Chilean engineering faces urgent need for resilient construction materials

Civil engineering and materials science are facing a critical challenge as climate change renders historical design standards for structural loads—such as wind, snow, and seismic activity—potentially obsolete. In Chile, recent extreme weather events, including devastating floods in Doñihue and Coltauco in 2023 and winds exceeding 130 km/h in Santiago in 2024, highlight the increasing unpredictability of environmental loads.

Simply over-dimensioning structures is considered both economically unfeasible and ecologically contradictory, particularly since the production of reinforced concrete and steel accounts for approximately 18% of global CO2 emissions. Experts suggest the solution lies in advancing research to more accurately predict new design loads and developing more resilient materials to withstand the non-linear degradation caused by extreme climate variability.