A Series of Educational Articles for Developing Nations to Improve the Earthquake Safety of Buildings
This guide presents a series of brief articles discussing earthquakes, their effects on buildings, and ways to make buildings safer in earthquake-prone developing countries. They were developed specifically for people in the building industries, but are intended to be accessible to public audiences without technical engineering knowledge. The articles were written by Andrew Charleson and colleagues from the World Housing Encyclopedia.
This publication was developed in response to a 2019 survey of building industry stakeholders in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The most prevalent suggestion was that building departments should take on an educational role. The survey respondents believed that information, including the earthquake hazard, effects of earthquakes on buildings, and building regulations related to building safety should be readily available to all stakeholders, as well as to the staff of building departments themselves. The 25 articles in this document were initially written for people in the building industry as well as the general public of Indonesia’s third largest city, Bandung.
Although the articles are context-specific, this publication is intended to function like a template. The World Housing Encyclopedia seeks partners in developing countries to translate, edit, and disseminate this guide, modifying the content as needed to suit local contexts, including construction materials and methods. Partners in this effort should possess a desire to improve the earthquake-safety of local buildings, experience in earthquake-resistant design, and influence in the local building industry or related communities. WHE welcomes inquiries from local and regional building departments, governments, national earthquake societies, university staff, or large consulting engineering firms.
Download Earthquake-Safe Buildings: A Series of Educational Articles for Developing Nations to Improve the Earthquake Safety of Buildings (PDF).
Iran – Farsi Translation
El Salvador – Spanish Translation
India – Hindi Translation
Download the Microsoft Word files for translation and adaptation here (ZIP archive folder).
Those interested in helping adapt, translate, and disseminate this guide for audiences in the below list of earthquake-prone developing countries should contact WHE at whe@eeri.org.
Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Barbados, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Burma, Burundi, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, East Timor, Ecuador, El Salvador, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Georgia, Grenada, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kosovo, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Lesotho, Malawi, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Mozambique, Nepal, Nicaragua, North Macedonia, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Serbia, Solomon Islands, South Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uganda, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen.