Housing Earthquake Safety Initiative (HESI)
Location: Algeria, Indonesia, Nepal, Peru
Goals & Objectives:
HESI aims to improve the structural safety of houses to provent damage and safeguard people's lives, property and livelihood from earthquakes through effective implementation of building safety regulations.
Specific objectives are
- To raise awareness on the need to improve the implementation of building safety regulations to reduce risk of disaster induced life and propety losses;
- To develop policy recommendations to improve the safety of houses, particularly that of traditional houses; and
- To develop capacity of national and local government officials to implement building safety regulations.
Background:
The collapse of houses and buildings is the single largest cause of human deaths and economic losses resulting from earthquakes. It is obvious that regulatoins that ensure the strucutral safety of buildings play a key role in preventing these losses. However, many houses and buildings in developing countries have strucutural deficiencies, putting them under high risk of damage in the event of an earthquake.
The cause of the prevailing risk is ineffective implementation of earthquake resistant building standards in many developing countires with seismic risk. These standards are not effectively applied to housing construction in these countries because of insufficient capacity of governmnet officials to enforce the regulations and other socio-economic barriers.
In this context, HESI was launched in order to identify country specific problems and promote the implementation of building safety regulations in four project target countries of Algeria, Indonesia, Nepal and Peru. Under this initiative, UNCRD will provide an international information exchange platform to share policy experiences. The project aims to improve the safety of houses and of people living in them, and ultimately, to assist earthquake prone developing countries to meet the Millennium Development Goals.
Activities
System Evaluation
The project collects information on and evaluate the system of implementation
and dissemination of building safety regulations in over 30 countries
through a survey to identify the causes for ineffective implementation
of building regulations. Issues surrounding the implementation as well
as the regulations themselves are analyzed.
Awareness Raising
Workshops are convened to raise awareness among stakeholders on the need
to improve the implementation of building safety regulations nationwide
in each target country. The aim is to develop common understanding
among officials from national government and code implementing local
governments, technicians, engineers and house owners.
Policy Development
The project develops policy recommendations, including easy-to-understand
and locally adoptable building guidelines for traditional houses, to
improve housing safety in the target countries.
Capacity Development
Several national and local workshops and training programs are held involving
stakeholders of housing safety. Several educational materials for capacity
development and community empowerment are also distributed. Results of
the project are distributed through diverse channels in the target countries
and beyond.
Outputs
- Improved safety of houses and communities
- Increased awareness on the importance of building safety regulations among stakeholders of housing safety including national and local government officials, building professionals, and house owners and residents
- Trained national and local government officials
- Educational materials on capacity development and community empowerment
Project Partners
- National governments of Algeria, Indonesia, Nepal and Peru
- Local governments of Algiers, Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Lima
- University professors from Japan, India, USA and the target countries
- NGOs and communities
- Building research institutes etc.
Report
Please click here for Report
