Disaster Recovery and the Road Ahead - IGNOU

Rehabilitation of agriculture, artisan work and animal husbandry.
Adequate provision for subsidies, farm implements, acquisition of land for relocation sites,
adherence to land-use planning, flood plain zoning, retrofitting or strengthening of undamaged
houses, and construction of model houses.
1.5.1 Rehabilitation after Earthquakes
Strengthening of existing structures is indispensable to
earthquake preparedness as well as rehabilitation. The
community needs to be involved in the assessment of
damage to their structures, just as it is engaged with
earthquake impact assessment. Damage assessment
of existing masonry buildings is done by determining:
Probable maximum intensity of the earthquake
Building typology
Building configuration
Quality of construction and maintenance over time
Illustration 3
Assessment of buildings needs to be made in order to gauge whether they are amenable to repair
and strengthening or not. Accordingly, damage grading is done to ascertain if retrofitting is needed,
what kind of retrofitting is required (structural and non-structural), and whether building needs to be
replaced with a new one altogether. As far as protection measures are concerned, the community
should know how to strengthen their houses. The existing houses can be strengthened through
various measures called retrofitting measures. The community should realize that rebuilding costs are
much higher than expenditure that is generally incurred on retrofitting.
DID YOU KNOW?
An Earthquake-resistant Building must have the following features:
1) Good Structural Configuration: Its size, shape and structural system carrying loads
are such that they ensure a direct and smooth flow of inertia forces to the ground
2) Lateral Strength: The maximum lateral (horizontal) force that it can resist is such
that the damage induced in it does not result in collapse
3) Adequate Stiffness: Its lateral load resisting system is such that the earthquake
induced deformations in it do not damage its contents under low-to-moderate shaking
4) Good Ductility: Its capacity to undergo large deformations under severe earthquake
shaking even after yielding, is improved by favourable design and detailing strategies
After any earthquake, one of the challenging jobs left with the administration is of repairing and
strengthening of the damaged and undamaged buildings. For this purpose, we require specialized
techniques and services of technical experts/personnel. Some of the techniques, which you all should
know, are:
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