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Showing posts from May, 2023

Building Resilience in Low-Rise Buildings against Earthquakes in Developing Countries

  Introduction Natural disasters, particularly earthquakes, pose a significant threat to human life and infrastructure worldwide. However, the impact of these disasters is disproportionately felt in developing countries, which often lack the proper resources and infrastructure to withstand seismic events. A peer-reviewed academic report published in Frontiers in Built Environment cited information from the World Bank that “low and middle-income countries have experienced 53% of all [global disasters] but have accounted for 93% of disaster-related fatalities” (Laghi et al. 1). Earthquakes such as Haiti in 2010 and Turkey-Syria in 2023 have caused many casualties and cost these countries billions. Conversely, developed regions in seismic hotspots, such as Japan and California, haven’t faced any catastrophic disasters in recent times. These countries fare better in the recovery after an earthquake and suffer less destruction. The key to solving the infrastructure weakness in develo...