Volunteering for Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team: A Guest Post!
A couple of years ago, I spent eighteen months living in South-East Asia. At weekends, keen to truly experience a part of the world I had dreamed of as a child, I would head out exploring, either by booking a cheap flight or just by heading out on my bike. Like all good explorers, I […]
Preparing for the unforseen: How Nepal is preparing for large aftershocks and monsoons
The nation of Nepal has had many trials to overcome with rebuilding a number of cities and villages due to the damage and destruction caused by the April 25th Gorkha earthquake and with the monsoon season imminently approaching. However, on May 12th, another devastating earthquake of magnitude 7.3 hit Nepal near Kodari, which is in the […]
Government Aid Yet to be Distributed
According to an article by Reuters, the Nepali government has yet to spend the roughly 4 billion dollars of donated relief money. Rather than diving straight into reconstruction, they’ve attempted to first make changes which they believe will create greater stability in the long run. However, this has come at the cost of delaying aid […]
Housing in Nepal – A Brief Overview
The housing in Nepal has been classified into four categories on the basis of types of construction materials used in walls and roof of the residential house. These are permanent, Semi permanent, temporary and other types. Permanent (Pakki) house (Kayastha and Shreshtha, 2005) refers to that with both walls and roof made of permanent construction […]
News Articles Related to Housing in Nepal
Housing in Kathmandu, in Rural Nepal, and Vulnerability of Housing Housing in KathmanduNepal Earthquake Death Toll Surpasses 7,000Estimates that 150,000 dwellings collapsed in Nepal, 175 residential buildings in central KathmanduNepal Death Toll exceeds 6,000Drone footage of damage in Kathmandu, NepalHouses fell ‘like a pack of cards’ as earthquake struck, says Nepal bishopBuildings in Kathmandu, […]
Housing Damage Photos – Urban and Rural Areas
Housing Damage in Cities and Urban Areas Figure 1. Bhaktapur, Nepal (Source: Reuters) Figure 2. Katmandu, Nepal (Source: New York Times) Figure 3. Bhaktapur, Nepal (Source: Associated Press) […]
Housing Situation Summary
Housing Situation Summary Housing Damages According to the Government, the earthquake destroyed 160,786 houses and damaged 143,642 (as of 1 May, 16:30, UTC+5:45). The Government is currently projecting this caseload to increase to a total number of 500,000 houses destroyed. In comparison to data from the 1934 earthquake in Nepal-Bihar, the number of houses damaged in 2015 is […]
Nepal Building Code
Click here for the Nepal Building Code. Only three of 58 municipalities in Nepal have implemented the national building code into their permit processes. The greatest risk, historically, has been to non-engineered masonry structures. Curated topics from the April 25, 2015, Nepal Earthquake to help inform reconnaissance activities, identify impacted regions, and help document the timeline of earthquake […]
Video of Construction of a Stone House in Nepal
Construction of a house in Khumjung. Also check out the World Housing Encyclopedia’s stone tutorial and stone model shake table test. Curated topics from the April 25, 2015, Nepal Earthquake to help inform reconnaissance activities, identify impacted regions, and help document the timeline of earthquake response/recovery. Information on housing impacts from the April 25, 2015, Nepal Earthquake.
Mesh over mud brick wall retrofit strategy for Nepal
One retrofit strategy for non-engineered masonry structures in rural Nepal uses polypropylene packaging strap mesh on the exterior of mud brick structural walls, as investigated by Joshua Macabuag, Ramesh Guragain, and Subhamoy Bhattacharya. With the additional of mesh, larger deformations can be sustained by walls, thus lowering the collapse risk. Compressive and shaking table […]