Towards a practical guide in nonstructural risk reduction: A tool for the KnowRISK countries

Abstract

Nonstructural buildings damages are often considered second order priority issues when modelling an earthquake scenario. While this is reasonable in major earthquakes, where structural damages mask nonstructural failures, it is not such when dealing with moderate earthquakes where, often, the nonstructural damages exceeds losses from structural damages. Nonstructural damages may in fact cause a reduction in the performance of the affected building, which becomes critical in facilities of social relevance like hospitals, schools or fire stations. Moreover, the failure of nonstructural building components can become a safety hazard or can hamper the safe movement of occupants evacuating or of rescue workers entering building. Thus, it is critical to raise in the citizens the awareness of potential nonstructural risks, the costly consequences of nonstructural failures, and the opportunities that exist to limit future losses.The action E1 of the Know Risk project aims at compiling a guide on how to reduce risks from non-structural components failure to be both handed as a printed version and made available on the internet.