Damage characteristics and seismic capacity of buildings during Nepal M_s 8.1 earthquake

The extensive damage to buildings caused by the Nepal Ms8.1 earthquake has attracted much attention by the international community.Afterthe preliminary scientific investigations on the different affected areas inNepal,the construction and damage characteristics of five different types of buildings commonly existing in Nepal were discussed and the reasons of their disaster performance were analyzed.Types of buildings investigated include reinforced concrete(RC) frame structures,rubble structures,brick-wood structures,raw soil structures,and brick-wood structures of historic buildings.In addition,the weak links of the seismic design were pointed out,which was very important for the post-earthquake reconstruction and recovery,and gave a preliminary explanations for the damage experienced.

Study on the Remote Sensing Assessment of Seismic Intensity of the Yushu Earthquake Based on the Synthetic Seismic Damage Index

This paper provides an overview of the ideas and methods of the assessment of seismic intensity based on remote sensing and describes the models used to assess the remote sensing based synthetic seismic damage index and seismic intensity. With the data of damage information extracted from the high-resolution aerial images in the earthquake-stricken areas( Jiegu town,Yushu city,Qinghai) of the 2010 MS7. 1 Yushu earthquake,and the data obtained through post-earthquake field investigation,the seismic damage degree and seismic intensity have been estimated. The analysis of the results shows that the seismic intensity in Yushu city is estimated as IX through the RS assessment method,which is consistent with the result estimated according to the ground surveys. The results are discussed in the last part of the paper and indicate that the RS techniques are expected to be one of the main methods used to estimate the seismic intensity values in the emergency stage.