1.1 Earthquake Risk Building Project

• This project was carried out by a small group of structural engineers on behalf of the NZ Society for Earthquake Engineering for the NZ Building Industry Authority (BIA).

• The BIA is responsible for administering the NZ building code, and responded to the advice of earthquake engineers that all existing buildings should be reviewed for performance in earthquake.

• Key elements of the project are:

  • The development of a rapid evaluation method based on the identification of Critical Structural Weaknesses, such as soft storeys and plan eccentricities.

  • A cost-benefit analysis of mitigation measures, using probabilities of earthquake events, reductions in damage potential through mitigation and economic principles to convert expenditure over time to present values.

  • The development of detailed procedures to evaluate existing buildings

  • A simple Building Grading Scheme for seismic risk, intended to bring about mitigation through market forces.

• Key elements of the project are:

  David Hopkins, Rob Jury and Bruce Shephard were three of the four members on this group, and presented a paper on the work to the 12th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering in Auckland in February 2000.