What are the best practices for ensuring occupant safety during an earthquake?

3 Seismic design codes and standards

To ensure that your structure meets the minimum requirements for seismic safety, you need to follow the relevant seismic design codes and standards for your location and project type. These codes and standards provide guidelines and specifications for the materials, components, connections, systems, and performance levels of your structure. They also define the seismic design categories, which are based on the seismic hazard and the occupancy and importance of your structure. Depending on the seismic design category, you may need to use different methods of analysis, such as linear static, linear dynamic, or nonlinear dynamic, to evaluate your structure's response to an earthquake.

4 Seismic construction practices

The quality of your construction practices can have a significant impact on your structure's seismic performance and occupant safety. You need to ensure that your construction practices are consistent with your design assumptions and specifications, and that they comply with the applicable codes and standards. You also need to inspect and monitor your construction processes and materials, and verify that they meet the expected quality and safety standards. You should avoid any errors, defects, or deviations that could compromise your structure's strength, ductility, redundancy, or resilience.

5 Seismic retrofitting and maintenance

If your structure is existing or historic, you may need to perform seismic retrofitting and maintenance to improve its seismic safety and performance. Seismic retrofitting involves modifying or adding structural elements, such as braces, dampers, isolators, or shear walls, to increase your structure's strength, ductility, redundancy, or resilience. Seismic maintenance involves repairing or replacing any damaged or deteriorated structural elements, such as cracks, corrosion, or spalling, to restore your structure's original capacity and functionality. You should conduct regular inspections and assessments to identify and prioritize any seismic retrofitting and maintenance needs.

6 Seismic emergency preparedness and response

Even if your structure is designed and constructed to withstand an earthquake, you still need to prepare and respond to any seismic emergency that may occur. You need to develop and implement a seismic emergency plan that covers the roles and responsibilities, procedures and protocols, resources and equipment, and communication and coordination of your staff and occupants. You also need to conduct drills and exercises to test and improve your seismic emergency plan and to train and educate your staff and occupants. You should also have a post-earthquake recovery plan that outlines the steps and actions to restore your structure and resume your operations.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?