scholarly journals Adoption of seismic-resistant techniques in reconstructed housing in the aftermath of Nepal’s 2015 Gorkha earthquake

2021 ◽  
pp. 875529302110095
Author(s):  
Eefje Hendriks ◽  
Aaron Opdyke

Earthquake affected households too often insufficiently apply seismic construction knowledge during reconstruction. This study aims to assess to what degree safety guidelines have found their way to practice in Nepal. Differences are explored between communities in the Gorkha and Okhaldhunga districts, which received differing levels of technical assistance following the 2015 earthquakes. Seismic resistance of houses was assessed 3 years after the earthquakes. Findings from 955 houses in 25 communities show high degrees of adoption of earthquake-resistant construction knowledge in all selected communities. Variation in safer construction across communities differs only slightly for different intensities of humanitarian technical assistance. This finding points toward the need to more closely examine the communication methods employed and motivations of households to build back safer.

2019 ◽  
Vol 58 ◽  
pp. 139-144
Author(s):  
Ranjan Dhungel ◽  
Surya Narayan Shrestha ◽  
Ramesh Guragain ◽  
Manish Raj Gouli ◽  
Ayush Baskota ◽  
...  

Disasters every year proclaim life of thousands and destruct infrastructures worth billions worldwide. Moreover, the developing countries are more prone to hazards as they are found to be lagging in early preparedness regarding the consequences of disaster. Nepal, in the wake of the 7.8 magnitude 2015 Gorkha Earthquake had to face devastating effects as the country lost nearly ten-thousand lives and structures accounting 6.69 billion US$ (NRA, 2016). Private Housing, one of the subordinates of social sector, faced the colossal damage, making the dwellers bound to take shelter under the makeshift tents. To that end, government has adopted owner driven approach for reconstruction and it is advancing in an amplified way. Since the rural terrains with low strength masonry had to face shattering effects, the reconstruction demands their construction with incorporation of seismic resistant components. The technique of construction since significantly differs than the primitive way, diverse modes of assistance is required by house owners to make their buildings codal compliant, which is also linked with obtaining subsidy. Not only reconstruction is a technical process, rather it is also a blend of economic, social and cross cutting issues. Having said that, the paper aims to study a multidimensional approach of socio-technical assistance (STA) through the study of different cases of ongoing post-earthquake reconstruction. The paper studies the impacts of socio-technical assistance being provided at various earthquake affected areas to understand what aspects of socio-technical assistance are aiding in the current reconstruction process. In conclusion, the paper identifies the core areas of sociotechnical assistance that is required in the aftermath of a disaster and how the current institutional structure can be modified to enhance the quality of socio-technical assistance being provided through various government and non-government agencies.


Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 678
Author(s):  
Mark van der Meijde ◽  
Md Ashrafuzzaman ◽  
Norman Kerle ◽  
Saad Khan ◽  
Harald van der Werff

It remains elusive why there was only weak and limited ground shaking in Kathmandu valley during the 25 April 2015 Mw 7.8 Gorkha, Nepal, earthquake. Our spectral element numerical simulations show that, during this earthquake, surface topography restricted the propagation of seismic energy into the valley. The mountains diverted the incoming seismic wave mostly to the eastern and western margins of the valley. As a result, we find de-amplification of peak ground displacement in most of the valley interior. Modeling of alternative earthquake scenarios of the same magnitude occurring at different locations shows that these will affect the Kathmandu valley much more strongly, up to 2–3 times more, than the 2015 Gorkha earthquake did. This indicates that surface topography contributed to the reduced seismic shaking for this specific earthquake and lessened the earthquake impact within the valley.


2017 ◽  
Vol 714-715 ◽  
pp. 146-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Rajaure ◽  
D. Asimaki ◽  
E.M. Thompson ◽  
S. Hough ◽  
S. Martin ◽  
...  

Geosciences ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 437 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meena ◽  
Tavakkoli Piralilou

Despite landslide inventories being compiled throughout the world every year at different scales, limited efforts have been made to critically compare them using various techniques or by different investigators. Event-based landslide inventories indicate the location, distribution, and detected boundaries of landslides caused by a single event, such as an earthquake or a rainstorm. Event-based landslide inventories are essential for landslide susceptibility mapping, hazard modeling, and further management of risk mitigation. In Nepal, there were several attempts to map landslides in detail after the Gorkha earthquake. Particularly after the main event on 25 April 2015, researchers around the world mapped the landslides induced by this earthquake. In this research, we compared four of these published inventories qualitatively and quantitatively using different techniques. Two principal methodologies, namely the cartographical degree of matching and frequency area distribution (FAD), were optimized and applied to evaluate inventory maps. We also showed the impact of using satellite imagery with different spatial resolutions on the landslide inventory generation by analyzing matches and mismatches between the inventories. The results of our work give an overview of the impact of methodology selection and outline the limitations and advantages of different remote sensing and mapping techniques for landslide inventorying.


Author(s):  
C. Gómez Maestro ◽  
A. Rivera ◽  
I. Olivares Miranda

Abstract. The furnaces of Salamanca were built during the period in which the British Tobacco Company operated in this area of the Region of Coquimbo in Chile (1960's to 1990's). A semi-industrial model of tobacco production was inserted, in which local farmers received technical training and materials to grow tobacco plants. During a first period the company bought green tobacco leaves, while later encouraging the sale of dried tobacco. This meant that local producers had to build their own furnaces, under the company's technical instructions. These instructions were delivered through architectural plans produced by the company, which were interpreted by local farmers according to their own vernacular construction knowledge. This combination resulted in a huge variety of constructive techniques – primarily based on earth – represented in one only architectural form. A cadastre accomplished by the authors in 2019 registered examples of furnaces built with adobe, quincha, tabique and a combination of several of these building systems. Similar systems also present variations - expressed especially in the use of different earthquake-resistant devices. These attend to variable economic conditions and constructive cultures of the local farmers. This article presents the register of 24 furnace ensambles located in 7 areas of Salamanca, characterized according to their construction type and state of conservation. These entries provide information on the richness of vernacular construction of the area and the efficiency of case-specific building solutions.


Author(s):  
Alessandra Mayumi NAKATA ◽  
Hikaru TOMITA ◽  
Kazuo KONAGAI ◽  
Masataka SHIGA ◽  
Takaaki IKEDA ◽  
...  

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