Lately, many destructive earthquakes occurred in various countries in the world, including indonesia. those earthquakes caused a lot of loss of human life as well as property. The degree of damage and the losses caused by earthquakes tend to increase in the future. This is caused by the fact that the world populations is increasing and many settlements are built in seismic prone areas. Many buildings are built without following principles of earthquake resistant design. More so, in many places in the world, the materials quality and workmanship are so low that the chances of those buildings get damaged or collapsed is very big, even if shaken by weak earthquakes. One of the disadvantage is the fact that most of the loss occurred in developing countries. Therefore, the majority of the buildings that suffered damage belongs to the category of “non-engineered” construction.
Right after an earthquake, it is common that people are in doubt to determine which buildings should be demolished, which ones must be repaired, and which ones must be strengthened and how to do it.
These manuals, that can be donwloaded freely below, are written to try to answer those questions and explain what can be done easily, practically, simple, and relatively at low cost. The methods suggested and the details shown in this manual are
particularly for non-engineered unconfined, confined masonry buildings, and simple reinforced concrete buildings. The details are basic principles and are minimum requirements to obtain earthquake resistance.
Although the seismicity in each area are not the same, those principles can still be applied with the necessary adjustments.
