Where We Work

How We Work

Our Projects

• Tsunami Preparedness: Feasibility Study of Vertical Evacuation Structures in Sumatra
• Hospital Earthquake Safety Manual
• School Earthquake Safety and Preparedness Training (Gurgaon, India)
• Sponsoring Professional Memberships
• Earthquake Engineering Training and Curricula in Pakistan
• Delhi Earthquake Safety Initiative
• Improving Seismic Safety for the Tibetan Community in Dharamsala
• Tsunami Preparedness Guidebook
• GHI-OECD School Earthquake Safety Policy Initiative
• Disaster Preparedness Education Program in Turkish Schools
• Central Asia Region Earthquake Safety Initiative
• School Earthquake Safety in Gujarat
• Global Earthquake Safety Initiative
• RADIUS - Risk Assessment Tools for Diagnosis of Urban Areas against Seismic Disasters
• Kathmandu Valley Earthquake Risk Management
• Urban Earthquake Risk Management in Central Asia and Caucasus Region
• Quito School Earthquake Safety Project
• Istanbul Earthquake Scenario Workshop
• Quito Earthquake Risk Management

Earthquake Engineering Training and Curricula in Pakistan

THE PROBLEM:

 

On October 8, 2005, just before 9:00 a.m. local time, a magnitude 7.6 earthquake occurred near the Pakistan town of Muzaffarabad. Violent shaking leveled entire villages and triggered landslides, cutting off access to remote areas in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province and in the Kashmir region. It was the deadliest earthquake in the recent history of the sub-continent, killing more than 73,000 people, injuring more than 128,000, and leaving millions homeless. Because the earthquake struck during school hours, fatalities among schoolchildren were particularly high. At least 17,000 children died in schools, and thousands more were seriously injured.

 

GHI'S RESPONSE:

 

To help Pakistan in its efforts to prevent such devastating losses in future earthquakes, in 2007 GHI launched a three-year project "Building Pakistan's Capacity for Instruction, Research, and Practice in Earthquake Engineering and Retrofit." Partnering with NED University of Engineering and Technology in Karachi (www.neduet.edu.pk) and other institutions in Pakistan that train future engineers and architects, GHI is working to strengthen the curricula for both practicing engineers and students. This pioneering collaborative project is funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) through The National Academies and by the Pakistan Higher Education Commission.

 

The project concentrates on building capacity in Pakistan's academic, public, and private sectors to assess and reduce the seismic vulnerability of existing buildings, and construct new buildings better. To accomplish these goals, GHI and NED have paired a team of American experts in earthquake engineering education and practice with a team of Pakistani professors and building professionals. The project team is comprised of Dr. Sarosh Lodi and Dr. Sahibzada Rafeeqi of NED on the Pakistan side and, on the U.S. side, of Dr. Janise Rodgers, Mr. Thomas Tobin and Dr. Brian Tucker (all of GHI), Dr. Gregory Deierlein (Stanford University), Mr. David Mar (Tipping-Mar + associates), and Dr. Khalid Mosalam (University of California, Berkeley). The project involves numerous other participants in academia and industry from both Pakistan and the United States.

 

Together, the teams are improving the earthquake engineering curriculum, developing training materials and hosting professional training workshops for Pakistani engineers, architects, and other building professionals. They are training a cadre of NED Engineering University professors to teach assessment and retrofit methods, integrating formal instruction in theory with practice by using case studies of existing buildings typical of the local building stock.

 

While building earthquake engineering education capacity in Pakistan, the project is at the same time strengthening cooperative research and professional relationships between Pakistani and American researchers through academic exchange, consultation on research topics that directly impact seismic safety in Pakistan, and creation of an earthquake engineering research agenda for Pakistan.

 

Please visit this page for regular updates on project activities and progress.

 

For more information on progress to date, see http://peer.berkeley.edu/pdf/Khalid-pakistan-final2.pdf