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School Seismic Vulnerability Assessments & Engineers’ Training

2020 - Present

Amargadhi, Nepal

Westernmost Nepal, is threatened by a major earthquake that most of its buildings, including most schools, have not been designed or built to withstand. This places schoolchildren at great risk, and common school construction practices need to be made safer.

Next Generation Scenarios: Studies and Guidance

2020 - 2024

Global

Geologic hazards scenarios provide an excellent mechanism for thinking through complex problems in advance of earthquakes, landslides and volcanic eruptions.

By showing specific consequences–to people, buildings, infrastructure, and land–a scenario approach makes technical information understandable. People can envision what could happen in their own community, and they can make informed decisions to limit potential harm and damage.

Our research shows that scenarios can strongly motivate communities to implement long-term risk mitigation actions. But there is room for improvement in the way scenarios are developed, particularly in low-resource international contexts. Our research considered: How could scenarios be improved to motivate mitigation actions and policy change? Too often, past geologic hazard scenarios stopped at characterizing the risk and did not link these findings to policy and implementation pathways.

Kathmandu Hospital Pre and Post Earthquake Assessments Compared

2017

Kathmandu, Nepal

Two Kathmandu hospitals had been assessed for disaster preparedness just before the 2015 M7.8 Gorkha earthquake. Pre- and post-earthquake findings are compared.

Disaster Scenarios for Risk-Informed Planning

2016 - 2019

West Nepal

Scenarios of a plausible earthquake quantify impacts, including more than 50% of schools damaged, and guide communities to reduce extreme risk before a disaster.

Mason Training on Earthquake-Resistant Construction

2014

Dadeldhura, Nepal

Mansons trained hands-on to build bearing walls and reinforced concrete frames, applying Nepal’s building code that addresses reinforcement in simpler buildings.

Review and Field Test of the Global Hospital Safety Index

2014

Solomon Islands, Nepal

Technical review and field testing of a World Health Organization (WHO) tool to screen hospitals’ vulnerabilities to multiple hazards as well as their level of emergency and disaster preparedness.

Kathmandu Priority Hospitals Seismic Assessment

2013 - 2014

Kathmandu, Nepal

Prioritized short and long-term changes to improve post-disaster function of hospitals that provide critical medical services for a large number of people.

Global Earthquake Safety Initiative

1999 - 2001

Global

Technical information about likely lethality of earthquakes in 21 cities-- including vulnerable aspects of the built environment, schools and hospitals--to help the cities prioritize risk mitigation efforts.

Kathmandu Valley Earthquake Risk Management

1995 - 1999

Nepal

One objective was to quantify and plan how to mitigate the high vulnerability of public schools. This led to hands-on training and seismic retrofit of many schools.

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