Recent earthquakes have caused unacceptably high death tolls. We, the editors of the World Housing Encyclopedia, believe that reducing such an unacceptably high loss of life from earthquakes is the most important challenge facing the global earthquake engineering community. This paper acknowledges the continuing disparity between life loss from earthquakes in developing and developed countries, and the increasing vulnerability in developing countries. A sampling of current efforts to improve construction practices includes the publication of earthquake tips in India, construction manuals in Colombia, and the formation of various international networks to promote collaboration and information sharing. Future possibilities include more rewards for research into inadequately engineered construction, greater emphasis on small-scale, local efforts, and a stronger emphasis on advocacy. We believe that all of us, as earthquake professionals, have a responsibility to make the built environment safer worldwide.
The rigidity of a six-story shear-wall building, damaged by the May 21, 2003 Boumerdes earthquake (Algeria) has been evaluated before the event, in its damaged state, and after retrofitting, by estimating its natural frequency, damping factor, and modal shape. Pre-event parameters are estimated through a numerical analysis, based on the structure drawings, complemented by an ambient vibration investigation of an identical non-damaged building located on the same site. Parameters of the damaged and retrofitted states were obtained from ambient vibration recordings. Variations of the modal parameters, for the three states of the building, allow evaluating rigidity changes, and thus checking of both the retrofitting and strengthening of the building
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