Our Work

2013 - 2014

A major earthquake in Bhutan will damage thousands of buildings all at once. We developed a manual to guide engineers in deciding which buildings are safe after an earthquake. It covers rammed earth, stone masonry and adobe construction.

2010 - 2015

Bhutan and many parts of India face high seismic risk and encounter frequent earthquakes. We developed consensus-based, national action plans for school and hospital earthquake safety.

2012 - 2014

GHI helped address Aizawl, India’s urgent need for measures to improve survival in the face of serious earthquake and landslide hazards. We educated the city about its risk, in the form of a detailed earthquake scenario, and guided the city to implement mitigation options.

2002 - 2008

Delhi is located in high seismic hazard zone, and thousands of school buildings are vulnerable to severe damage in an earthquake. Retrofitting is generally lower cost than building a new, earthquake resistant school. We trained engineers and builders how to upgrade a complex building.

2012 - 2015

Many people perish during earthquakes in a common building type that collapses during earthquakes. We formed a global network of professionals who developed design and construction methods that affordably improve concrete-frame-with-masonry-infill buildings. And we created a manual that shows how.

2014 - 2015

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We evaluated site vulnerabilities, buildings, utilities, equipment, and disaster preparedness at the Solomon Islands National Referral Hospital. We determined that the current site is not at all suitable for a critical hospital. 

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2014

Earthquake-related destruction in hospitals can damage medical equipment and supplies, architectural elements, and critical utilities such as power, water, and medical gas. Such damage can kill or injure people and disable the hospital, even if the structure itself remains sound during shaking.

2011

A comprehensive school safety program that outlines how to keep students out of harm’s way who live in earthquake, tsunami, and volcano zones in the APEC countries.

2010 - 2014

GHI helped conduct an 18-month study to describe how the Global Earthquake Model (GEM) could most effectively communicate its earthquake risk information to promote actions such as retrofit programs on seismic building codes.

2010 - 2011

GHI and its partners improved earthquake safety in the village of Chocos, Peru, by retrofitting a primary school and using this demonstration to train local masons, builders and residents in seismically-safe construction methods.

2009 - 2014

GHI and its project partners conducted a feasibility study of vertical evacuation structures as a key component of tsunami preparedness in Sumatra.

2008

GHI sponsored three international colleagues as members of the Seismological Society of America (SSA), giving them increased access to technological resources and a network of risk management experts.

2007 - 2011

GHI’s earthquake engineering curriculum in Pakistan improved the main technical university and trained practicing professionals how to to reduce the seismic vulnerability of existing buildings, and construct new buildings better.

2002 - 2008

GHI mentored, trained, and built the capacity of Delhi public works engineers, to undertake seismic assessment and retrofit projects in major buildings in the city.

2006 - 2009

GHI analyzed the seismic safety and recommended safety improvements to protect the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives (LTWA) campus and other structures of importance in the Upper Dharamsala area.

2006 - 2008

GHI developed a tsunami preparedness guidebook, “Preparing Your Community for Tsunamis,” which strives to improve tsunami safety in developing countries.

2007-2009

This manual will help hospital administrators and staff to reduce one of the major sources of earthquake-related damage and losses in hospitals: medical equipment and supplies, contents, architectural elements, and building utility systems. Damage to these items in past earthquakes has caused deaths, injuries, loss of building function, and economic loss, even in cases in which the building structure itself was essentially undamaged.

2004 - 2005

GHI worked with others to organize an Experts’ Meeting on School Earthquake Safety, which developed guidelines for an accredited program.

2004 - 2005

GHI helped Turkey take its Disaster Preparedness Education Program (DPEP) nationwide, in cooperation with the Republic of Turkey’s Ministry of Education.

2002 - 2005

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Earthquake safety and disaster mitigation efforts in Almaty, Kazakhstan; Dushanbe, Tajikistan; and Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

2001 - 2002

GHI directed a study that identified and evaluated unsafe school buildings in Ahmedabad, Baroda and Surat, to improve school earthquake safety.

1999 - 2001

GHI developed the Global Earthquake Safety Initiative (GESI), offering cities information necessary to begin the process of addressing urban earthquake safety.

1998 - 2000

GHI played a leading role in the RADIUS initiative, which raised public awareness about seismic risk faced by communities around the globe, and promoted the exchange of mitigation information among these cities.

1997 - 1999

The Kathmandu Valley Earthquake Risk Management Project aimed to improve local understanding and management of earthquake risk in the Valley.

1996

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More than 50 experts from around the world gathered to develop strategies to control accelerating urban earthquake risk in Central Asia. 

1995

GHI helped evaluate the vulnerability of Quito’s public schools to earthquake damage, and designed an affordable means to strengthen them.

1992

GHI organized a workshop in which seismic safety experts from more than twelve earthquake threatened cities compared hazard mitigation strategies and shared a commitment to improve global earthquake safety.

1992 - 1994

GHI assessed earthquake hazard and risk to Quito, and, using earthquake scenarios, designed sustainable programs to mitigate the city’s risk.