Across the Borders: Present, Past, and Future of the Training Courses for Developing Countries Held by the International Institute of Seismology and Earthquake Engineering (IISEE)

Abstract

Earthquakes never kill people, but collapses of buildings and houses induced by earthquakes do. This is common knowledge among engineers. Except for casualties caused by tsunami and landslides, human losses due to earthquakes could be reduced to zero if construction could incorporate complete aseismic resistance. Based on this basic strategy, earthquake engineering has succeeded in developing aseismic design, construction technologies, strengthening methods, and so on. Seismology has provided information for estimating seismic ground motion that is used as the input to structures for consideration in terms of earthquake engineering, and also the knowledge of the phenomenon of earthquakes themselves. This has been used also for understanding the characteristics of seismic waves that are directly related to earthquake disasters. In recent years, research at the border between seismology and earthquake engineering (S&EE) has grown, and the necessity for collaboration across the border of these fields has also grown. The benefits of these advanced technologies, however, have been limited primarily to developed countries, such as the United States, Japan, and Europe. Earthquake disasters take place mainly in developing countries. Therefore, activities to support earthquake-prone developing countries are necessary to fulfill one of the biggest targets of S&EE, the mitigation of earthquake disasters throughout the world. This is the reason why the transfer of technologies and knowledge to developing countries across national and geographical borders has been required in the field of S&EE. Today the need and requests from developing countries for S&EE learning opportunities have been increasing due to the growing vulnerability of huge cities, with the explosive growth of urban populations in recent years and without sufficient infrastructure. Bormann (2000) has listed the international training courses that invite trainees from developing countries in seismology. The International Institute of Seismology and Earthquake Engineering (IISEE), which is part of the Building Research Institute, …