The World Trade Center incident of 9/11 created a plethora of articles in a variety of trade journals. We are going to discuss the way that researchers have looked at the incident.
When researchers encounter a gap of knowledge in a given area, they try to focus on the problem by asking questions such as: How can this problem be characterized? What factors are involved? How can these factors be defined in a way that they can be measured? What does the previous research say about it? Is it possible to establish causal relationships between certain factors and the phenomena under investigation?
For the purposes of this discussion, let's review the findings of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) investigation of the World Trade Center disaster. Go to the following website to find out more about each of the individual research projects addressing the WTC problem: http://www.nist.gov/el/disasterstudies/wtc/index.cfm
The primary objectives of the NIST-led technical investigation of the World Trade Center (WTC) disaster were to
Determine why and how WTC 1 and 2 collapsed following the initial impacts of the aircraft and why and how WTC 7 collapsed; Determine why the injuries and fatalities were so high or low depending on location. including all technical aspects of fire protection, occupant behavior, evacuation, and emergency response; Determine what procedures and practices were used in the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of WTC 1, 2, and 7; and Identify, as specifically as possible, areas in building and fire codes, standards, and practices that are still in use and warrant revision. You will discover that the basic research focuses on some critical area
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