Seismic Resistant Retrofitting for Buildings

Earthquakes can be the single most devastating natural event, with many lives claimed due to the failure of residential buildings. Whilst there are many building codes and guidelines for building back better to create new, seismic resistant buildings, this option may not be affordable to all whose houses remain standing, but are still at risk of experiencing an earthquake. Seismic retrofitting is defined by Arya (2005) as:

“...actions for upgrading the seismic resistance of an existing building so that it becomes safer under the occurrence of probable future earthquakes”.

 This brief will look at some methods of retrofitting traditional and ‘non-engineered’ housing, with suggestions of how to decide which method is appropriate.