What The United Nations says about the Earthquake

Collapsed buildings are the main killers when earthquake strikes, says UN.

Source: Press Release, UN/ISDR 2008/07. 16 May 2008

“We know how to make buildings more resistant to earthquakes, but this knowledge is still not yet well disseminated among decision-makers who enforce building codes for houses, schools and hospitals” says Salvano Briceño, Director of the UN secretariat of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction.

“Schools, hospitals and other critical infrastructure need to be systematically upgraded and retrofitted in earthquake prone areas if we want to save lives. Vulnerability to earthquakes is still a main cause of death during disasters” says Salvano Briceño.

Both schools and hospitals play important roles in saving the lives of society’s most vulnerable people during disasters, if they are properly designed and built.

”There are still too many poorly designed and constructed buildings in earthquake-prone areas, and too many people dying because of it” says Salvano Briceño
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"What we are seeing in every urban earthquake is a result of mostly avoidable errors"

(United Nations Interview with Fouad Bendimerad, Chairman of the Board of the Earthquakes and Megacities Initiative (EMI). Prof. Bendimerad is a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from Stanford University)

According to your expertise, how do you explain the collapse of so many buildings in China?

What happened in China could have happened in any other urban earthquake region. We must address the structural issues related to the safety of the buildings through integrating disaster risk reduction considerations in urban planning...

But the message is lost in the midst of all the noise! For us, this is a fundamental issue that must be addressed if we want to make schools, hospitals, buildings, and the urban environment safe. We cannot provide safe urban environments by raising awareness alone. We must also build the competency of the institutions and of the professionals who plan, build, and manage cities.


Is it possible to resist a 7.9 magnitude earthquake anyway?

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Nonetheless, earthquake engineering knowledge has advanced significantly in the last two decades. Seismologists can provide reasonable estimates of hazard impacts to enable the design of buildings to a required level hazard resistance; this is the first step because we know that areas which have experienced large earthquakes in the past will experience them in the future.
Seismologists can also provide a projected level of earthquake impacts which could ensure that buildings are not inappropriately designed to withstand certain hazard impacts. These projected impacts are typically considered in building codes and in special zonation studies. With this information, engineers can provide the adequate design to resist projected hazard impacts. For such large earthquakes, the aim is simply to prevent the building from collapse and to protect the safety of the occupants. The damage could be substantial, and the building may need extensive repairs, if not complete reconstruction. So, yes, with proper technology and adequate knowledge we can construct buildings to resist even the largest earthquakes without collapse.