Risk, reliability and sustainability in the developing world

Developing countries need more affordable housing and a plan for infrastructure development that is environmentally sound, socially acceptable, economically justified and sustainable. The enormous shortage of funds as well as pressures resulting from other factors (e.g. poverty) can, however, make long-term and sustainable planning exceedingly difficult. A new focus should be placed on developing models that are able to use and process larger amounts of information, obtained from different sources and in different forms, to provide engineering solutions that have a positive impact on sustainability. Achieving sustainable development includes taking risks and using limited resources efficiently. Towards this end, structural risk and reliability are essential tools for defining appropriate levels of investment. It is suggested that, by adopting safety standards specified in codes of practice of developed countries, less developed countries may be spending more to achieve levels of safety not warranted by their level of development. That is, it may be more beneficial to accept a lower level of safety in favour of increased infrastructure development.