Virtual Earthquake Reconnaissance Team (VERT) Summary by Tracy Becker and Laura Whitehurst.
In 1998 the National Society for Earthquake Technology – Nepal (NSET) conducted a survey of public schools in the Kathmandu Valley region, their finding were published in a report written in collaboration with GeoHazards International and is avaialable for download: http://nset.org.np/nset2012/index.php/publication/publicationdetail/pubfileid-142/pubid-1/type-Recent
They found that approximately 60% of schools were built using weak traditional materials and only around 20% were built using any design code. They estimated that 99% of schools were unsafe for large level shaking and that 66% of schools were likely to collapse in a large earthquake.
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| Figure 1. Vulnerability of Schools in Kathmandu. (Credit: NSET School Earthquake Safety Program http://nset.org.np/nset2012/index.php/publication/publicationdetail/pubfileid-108/pubid-2/type-Recent) | ||
The report recommended that 80% of schools could be retrofit to control earthquake damage and that 20% should be rebuilt. Since then, NSET has had the School Earthquake Safety Programme (SESP) and a number of shorter term programs aimed at increasing seismic awareness at both government and local community levels focusing on teacher training, retrofitting a limited number of vulnerable schools, and training local masons on seismic construction techniques.
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| Figure 2. Credit: NSERT, Making schools safer from future earthquakes, http://nset.org.np/nset2012/index.php/publication/publicationdetail/pubfileid-51/pubid-4/type-Recent | ||
As we receive more news on the seismic performance of the newer or retrofit schools, it will be interesting to see the effect of these recent efforts.
The Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery in cooperation with the Disaster Risk Management Practice Group of the World Bank South Asia Region published a pamphlet “Developing a Strategy for Improving Seismic Safety of Schools in Nepal” in 2009 describing the genesis of the NSET program.
A New Zealander published his experiences working in Nepal and trying to develop local seismic expertise there in 2004.
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 school buildings, especially those retrofitted or involved in mitigation programs pre-quake, from the April 25, 2015, Nepal Earthquake.
