The New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering (NZSEE) building safety evaluation process was implemented in several earthquakes that occurred as part of the 2010–2011 Canterbury earthquake sequence. This provided an opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of the current processes across a range of issues. In addition to the established rapid assessments, guidelines have been developed for the detailed engineering evaluation of damaged buildings. Lessons have been drawn from these experiences relating to the effectiveness of placards and the rapid visual assessment of damage, requirements for a full spectrum of assessment processes, and training needs. Improvements to the current building safety evaluation processes are proposed and further considerations for reoccupation of damaged buildings are outlined. While this paper is based on the authors’ experiences in New Zealand, the findings are expected to have wider applications.
The authors discuss some of the unique aspects and lessons of the New Zealand post-earthquake building safety inspection program that was implemented following the Canterbury earthquake sequence of 2010–2011. The post-event safety assessment program was one of the largest and longest programs undertaken in recent times anywhere in the world. The effort engaged hundreds of engineering professionals throughout the country, and also sought expertise from outside, to perform post-earthquake structural safety inspections of more than 100,000 buildings in the city of Christchurch and the surrounding suburbs. While the building safety inspection procedure implemented was analogous to the ATC 20 program in the United States, many modifications were proposed and implemented in order to assess the large number of buildings that were subjected to strong and variable shaking during a period of two years. This note discusses some of the key aspects of the post-earthquake building safety inspection program and summarizes important lessons that can improve future earthquake response.
On 25 April 2015, a Mw7.8 earthquake struck near Gorka, Nepal. The earth-quake and its aftershocks caused over 8,790 deaths and 22,300 injuries; a half a million homes were destroyed; and hundreds of historical and cultural monuments were destroyed or extensively damaged ( NPC 2015 ). Triggered landslides blocked access to road networks, and other lifelines were significantly impacted. Damage occurred in the capital of Kathmandu and the surrounding valley basin, but the most heavily affected areas were in more rural regions of central Nepal where losses to some towns were severe. Recovery has been slow, but progress is being made in rebuilding and repairing lost and damaged buildings and infrastructure. This Earthquake Spectra special issue provides a compendium of research papers on the Gorkha earthquake. They are organized into five topics: (1) seismology, ground motion, and geotechnical issues; (2) lifelines; (3) buildings; (4) cultural heritage structures; and (5) social science and public policy related topics. This overview summarizes key aspects of the earthquake and highlights findings from the special issue papers.
Efforts at improving earthquake recovery policies have been hampered by a lack of criteria and standards for evaluating and repairing damaged buildings. The Applied Technology Council has developed a performance-based methodology for the evaluation of earthquake-damaged concrete wall buildings and masonry wall buildings, recently published as FEMA 306/307/308. The methodology provides a way to quantify damage in terms of loss of seismic performance capability. It also provides guidelines for remedial measures to restore or improve seismic performance capability. In this methodology, the expected future seismic performance of a building is evaluated in its pre-event, damaged, and repaired conditions. Following the nonlinear static analysis procedure, displacement demands and capacities of the structure are used as indices of seismic performance. Identifying the governing mechanism of nonlinear deformation and the behavior mode of a structure and its components is shown to be a necessary first step towards evaluating expected seismic performance, interpreting indications of damage, and assessing their significance. The methodology provides a technical resource for understanding how buildings respond seismically on both global and component levels, and gives a basis for formulating post-earthquake policies.
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