Engineering Ethics, Innovation, and the Impact of Hurricane Katrina

This report examines the ethical considerations within engineering and innovation, using Hurricane Katrina as a case study. It explores the hurricane's origins, the role of engineers in disaster response and prevention, and the impact of ethical standards on engineering practices. The report highlights the destructive consequences of inadequate ethical considerations, including immediate and long-term fatalities, infrastructure damage, soil erosion, and the spread of diseases. It emphasizes the importance of ethical innovation in developing sustainable, environment-friendly technologies and infrastructure capable of withstanding natural disasters like hurricanes. The report draws lessons from the Katrina disaster, offering recommendations for enhancing engineering ethics, strengthening infrastructure, and improving disaster preparedness to protect both human lives and the environment, with a focus on the application of these lessons in the context of potential similar events in Australia.

ENGINEERING INNOVATION AND
ETHICS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Summery of Hurricane Katrina....................................................................................................1
Role of Engineers in Situation.....................................................................................................1
Origin of Hurricane Katrina.........................................................................................................2
Impact of Ethics in Innovation and Engineering.........................................................................3
Effects of Hurricane Katrina........................................................................................................3
Complications of Ethical standards related to Hurricane Katrina...............................................4
Lessons and Recommendations...................................................................................................5
Community confrontations..........................................................................................................6
Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
The ethics and innovation in the engineering system works on the moral principles to
implement some changes in engineering practices bringing something new which less harmful
and highly sustainable for the ecology system. This is mostly done by following the ethical
standards and laws given under the regulatory bodies to maintain the quality and delivery of
operations. The ethics in the innovative engineering is to develop some new technologies which
are environment friendly and sustainable for the prevention of ecology. This report is explaining
the effects of natural changes which are occurred due to less ethical innovation of engineers and
scientist. If such thing happens in Australia how the engineering ethics can prevent such thing
and overcome this effects of the cyclone or hurricane. By using the example of hurricane
Katrina, the effects of innovation race of humans which are harming the ecological system of
earth are explained.
Summery of Hurricane Katrina
The category 5 is given to the hurricane which are sustained for at least one minute. In
category five the wind speed is minimum 252 k mph. The hurricane Katrina was highly
destructive and dangerous category 5 hurricane which have affected the Florida, Mississippi,
Alabama Louisiana, New Orleans city, surrounding of city and more areas from 23 to 31 August
2005 and cause catastrophic damage from Eastern Texas to central Florida. It causes the damage
to USA of 125 billion and total fatalities were 1836 (Deryugina, Kawano and Levitt, 2018). In
Katrina half of the fatalities were of the senior citizens. Total number of 705 are missing and it
affected over 15 million in different ways. This 15 million people were financially, emotionally
and physically harmed by the Katrina.
Role of Engineers in Situation
In such condition the ethics in engineering and innovation can prevent this destruction by
taking fast action before the disaster come face to face. This consists of three things. First to in
the areas which are marked as level 5th hurricane zone. The buildings can be designed in way to
prevent the destruction due to the hurricane (Cresswell, 2016). By this kind of designing the
infrastructure destruction can be reduced. Second thing is to use the relevant building material in
construction to develop a robust structure which can survive during the hurricane and cyclone.
Third thing is development in technology and innovation in technology can reduce the effects of
hurricane and reduce the production of the green house gases to reduce the global warming. In
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the condition of hurricane and cyclone the engineering innovations and technique developments
can predict the direction and intensity of the hurricane and take action to aware the local people
and start the evacuation. Before the such occurrence the engineers can overcome the effects of
the hurricane by take action of checking the systems that can divert the flood water and prevent
the situation. In other by using the ethics in the new technology development the engineers can
use the environmental friendly methods to reduce the green house gases to reduce the effect the
global warming which the main reason of hurricane and uneven temperature By this the human
and animals lives can be saved. This action can be done before such occurrence.
At the time of the hurricane the engineers can divert the flood water and reduce the
chances of the flood (Fussell, 2015). By using the latest technology to predict the direction, way
and intensity the effects and destruction level can be reduced by taking preventive action to save
the human lives. The engineers are working on the structures which can reduce the wind speed in
the eye of the cyclone or hurricane to stop the hurricane far from the human colonies. This can
help to reduce the human causalities.
In above the preventions are explained for the before and during situation. Here are some
action which can be done after the hurricane which are also important to draw life of locals back
to normal. After the hurricane the engineers can help to reduce the water level of floods by using
the pumps and motors to divert the flow of water. Next thing is to perform the maintenance work
to repair the buildings and structures to use them again and this is also consists of the
development of the robust structure to reduce the level of the destruction. The engineers and
scientist can perform the research work to know the reasons of the hurricane and problems which
make it more dangerous and destructive cause of lack of innovation and technology
development. By this the information can be collect to reduce the risk of future.
Origin of Hurricane Katrina
The density of air in warmer areas is less than low temperature area and as per the law of
physics the air flow from high density to lower density. Because air pressure at cold places is
higher than warmer place. This how the air flows on the earth. The wind speed is depended on
the difference of the air pressure of different areas. In the case of the hurricane the water
evaporates from the sea because of the high temperature environment. And this water vapours
moves form one place to another place by flow of air. The air gives mobility to the vapours
which are in form of clouds. Due to some reasons the column low pressure generates in some
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areas because of the uneven temperature of ground and clouds. The ground temperature is high
and clouds temperature is low this the reason of generation of low pressure column. This leads to
circular movement of the air around the column and this creates a circular motion of air and the
air speed increases with time and finally the speed of wind cross the normal level and become
dangerous.
The above paragraph shows how the hurricane develop and reach to the higher
destructive level. This thing is the effect of the global warming and an effect of the uneven
temperature on the ground and clouds so, by using the ethics in innovation and engineering the
such situations can be prevented. These ethics are consists of the environmental friendly
techniques and innovation to reduce the global warming and prevent the changes in the changes
ecological cycle of earth.
Impact of Ethics in Innovation and Engineering
Implementation of ethics in engineering innovation and development the infrastructure
will be robust to face the situation like hurricane and floods and survive in it. Innovation with
ethics will lead to better designing of the buildings and preventive system for floods & hurricane
so this structure can stand still in the hurricane and cyclone in Australia. This can be done by
using the quality material in the construction and better aerodynamic design to reduce the affect
of the hurricane and cyclone.
Effects of Hurricane Katrina
The Katrina was the category % storm and wind speed of this hurricane is more than 252
k mph This storm comes with the lightning surges and high raining. This all things collectively
affected the various states of USA (Marable and Clarke, 2016). This was the strongest storm ever
in history and the destruction caused by this is also largest for the USA and its people. These are
some effects of hurricane Katrina.
Immediate deaths
Due to the Katrina hurricane's destructiveness it causes the immediate deaths of many
peoples. As the storm hits the human populated area the locals were not ready to face this
situation because of less awareness and bad communication. The locals were asked to leave the
place on the short notice and due to less information the people tried to move faster with their
vehicles which leads to traffic jam on the roads. These traffic jams make the people stuck in the
hurricane affected area and this cause the immediate death of people at spot (Gallagher and
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Hartley, 2017). It was huge mistake of the weather forecaster because they were not able to aware
the locals within the time.
Human Deaths After the Storm
After the hurricane Katrina many people were injured and facing the various problems
due to moisture and Bacterial infection in the injuries. This bacterial infections and injuries leads
to death. This how the most of the senior citizens died due to they were not able to survive in
fever cause of the less immune capacity.
Infrastructure destruction
The Katrina destructed the each and every infrastructure comes in the way of it. There
were many houses, schools, colleges, hospitals and corporate offices in the way of Katrina and
these were demolished by the storm. This cause the largest loss of infrastructure and money to
the USA.
Soil Erosion
The storm causes the soil erosion and this leads to the less fertility of the remained soil.
This how the hurricane Katrina changes the fertility of the soil and ecological condition. This
further leads to reduced production of the grains, vegetables and fruits of soil.
Spread of diseases
As the storm passed the different diseases spread due to the moisture and local
environmental conditions. These diseases cause many lives.
Destruction of Natural Environment
Complications of Ethical standards related to Hurricane Katrina
There are certain legislation, policies and laws which aid in maintenance of ethical
standards for dealing with preventive measures against any disaster that takes place naturally.
Engineering Australia code of ethics which outline ethical standards under a legal framework
and works for designing and maintaining facilities during the construction. Standards are
refereed as the guidelines or the legal standards which are formulated for protecting the human
rights and are not based on following emotions or human ethics. It acts on the basis of well-
informed conscience in which right choice is considered (Mehmet Sukru Sever, Remuzzi and
Vanholder, 2018). However, this disaster is the failure of such ethical standards when it does not
act accordingly based on appropriate knowledge. These were made on such a platform that
where leadership and sustainability are exercised.
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Hurricane Katrina has been declared as one of the biggest disasters of 2015 in Florida. At
that time, too much destruction took place in Florida which destroyed the entire human race. It
was analysed that when such a hurricane occurs in Australia the code of ethics plays an
important role to prevent human and other species from such a huge destruction. The Material
Science was failed there but engineering code of ethics in Australia will maintain sustainability
ans will support diversity will full encouragement. Australia civil engineers regularly checking
the material used for making buildings and timely renovation is done. This resulted in prevention
of huge destruction and in order to understand the failures (Hoffman, Alamilla and Liang, 2018).
In designing process, some area had lacking circumstances in Florida due to which proper
designing did not take place and led to such a failure. But code of ethics in Australia will
architect buildings very efficiently and leakage proof so that whenever cyclone occurs cement
can sustain such a force.
Lessons and Recommendations
The lessons learnt by the engineers from this disaster was that humanitarian emergencies
are highly uncertain and it would have been mitigated by following the ethical standards using
EA codes. The Australian EA Codes has established a platform to follow a methodological
framework to overcome the coastal vulnerabilities of the entire populace. This hurricane has
been considered as one of the costliest and deadliest of the United States and woke up the entire
population. The societal related consequences were more and the extent of casualties was on hue
levels. Thus, the engineers must try to build sustainable and completely competent structures to
withstand the pressures built and help the community to become less vulnerable during the time
of natural calamity like hurricanes etc. The government also supported the engineers to follow
the specified EA codes which has led the engineers and other regulatory bodies to become
resilient and used a more collaborative approach to maintain the reliability of the materials used
and other key parameters (Rao and Greve, 2018). Additionally, there was lack of medical aids
and overall low supply of blood in the blood banks which also hampered the entire crisis and led
to unanswered questions. For the same, appropriate strategies like proper training to people and
improving the communication channels between the different medical institutions and
organisations. It would help in such crisis and manage the disaster more progressively and help
the people by sending them relief sources in context to food, clothing, medical help etc. in proper
and systematic manner.
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There is a recommendation to adopt a robust management plan for preventing people from
humanitarian emergencies in the near future if occurs in Australia. In this robust management
plan, proper designing of all the infrastructure and other parameters must be considered to avoid
such destructions when any natural calamity will occur. Additionally, people must be given
education to generate awareness for better preventive measures from such huge destruction.
Code of ethics will promote sustainability and integrity for to be honest and trustworthy in terms
of quality. Also, in Australia some people made underground homes to save themselves from
such disaster conditions. This might be a good approach and proved useful for proper
implementation for disaster management plan (Sole and et.al., 2018). Advancement in
technology should be adopted by Australia weather forecasters so that they can be aware and can
made precautions. Proper maintenance of buildings and at regular interval should be exercised in
Australia.
Community confrontations
This factor is essential for the disaster management in case of any natural calamity like
cyclones etc. However, if people are given proper training and authentic information about the
advantages and disadvantages and giving them sessions on the associated risks then it would be
beneficial in confrontation. Primarily, the confrontations faced by the communities are in the
health and industry sectors. It was evident from the studies that there was huge destructions after
hurricane and restoration processes were required to be executed on both local and regional
levels (Veenema, 2018). There were many practical issues that were highlighted and brought
attention to the engineers to know about the challenges in context to EA codes like sustainability,
exercising leadership and integrity. Health issues are another component and there are threats of
epidemic and several health diseases. It is humanly impossible for any individual to start the
restoration process without any assistance in terms of economic and social. Thus, the
government and the engineering practitioners must follow the EA codes to maintain the quality
management by minimising the risk areas.
Training must be imparted to educate and bring awareness among the population to know
the guidelines of the relief works. In addition to this, several organizations and authorities must
perform their duties in coherent approach with following the integrity (Roca and et.al., 2016).
Thus, engineers and the regulatory bodies must follow the ethical standards to withstand the
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problems and give people centric solutions. It would lead the confrontations in more effective
ways.
Conclusion
It has been summarised that Hurricane Katrina has opened many unfolded questions
regrading the engineering innovation and ethics of Australia. Moreover, it emphasised on the
lack of responsibility and accountability of the engineers while performing tasks in context to
overcoming the challenges faced during the occurrence of natural calamity. Lastly, the
implementation of ethical standards must be reviewed strictly to curb such destructive impact on
the entire humanity in the near future. There must be an understanding to be built at both
individual and organizational levels to fight such crisis and help the entire community in
sustainable manner.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Cresswell, T., 2016. Understanding mobility holistically: The case of Hurricane Katrina. In The
Ethics of Mobilities (pp. 145-156). Routledge.
Deryugina, T., Kawano, L. and 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.
Fussell, E., 2015. The long-term recovery of New Orleans’ population after Hurricane
Katrina. American Behavioral Scientist. 59(10). pp.1231-1245.
Gallagher, J. and Hartley, D., 2017. Household finance after a natural disaster: The case of
Hurricane Katrina. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy. 9(3). pp.199-228.
Hoffman, A.J., Alamilla, S. and Liang, B., 2018. The Role of Community Development in
Reducing Extremism and Ethnic Conflict: The Evolution of Human Contact. Springer.
Marable, M. and Clarke, K. eds., 2016. Seeking higher ground: The Hurricane Katrina crisis,
race, and public policy reader. Springer.
Mehmet Sukru Sever, M.D., Remuzzi, G. and Vanholder, R., 2018. Disaster medicine and
response: Optimizing life-saving potential. American journal of disaster medicine.13(4).
pp.253-264.
Rao, H. and Greve, H.R., 2018. Disasters and community resilience: Spanish flu and the
formation of retail cooperatives in Norway. Academy of Management Journal. 61(1).
pp.5-25.
Roca, J., Cano, I., Gomez-Cabrero, D. and Tegnér, J., 2016. From systems understanding to
personalized medicine: lessons and recommendations based on a multidisciplinary and
translational analysis of COPD. In Systems Medicine (pp. 283-303). Humana Press, New
York, NY.
Sole, M.L. and et.al., 2018. Collecting nursing research data 24 hours a day: challenges, lessons,
and recommendations. American Journal of Critical Care. 27(4). pp.305-311.
Veenema, T.G. ed., 2018. Disaster nursing and emergency preparedness. Springer Publishing
Company.
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