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CM 120: Building the Human Environment

Examples of Built Environment Failures

For your assignments, you may be required to locate a building, bridge, dam, or other built environment that endured a major failure causing it to be closed due to safety concerns, abandoned, and/or repaired. Here are a few examples of built environment failures.

  • Drilling and Well Closure Failures at BP Macondo Well
  • Piper Alpha Oil Rig Failure
  • Levee Failure, New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina
  • Dan River Coal Ash Spill
  • Kingston Fossil Plant Coal Ash Spill
  • Ocean Ranger Drill Rig Collapse
  • Ronan Point Apartment Tower Collapse
  • Kelly Barnes Dam Failure, Georgia
  • KaLoko Reservoir Dam Failure, Hawaii
  • Laurel Run Dam Failure
  • Schoharie Creek Bridge Collapse
  • West Gate Bridge Collapse
  • Harbor Cay Condominium Collapse
  • The collapse of Terminal 2E Roissy at Charles de Gaulle Airport
  • Sunshine Skyway Bridge collapse

 

Google Search Tips

Operator Description Examples
" "

Exact Phrase Search

  • Search for words in exact order

"Business Plan"

"prairie dog"

"Chicago fire"
+

Include word(s) in the results

  • Add a plus sign before the word or phrase to include
  • A space must be placed before the plus sign but not after it

"forest fire" +Flagstaff

"Chicago fire" +soccer

Picasso +Guernica
-

Exclude word(s) in results

  • Add a minus sign before a word or phrase to exclude
  • A space must be placed before the minus sign but not after it.

"forest fire" -pine

"Chicago fire" -soccer 

Mozart -sonatas
~

Synonyms

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~neuroscience

Returns Results

  • neurophysiology
  • neurobiology
  • brain
  • neurology
OR

Broaden your search to include different terms

  • OR must be capitalized 

soccer OR football OR futbal

"Grand Canyon" OR Yosemite 

 

 
site:

Restrict search to a particular domain or website

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"forest fires" site:.gov

tuition site:nau.edu

veteran programs site:.edu
filetype:

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"global warming" filetype:pdf

 
intitle:

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  • Google will restrict the results to pages that have the word or phrase in the title of the document

Find information about the use of robots in the production of Toyota vehicles.

assembly line robots intitle:toyota
AROUND(n)

Searches for words that are within a certain range of other words

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"steve jobs" AROUND(3) environment

"climate change" AROUND(4) "polar bears" 
related:

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 related:redcross.org

 

Adapted from MIT Libraries, Google Search Tips: Getting Started