Title

Reducing Seismic Risk to Built Environment – The Way Forward

Bio

Dr AR Vijayanarayanan currently serves as Assistant Professor (Sr. Grade) at the Department of Civil Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore. In addition to seismic risk reduction in the built environment, his areas of interest include understanding the behaviour, and design, of buildings and non-structural elements during seismic action. He completed his PhD and Masters from IIT Madras and IIT Kanpur, respectively. He has co-authored three books to develop the capacity of engineers, artisans and architects towards seismic resilience. He was part of the reconnaissance team to visit Sikkim after the 2011 earthquake.

Abstract

Multi-hazards Warning & Community Resilience (MWCR 2022)

Reducing Seismic Risk to Built Environment – The Way Forward

This presentation’s focus will be to provide an overview of the risk to the built environment during an earthquake and explore possible means to reduce seismic risk. In general, predicting an earthquake is still challenging, although significant time and resources are dedicated for the purpose. Thus, it is prudent to focus on preparedness and mitigation of earthquake disaster. Stakeholders for preparedness and mitigation include: a) researchers, b) practising engineers, c) government agencies, and d) the general public. The collective effort of all stakeholders strives to achieve pertinent goals, namely: a) safety of people, b) safety of building contents, and c) safety of buildings during an earthquake. In general, there are significant challenges to achieve the said goals; while Hyogo framework (2005-2015) of Disaster Risk Reduction focused on prioritizing risk reduction, the Sendai framework (2015-2030) addresses enhancement of disaster preparedness for effective response, and to ‘Build Back Better’ in recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction. The ‘way forward’ suggests logical solutions to address the challenges ahead.