Abstract
In recent years, a lot of efforts are being made about the awareness of earthquake-resistant houses among common people. But still, there is a need to check the effectiveness of these efforts in modern-day construction practices exercised at the implementation level i.e. by local contractors and house owners. The overall aim of the study program is to gather the data of seismic vulnerable masonry houses so that emergency preparedness plan, strengthening awareness for existing houses and earthquake-resistant awareness efforts for new houses can be made. The specific goal of this work is to analyze the seismic vulnerability assessment of newly-built masonry houses conducted through street survey in semi-private society of an urban area of the developing country. A Performa is developed from the available literature. The considered parameters are: brick bond; horizontal and vertical stiffeners at appropriate locations; percentage, width and location of openings; horizontal and vertical gaps between openings; and lintel level in load bearing walls. The houses are classified into four categories as: “at no risk”, “at low risk”, “at moderate risk” and “at high risk”. Recommendations are made for the housing authorities to ensure the earthquake-resistant construction practices in future, strengthening awareness, and emergency preparedness plan.
Keywords: Seismic risk, vulnerability, load bearing, brick masonry, assessment, preparedness plan.