Engineering Commons^™

Navigational Complexity Within Building Codes, James Stephen Mclean

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The premise, that building codes have become too complex, has been discussed, commented on, and documented by practicing engineers; however, prior to this research there was little scientific evidence that codes have increased in complexity over time. There are many aspects of building codes that are complicated, and this reflects a combination of the inherent complexity of building design and the dynamical processes that produce the codes. This research focuses on navigational complexity and specifically the aspects that can be quantified to demonstrate current codes are more complex than their predecessors. Navigational complexity is defined as the complexity created by …