Damage Estimation: Earthquake Resistant Buildings Essay

Earthquakes have afflicted the world since its inception. The sudden release of energy from volcanoes or displacing of earth plates can result in disasters of extreme magnitude. These usually naturally occurring phenomenon have been responsible from wiping out entire towns throughout history and until today continue to produce major loss of life and infrastructure. It can take years for a city or country to recover from a major event of this kind and when a third world country is involved, the result is usually exponentially worse than in a developed country. In the past decades Japan, Chile and Haiti have suffered the devastation an earthquake produces. This document will concentrate in Haiti, a small country in the Caribbean. On

In Afghanistan people were trapped in their homes, and objects were not properly tied down. Buildings kill people not earthquakes.

On August 24, 2014 a magnitude 6.0 earthquake occurred in and around the city of Napa, CA. The earthquake killed one person and injured over 150 people. And these people were treated at Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Napa [1]. More and more earthquakes occurred on this earth. So this grasps people’s attention.

Seismologists have recorded that most Oklahoma earthquakes generally strike within the 2.5 – 3.0 magnitude on average. While some have been recorded to spike up much higher which could potentially cause structural damage to homes. Earthquakes of large magnitude have the potential to create large-scale destruction to homes, which do not meet building code requirements for earthquakes of this magnitude. “It has implications for calculated risks of seismic hazard, and it will have an economic impact on the state if people have to start building to more stringent design standards (Brus).”

Have you ever been in a deadly earthquake? In 2013, the people of the Philippines experienced one. A 7.1 magnitude earthquake that affected around 43,000 people with 2,211 aftershocks that ended up killing a total of 185 people. Earthquakes are known as one of the most dangerous natural disasters. This horrific event happened October 15th, 2013. The earthquake hit hardest in the central Philippines, it was reported to be caused by the East Bohol Fault. People act in a response to a natural disaster by gathering resources, spreading word, and government aid.

Before an earthquake even occurs it is possible to predict roughly where and when it will happen due to detailed seismic records and sophisticated technology such as radon gas emissions, remote sensing and low-frequency electromagnetic activity. In MEDCs like the US, especially around California, dedicated groups of scientists devote their careers to the investigation of earthquake hazards and management. They have access to the latest technology, computers and forecasting to enable them to find out and report back to the wider population about any possible risks. However, in LEDCs like Iran, researching and educating their population about earthquakes is not a priority. Their main goal is to develop their profitable oil reserves and they are still relatively underdeveloped in comparison to the US with a GDP per capita of $818.7 billion compared with America’s $14.66 trillion. The fact that they are not fully developed as a nation puts them at an immediate disadvantage in terms of their ability to prepare for an earthquake.

Thank you, Ms. Leona Graham (mayor), for the opportunity to provide an assessment report for Hazard City. This report will provide an assessment on structural damage of an Intensity IX earthquake, and emergency housing needs. It will also identify actions homeowners can use to help prevent future structural damages, and give more information on possible effects of an Intensity IX earthquake. The assessment report will identify danger of a failing dam, and provide further understanding of the elements which will include an emergency plan. The table that follows is an assessment of the number of people needing emergency housing due to an Intensity IX earthquake.

However the lack of available resources in Bam increased the damage and effects of the earthquake. The effects were phenomenal; 30000 dead, 20000 injured, 80000 homeless. Many of those killed by the earthquake in Bam died only because of poor building methods and a lack of proper regulation. In Iran, as in many developing countries, tremors that ought to be survivable often bring human tragedy on a vast scale because buildings collapse on top of people. Bam in contrast to Christchurch was a disaster waiting to happen. Efforts to bring industrial development to what was a backward agricultural area caused a population boom and a shortage of housing, which local builders tried to meet with cheap, jerry-built homes, or by adding extra floors to existing houses. Building materials are often inadequate for normal purposes, let alone for use in an earthquake zone. Typical houses are constructed of burnt brick, with mud and lime for the bonding. Looking back at the Bam earthquake the limited availability of resources meant that the effects were worsened. However if there was not building in the region then the Hazard would have remained natural with little if any consequences such as deaths or economic loss. The Boxing Day tsunami of 2004 cements my view that disasters are more often than not human disasters. As the large variances of effects

An earthquake also causes the ground to shake. Which some buildings can’t take the intensity

This report will focus on examples of different earthquakes happening around the world and explain why some countries cope better than others. To cope well, the country should have low death tolls, good communication with rescue services and other countries willing to help, evacuation and other emergency plans are planned well, and minimizing the amount of damage done to the country.

Another influential factor that affects the degree of the hazard is where the epicentre is closer to a rural or urban area. Rural area tend to cope with earthquakes much better as there are less buildings that are likely to collapse and rural areas are typically sparsely populated, therefore a smaller amount of people are likely to be affected by the impacts of the earthquake. However, rural areas are less likely to have the infrastructure that could cope with the impacts of a serious earthquake whereas cities do, e.g. earthquake buildings. Many people in rural areas also have less knowledge of the impacts of earthquakes and may not know how to respond during or after the quake. In densely populated urban areas such as L’Aquila, Italy the effects of earthquakes can be much more detrimental as gas pipes can burst, habitats can be lost and thousands of buildings can be damaged. These in turn can have negative secondary affects for example in L’Aquila 70,000 people were made homeless and the bursting of gas pipes resulted in the spread of fire across the city, causing more damage.

Earthquake Hazards occur when there are adverse effects on human activities. This can include surface faulting, ground shaking and liquefaction. In this essay I will be discussing the factors that affect earthquakes, whether human such as population density, urbanisation and earthquake mitigation or physical such as liquefaction, magnitude, landslides and proximity to the focus.

Due to diverse geo-climatic conditions prevalent in different parts of the globe, different types of natural disasters like floods, droughts, earthquakes, cyclones, landslides, and volcanoes etc may strike according to the vulnerability of the area.

In the U.S. alone, the average annual cost to repair damage caused by earthquakes is $4.4 billion USD. The worldwide figure is much larger than this but unquantifiable due to poorer countries unable to accurately determine the amount of damage that occurred. Year after year the cost of damages barely fluctuates from these ridiculously high figures and money must be pumped into repairing the damage done. Although a lot is being learnt about earthquakes and the fact that humans are now normally able to be alerted in time to evacuate the area the earthquake will affect, there have been no breakthroughs into reducing the amount of damage earthquakes cause to buildings and infrastructures.

The objective of this paper is to understand the modes of road transportation, the role of road transportation in urban areas, the role of transportation infrastructure in