Manual on “Retrofitting of existing vulnerable school buildings – Assessment to Retrofitting, Part I

This document presents some solutions for mitigating earthquake hazards for new schools and existing buildings, with respect to the challenges faced by each category. It describes the concept of retrofitting and explains the techniques of vulnerability assessment for novices, engineers and programme designers, illustrated with case studies. It presents the common procedure for earthquake mitigation of buildings as follows: (a) For new buildings, the mitigation measures include the design and construction process. The design of the buildings must comply with the current building code, and the construction must be appropriate following design specifications and drawings; (b) For existing buildings, the mitigation measures consist of assessing the structural performance to
resist design earthquake forces based on current building codes. If the assessment found that
structures are not adequate, retrofitting strategies should be designed to improve the building’s
performance. This report is based on good practices from Indonesia, the most earthquake prone county in the world. It is intended to be used by other countries facing similar challenges as well as other organizations working on building the capacities of local authorities to effectively implement safe and child friendly school buildings.
This book has been developed by Save the Children, Construction Quality & Technical Assistance (CQTA) in collaboration with Center for Disaster Mitigation – Institute of Technology Bandung (CDM -ITB).