On 6 February 2023, there was an earthquake of magnitude Mw = 7.8 in Southern Turkey, with its epicenter in the Pazarcik district of Kahramanmaras province. According to the Ministry of Interior, Turkey, more than 50,000 people lost their lives, with more than 100,000 people injured. Post-earthquake damage Surveys indicate that […]
Seismic Risk Reduction Implementation for Historic Buildings in Lebanon
Lebanon is a high seismic risk area, where multiple large historic earthquakes spanning the prior centuries are documented. The area embodies a long history of civilization with many ancient cities housing many historic buildings. Currently, this heritage stock in Lebanon holds a cultural value for the community and an […]
Accelerating Post-Disaster Response: The Haiti (2021) Experience
mart In the aftermath of a destructive event, such as a large earthquake, several immediate actions need to be put in place to reduce the impacts on the affected population. In spite of the best engineering efforts, large earthquakes still cause a great deal of material and human losses, more […]
Estimation of Regional Attenuation Relationship and Development of Fragility Curves in Southern Haiti Based on Accelerometer Observations
A two-fold framework is proposed to, first, estimate the regional attenuation relationship in Haiti due to earthquakes in the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden seismic fault zone and second, to develop fragility curves of various building typologies and occupancy types in Southern Haiti. The attenuation relationship is developed between peak ground acceleration (PGA) […]
State of the Art Rapid Repairability Assessment and Reconstruction of Damaged Structures to Reduce Internally Displaced Population
The 2023 Turkey earthquake caused 35,000 mid-rise buildings to collapse, killing 51,000 people and leaving 4.1 million people homeless. The program conducted by the largest municipality in the affected area, Gaziantep, provided innovative rapid shelter solutions for Internally Displaced Population (IDP) by assisting them in returning to repairable buildings. […]
Massive Indigenous Housing Recovery Platform In Afghanistan After The 2022 Earthquake
The magnitude-6.2 earthquake struck the remote south-eastern region of Afghanistan on June 22, 2022. With over 1,000 casualties and more than 50,000 damaged or destroyed homes, this disaster affected the lives of tens of thousands of people. This politically fragile region is controlled by the Taliban and is under consistent […]
Pragmatic Guidance for Emergency Repairs of Structures That May Contain Asbestos in Ukraine
The Law of Ukraine that prohibits the use of asbestos will come into force in October 2023. Meanwhile, Asbestos Containing Materials (ACM) products are extremely common, as Ukraine has been one of the largest consumers after the separation from the Soviet Union and prior to 1991 as a part […]
PREPARE Program WCEE 2017
The United States Agency for International Development / Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA) Preparing Rescue and Emergency Personnel to Ameliorate the Response to Earthquakes (PREPARE) Program is a Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) program aimed at strengthening the ability of Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) teams and key local […]
Seismic retrofit and FEMA P-58 risk assessment of mid-rise soft-story concrete towers SEAOC
The two frame office towers, constructed in the 1970s per the 1967 edition of the UBC, use perimeter reinforced concrete moment frames to resist seismic loading. The buildings are rectangular in plan and have certain characteristics that adversely affect their seismic performance, in particular the presence of a soft-story response […]
Cost-effective Seismic Isolation Retrofit of Heritage Cathedrals in Haiti
H. Kit Miyamoto and Amir SJ Gilani In the past earthquakes, heritage buildings have sustained severe damage and collapse in recent earthquakes, including in Italy (2009), Haiti (2010) and New Zealand (2011). For these buildings, the main vertical and lateral load bearing members typically use variations of unreinforced masonry stone/rubble […]
