Building resilience strategies related to public health emergencies

Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus, the Standardization Administration of China (SAC) is proposing a new technical report (TR) for development in ISO/TC 59/WG 4.

The proposed new TR is titled "Buildings and civil engineering works – Building resilience strategies related to public health emergencies – Compilation of relevant information". The purpose of the proposed technical report is to collect global experience and information on the role of buildings in public health emergencies. Not only will the proposed report examine various public health emergencies in the past decade, but it will also look particularly at the experience gathered during the current COVID-19 situation.

• Can the way a building is designed or constructed affect the spread of a virus?
• If that is found to be the case, which aspects of the design or construction are influential?
• What reflections have been made by users, architects, engineers, researchers and other interested parties?
• Could this potentially lead to new requirements for the way buildings are designed or constructed in the future?

The proposed TR may also be of relevance to other ISO committees, such as ISO/TC 304 Healthcare organization management, ISO/TC 262 Risk management, ISO/TC 292 Security and resilience, ISO/TC 267 Facility management, ISO/TC 205 Building environment design, ISO/TC 268 Sustainable cities and communities, and ISO/TC 268/SC 1 Smart community infrastructures. The balloting period will be used to inform these committees about the proposed project for potential collaboration. They will also be invited to provide feedback on the proposal.

You can see the full proposal for a new TR titled "Buildings and civil engineering works – Building resilience strategies related to public health emergencies – Compilation of relevant information".

The project is under ballot for approval in ISO/TC 59 until 14 April. Should you be interested in this project or wish to join the work of WG 4, feel free to contact Kari S. Borgos (ISO/TC 59 Committee Manager).