Research needs to support immediate occupancy building performance objective following natural hazard events

This report identifies research needs and implementation activities that would help improve building performance in case of a natural hazard in the US. It aims to expand the application of immediate occupancy performance beyond critical buildings, such as hospitals, to other buildings that are important to residents, businesses, and the broader community. 

With a longstanding focus on preserving lives, building codes help reduce the likelihood of significant damage or structural collapse and provide some degree of property protection. But current codes generally do not address continued functionality after a hazard event. To address this problem and move toward development of a new immediate occupancy performance objective, this report identifies a large portfolio of research and implementation activities that target enhanced performance objectives for residential and commercial buildings.