breach of ethics and affected various geographical locations
of United States adversely.
HURRICANE KATRINA
Hurricane Katrina is regarded to be one the biggest engineering failures of all times that
caused massive damage to New Orleans and its surrounding locations within United States. The
overall indirect and direct economic losses amounted to approximately over $200 Billion and
also lead to not lesser than 1210 fatalities as well as evacuees in the 50 states present within the
nation (Gilbert, 2016). This disaster took place owing to the ineffective engineering design
structures as well as several faulty decisions taken by the management that laid the foundation of
this massive destructing causing natural calamity. It was inspected that owing to the lack of
adequate assessment and checking of design planning as well as material handling procedures,
this hurricane took away a large number of lives and also lead to massive destruction of
infrastructure within United States. The faulty decision making processes of management
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widespreadly impacted upon the health, safety and welfare of public. Apart from this, this
disaster took place owing to lack of vigilance observed on the part of regulatory bodies such as
CPSC and ASTM standards which lay down technical guidelines for engineers.
OVERVIEW OF CASE STUDY
As per the case study, until 1970s, almost all the engineering code of conducts proposed
that the prime duty of an engineer was to maintain fidelity to one’s client as well as employer.
But with changing times, the norms and focus of engineering code of conduct shifted
significantly and the focus now lies upon the “safety, health and welfare of public”. In case of
Hurricane Katrina that took place and effected locations such as New Orleans and surrounding
areas that are a part of United Nations, inspection was carried out on the request of USACE to
investigate the probable causes that led to the massive destruction caused by this natural
calamity. On the basis of the investigation, it was ascertained that the destruction caused by this
event owed to the organisational, policy and engineering failures that had equal contributions in
the loss caused to US. The review panel which conducted the investigation was of the view that a
number of reasons were responsible for the devastation caused. One of these was the
underestimation of strength of soil that left the leeves more vulnerable that it should have been.
Another significant cause of the massive destruction was the failure to ensure standard elements
of safety in terms of designs of pumps and leeves (Lewis and et. al., 2015).
Also, the scale of devastation was huge owing to the lack of communication on the part
of management to clearly indicate to the people residing in the hurricane hit areas that there was
a risk of hurricane in those cities. Further, other significant factors contributing to this were the
questionable as well as ineffective engineering decisions and the choices of design of leeves and
pumps made by the management. The case study clearly reflects that no particular person or
government or regulatory body was ready to take the blame of the devastation caused by Katrina.
The review panel instead of assigning the blame upon a single or multiple persons gave certain
recommendation to deal with the adverse outcomes of Hurricane Katrina and to further bring
development again within United States (O'Brien and et. al., 2015).
ENGINEERING ETHICS IN RELATION TO EA CODE OF CONDUCT
The EA Code of Ethics refers to the composition of extensive guidelines which strive to
provide an overview of the professional conduct, values as well as principles that must be taken
into account by engineers so as to take right decisions in the interest of public. The major focus
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of EA Code of Ethics is on use of sustainable methods while carrying out construction of
structures. It is imperative that engineers take ethical decisions which ensure health, safety and
welfare of people. Also, it is significant that they must possess high technical knowledge so as to
take right decisions in relation to soil strength, designs of pumps, leeves and other necessary
things so as to ensure protection of human lives to the farthest possible without causing harm to
environment. The purpose of such code of ethics is to emphasize upon promotion of sustainable
development and ethics by engineers at all the times (Lenane and et. al., 2019).
CHALLENGES FACED BY ENGINEERS
One of the biggest challenges faced by engineers is in relation to creation of an outline
plan which lays out the series of steps in which a project will be executed by them Deryugina,
Kawano and Levitt, 2018). At times, this owes to the lack of technical knowledge and
competence to give a precise estimation about the minute details of project. This often results in
massive destruction which is witnessed as a consequence of occurrence of natural disasters such
as typhoons, cyclones, hurricanes, tornados etc. Also, some of the engineers fail to make use of
vigilance to ensure taskforce credibility at all times and unable to get auditing of construction
materials done. One aspect that most of the engineers fail to take into account is to strike an
adequate and relevant balance between the needs and requirements of present with that of future.
ANALYSIS OF HURRICANE KATRINA IN THE LIGHT OF CODE OF ETHICS
The Engineering code of ethics can be defined as the regulatory framework which lays
down the principles, guidelines and/or values that have to be applied by engineers all across the
globe while undertaking any activity associated with this profession (Burton, 2015). As per the
case study, the engineers involved in the infrastructural development of areas where the
hurricane had its massive impact took ineffective decisions which is contrary to the code of
ethics for engineers which says “Engineers shall hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare
of public” (THE SEVEN FUNDAMENTAL CANONS OF ASCE’S CODE OF ETHICS, 2017).
Further, the managerial choice of design of leeves and pumps was also inefficient which was also
the violation of the before mentioned code of conduct for engineers. The engineers are
responsible for ensuring that the soil upon which a structure, building or an infrastructural
project is going to be executed is strong enough to tolerate the built structure. As per the analysis
of case study, it can be noticed that the soil strength in the areas primarily and majorly hit by the
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outcomes of Hurricane Katrina was far more vulnerable to any of the natural calamities like
tornado, typhoon, cyclone etc.
One of the professional obligations laid down under the engineering code of conduct
reflects that “Engineers shall strive to act and serve in the interest of public at all times” (THE
SEVEN FUNDAMENTAL CANONS OF ASCE’S CODE OF ETHICS, 2017). However, on the
contrary, the engineers who undertook the responsibility of projects in the devastated areas did
not communicate to the residents of such cities that those locations were prone to the risk of
hurricane. Had the engineers communicated about this risk of occurrence of natural calamities
within those areas, the lives of a large number of people as well as the infrastructural loss caused
to the country of United States could have been significantly reduced. The engineers of United
States were required to possess ethical values and knowledge of engineering code of conduct so
as to select the right designing elements for construction of any kind of engineering structures.
The major focus that the engineering code of conduct strives to put upon is to support and
encourage the concept of sustainable development and ethics (Cresswell, 2016). Here,
sustainable development refers to the process of maintaining the engineering structures safe for
use by future generations. Also, here, ethics refers to the branch of philosophy that governs the
behavioural characteristics as well as conduct of engineers while carrying out any engineering
project. Both the concepts together hold vital importance in engineering code of conduct and
have been violated in the case study provided in relation to the occurrence of and devastation
caused by Hurricane Katrina. It is essential that engineers act in public interest and do not
intentionally or non-intentionally indulge in any such activity which may cause harm to the
healthy, welfare and safety of public.
APPLICATION OF EA CODE OF ETHICS TO ADDRESS IF SUCH DISASTER TAKES
PLACE WITHIN AUSTRALIA
The EA Code of Ethics propose that engineers should act with honesty and integrity,
practise in a competent manner, exercise effective leadership and encourage sustainability at all
times. The extent of application of EA Code of Ethics on occurrence of disasters like Hurricane
Katrina in Australia depends upon the extent of devastation caused as a result of the calamity. If
the devastation caused by such disasters within Australia is immense, this will tend to question
the ethics and values followed by engineers while carrying out construction of such structures
which are most affected by the calamity. Further, if the scale of destruction and the quantum of
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economic loss as well as casualties caused is low, this would mean that the engineers within the
country abide by the principles and codes laid down under the EA Code of ethics (Bleemer and
van der Klaauw, 2019).
CONCLUSION
From the above mentioned report, it has been concluded that ethics is an integral part of
every profession and code of ethics should be abided by professionals so as to demonstrate their
integrity and honesty towards their work. In this regard, Engineering is governed by its own
Code of Ethics which lays down certain principles and safeguards that must be taken into
account by engineers at all the times to ensure that they do not indulge in an unethical or illegal
act. Further, it has been analysed that it is required by engineers to make use of innovative
designs which can assist in implementing sustainable development across the nation and also
keep a backup plan to deal with any kind of natural calamity.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bleemer, Z. & van der Klaauw, W. (2019). Long-run net distributionary effects of federal
disaster insurance: The case of Hurricane Katrina. Journal of Urban Economics. 110.
pp.70-88.
Burton, C. G., (2015). A validation of metrics for community resilience to natural hazards and
disasters using the recovery from Hurricane Katrina as a case study. Annals of the
Association of American Geographers. 105(1). pp.67-86
Cresswell, T. (2016). Understanding mobility holistically: The case of Hurricane Katrina. In The
Ethics of Mobilities (pp. 145-156). Routledge.
Deryugina, T., Kawano, L. & Levitt, S. (2018). The economic impact of Hurricane Katrina on its
victims: evidence from individual tax returns. American Economic Journal: Applied
Economics. 10(2). pp.202-33.
Gilbert, F. (2016). Ethics: Managing the impact of innovation.
Lenane, Z. & et. al. (2019). Association of post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms following
Hurricane Katrina with incident cardiovascular disease events among older adults with
hypertension. The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. 27(3). pp.310-321.
Lewis, J. A. & et. al. (2015). Socioecological dynamics in response to urban flooding and land
abandonment in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.
Moraga, M. Á. & et. al. (2017). GreCo: Green code of ethics. Journal of Software: Evolution
and Process.29(2). e1850.
O'Brien, K. R. & et. al. (2015). New evidence on the frequency, impacts and costs of activities to
develop innovations in Australian businesses: Results from a 2015 pilot survey.
Online
THE SEVEN FUNDAMENTAL CANONS OF ASCE’S CODE OF ETHICS. 2017. [Online].
Available Through:<https://www.asce.org/question-of-ethics-articles/apr-2008/>.
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