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New developments of performance-based design codes and practice, honouring Prof. Yusuke Honjo

The concept of performance-based design codes arose in 2000s and has been gradually accepted in different parts of the world. In the language of Prof. Yusuke Honjo, Gifu University, Japan, who is one of the pioneers to establish this new concept in design codes, “performance-based design codes” typically comprise of a top-down hierarchical structure from the objectives of structures to performance and reliability requirements, and to standard means and verification protocols to achieve the performance requirements. There are mainly three backgrounds in the development of the performance-based design codes. Firstly, with an increase in public demand and industrial and academic motivations on the use of different technologies and materials, it becomes necessary more and more in many countries for the codes of practice to give guidance on the protocol of acceptance of alternatives. Accordingly, the codes of practice should have a structure of following design practice of thinking and working in terms of performance requirements for structures rather than descriptive specifications. For example, this leads to the hierarchical structure of codes from the objectives to the means, as represented by the TBT/WTO agreement and the Nordic Five Level System in trade. Secondly, it promotes an effective communication between the public/owner and the administration/designer in terms of the performance of structure for design situations. For example, this leads to the invention of performance matrix that was firstly introduced in SEAOC2000 in North America to ensure effective communication between the owner and the design regarding the seismic performance requirements. Thirdly, it is a generic concept that involves with prior design concepts of risk engineering, reliability engineering, and limit state design as tools to measure the required achievement level of the subject performance. For example, it is expected to harmonise existing descriptive regulatory and new developments while retaining or improving a uniform structural safety. In reality, while risk and reliability in geotechnical engineering is of great concern in Georisk, it is not so frequent to read articles that deal with the implementation of such research results into the code of practice. Accordingly, this special issue, entitled “New developments of performance based design codes and practice”, aims at collecting the information world-wide on the latest implementation status of the performance-based design concept into the code of practice, honouring Professor Honjo’s contributions to the advent of performance-based design codes in geotechnical engineering. As a result of the worldwide interest in the topic, the special issue, appearing as Vol. 13, Issue 3 of Georisk, contains invited contributions from Ireland, Netherlands, Canada, U.S.A., and Japan. The topics include recent code developments and revisions in North America, Europe, and Japan. Readers may find the intriguing difference in the ways of incorporating the uncertainties in the evaluation of design situations and resistances into the codes of practice in North America, Europe, and Japan. Accordingly, this special issue will be of interest to all practitioners, researchers and those involved with safety regulations for public structures. We would like to express our gratitude to the contributing authors and reviewers of the articles in this special issue. We also would like to thank the Georisk editor-in-chief (Professor Limin Zhang) and editorial office staff for their supports. Without their contributions and efforts, the special issue would not be possible.