Seismic Safety and Resilience of Schools in Nepal

This project aims at developing a comprehensive scheme for enhancing the seismic safety and resilience of school buildings in Nepal. The circle of resilience initiates from a holistic seismic hazard assessment considering refined geological mapping, 3D site and topographic effects as well as seismicity sequence using statistical clustering models. This will be followed by the development of a smart diagnostics expert system app for reliable pre- and post-earthquake structural inspection. Its core logic will be based on US FEMA and ATC-20i standards extended to address functionality risks, inspection bias reduction based on inspection error patterns identified in the existing school buildings databases in Greece and Turkey. The above state-of-the-art hazard and vulnerability assessments will lead to the risk-based prioritization of schools that need strengthening. Particular emphasis in the diagnostics algorithm will be placed in identifying buildings with minor-to moderate damage, whose safety could be substantially improved with innovative yet simple measures.

Along these lines, means of repair and retrofit will be identified by experimental testing of large and/or full scale, one storey-one classroom, 3D masonry and/or adobe/rammed earth simple buildings, as well as of one bay R/C infill frame, to be conducted at the shaking table of the University of Bristol and the University of Southampton in collaboration with the University of Bullafo, SUNY. Experiments will be co-designed with the project local partners in Nepal, where preliminary material testing will take place. The aim is to design a realistic testing campaign tailored to the construction characteristics of school buildings in Nepal. A deep understanding of the structural damage patterns will be obtained in the Laboratory by studying experimentally and verifying numerically, the cumulative damage under realistic mainshock and aftershock sequences, an issue that has never been studied at this extent. Innovative repair and retrofit techniques will be tested in order to assess and optimize their efficiency through an additional experimental set. Refined and simple solutions will be tested, co-produced and documented in the form of guidelines along with the local partners. An innovative concept of seismic isolation using natural materials will be the second major strand of experimental research for safer "sliding" construction of school buildings and shelters. This is aimed to provide a new alternative for low cost - high safety reconstruction.

A comprehensive post-quake vulnerability assessment will then be developed accounting for regional materials and employing micro- and meso-fragility modelling for informed decision-making during the post-earthquake response, recovery and mitigation phases. This will build upon the existing emergency plans in Nepal with the specific aim to enrich the decision-making process by integrating post-quake shake maps in nearly real time. A tablet app will also be developed for reliable diagnostics of post-quake structural health based on the spectral-based FAST algorithm, a tested method in seismically active Mediterranean countries. An expert system will further link the identified damage states with the most appropriate repair/retrofit/rehabilitation techniques, as the latter have been identified, tested and certified previously in the Lab.

During the entire duration of the project a series of workshops and training sessions will be organised in Nepal in order to interact with the local administration as well as the engineering and educational community. This interaction is deemed vital for the co-development of new concepts, the transfer of know-how and the sustainable construction of schools in both rural and urban areas of Nepal.

SAFER project is focusing on Nepal which is an ODA country.

The proposal directly addresses specific and crucial problems for the development, economic growth and welfare of Nepal primarily related to the aftermath of the 2015 earthquake but also to the lack of a long term sustainable strategy for improving the residence of school children to natural hazards. The particular problems are discussed in detail in Section 2.1 of the Case for Support. In particular, the proposed project is expected to lead to (a) a holistic framework for the pre- and post-assessment of school buildings under some standardised procedure (b) technically feasible, economically affordable, culturally acceptable retrofit solutions that can be implemented in a rural context using locally available materials, (c) validation of numerical predictions typically used for school design and assessment against laboratory tests, (d) simple rules and formulas, updated design codes, guidelines that result in appropriate retrofit techniques as a function of the damage state and the structural system (e) new, low-cost/high-performance, construction techniques for school buildings, TLCs and shelters, (f) seismic fragility functions and risk methods that utilize state-of-the-art uncertainty quantification, while being appropriately tailored to rural and urban districts of Nepal, as well as (g) a comprehensive expert system to integrate all the above knowledge and progress in a wider computational framework for immediate use by the local authorities and stakeholders.

SAFER, being a multi-disciplinary program for pursuing the resilience circle (disaster risk reduction, preparedness, quick recovery and sustainability), aims to substantially improve the residual capacity of the educational communities which is key for avoiding disproportional to the intensity of the hazard, devastating effects after a major disaster. This has an ad-hoc impact on the economy of the country and the wellbeing of its citizens. Furthermore, the technologies to be developed, the techniques to be co-produced, the tools, skills and synergies that will result from this project will substantially strengthen the ability and prospect of the Nepalese people and the local authorities. The above advanced know-how is also exportable as it is easily applicable in neighbouring countries with similar socioeconomic conditions, and hazard exposure in the Himalayas region. Overall, SAFER is a unique opportunity for an actual and long term impact in the quality of life and expertise of Nepal and a significant contribution to the welfare, education, health and safety of the Nepalese children.