4 - Resilient Homes Make Cities Resilient

Abstract

The risk of earthquake is on the rise in urban areas, where people and homes are densely concentrated. In earthquake disasters, most of the deaths and injuries are caused by the collapse of buildings, particularly homes, most of which are nonengineered. Nonengineered buildings are defined by IAEE (2004) as buildings which are spontaneously and informally constructed in the traditional manner without intervention by qualified architects and engineers. Further, vulnerable homes would block streets when they collapse, hampering evacuation, relief, and firefighting activities. Thus, resilient homes make cities resilient, and in order to reduce the casualties due to earthquake, the most critical are the construction of safe homes and maintaining safety through the life of the homes. In order to understand the current construction practices of nonengineered homes in some Asian countries, a comparative study on the subject is introduced in this chapter. Field surveys were conducted in several developing countries, including India, Indonesia, Nepal, and Pakistan. Although this research reveals that each country has its own typical problems in nonengineered construction, there are similar issues, whether technical or nontechnical, that can be generalized to apply to nonengineered practices in developing countries. Then, the text briefly introduces efforts and issues in Indonesia to secure home safety in new construction through appropriate implementation of building codes and dissemination of technical guidelines. The authors also introduce efforts in Japan to promote retrofitting of vulnerable homes through legislation, financial assistance, and awareness raising.