• Delhi
• Tibetan Community in Dharamsala
• Pakistan
• Tsunami

• Kathmandu (NSET)

• Central Asia
• Central Asia and Caucasus Region
• GESI
• Gujarat
• Quito Retrofit Schools
• Quito Risk Management
• RADIUS

GeoHazards International and Ecuador's Escuela Politècnica Nacional completed a project to create retrofit designs for a sample of high-risk public schools in Quito, Ecuador's capital. The most significant finding of the project was that the relatively inexpensive process of identifying high-risk schools and designing their retrofits generated sufficient local funding to pay for retrofit construction.

The project was based on an earlier assessment of Quito's earthquake risk, conducted over a two year period by a team of Ecuadorian and International scientists and engineers. They recommended that Quito's public school buildings be evaluated and, if found vulnerable, strengthened. In response, the Quito School Earthquake Safety Project was initiated in December of 1994. Two advisory committees provided general project oversight: the Policy Advisory Committee, consisting of local government officials responsible for school construction, and the Technical Advisory Committee consisting of non-Ecuadorians who have experience in school safety or retrofit procedures.

The project had three objectives:

1. evaluate the vulnerability of Quito's public schools to earthquakes;

2. design affordable means of strengthening a sample of those schools that were vulnerable; and

3. strengthen the sample of vulnerable schools. Fifteen high-risk school buildings were chosen by selecting Quito's high-use schools, classifying them by construction material, and determining the most vulnerable within each group. Retrofit designs were created for each of the high-risk school buildings and for two types of high-risk school modules replicated throughout Ecuador. These designs were affordable and utilized local materials and local construction techniques.