Advanced Building Regulations


Abstract eng:
Engineering differs from pure science, as it is directly connected to social affairs. For example, building regulations provided against earthquake disasters are the fruits of structural and earthquake engineering, and, at the same time, the reflection of the social conditions in the concerned areas. This paper shows a method to utilize both natural and social data in making seismic regulations for houses and buildings of a nation and/or region, with the proposed concepts of life-risk related to average lifespan of inhabitants and efficiency of investment related to number of saved life. First Japanese natural and social conditions are explained with a brief history of the building regulations to show their relations, and, then, the proposed method is illustrated with an assumed model of a developing region. A comparison of building regulations are made between Japan and the assumed region, to show that both natural and social conditions of regions give big effects on their regulations. Japan, a very active earthquake country with high population, keeps low risk-level of people’s life, despite its high disaster potential. It requires high safety-level in the present building codes, and still needs to invest for an expected huge earthquake at the “Nankai” Trough. At the same time, measure against “committing suicide” is essential to decrease its life-risk. In the assumed region, where the earthquake is not active, population density is not high and the life-risk is high, seismic regulations need not aim a high safety-level. One of the proposed solutions is to recommend means to escape from damaged structures, instead of reinforcing the structures themselves. Availing the knowledge of the modern seismology and earthquake engineering, the life-risk caused by seismic disaster can roughly be estimated nowadays. Comparing the risks of various causes and their efficiency of investment, rational distribution of funds to increase the number of saved life will be realized. (In the assumed model, big portion of the funds will be shared to improvement of education, sanitation and medical cares.) Making building regulations is included in the distribution-step. The proposed method is illustrated in the form of a flow chart in the last figure.

Contributors:
Conference Title:
Conference Title:
16th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering
Conference Venue:
Santiago (CL)
Conference Dates:
2017-01-09 / 2017-01-13
Rights:
Text je chráněný podle autorského zákona č. 121/2000 Sb.



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 Record created 2017-01-18, last modified 2017-01-18


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