CROSSH: China Resilience of Schools to Seismic Hazard

Introduction

The “CROSSH: China Resilience of Schools to Seismic Hazard” project, led by PI: Dr Carmine Galasso along with Prof Dina D’Ayala, is carried out through a case study in Beichuan Qiang Autonomous County (Sichuan) with the aim of improving the understanding of seismic risk, and overcoming the barriers to increase resilience of schools to earthquakes in Sichuan province. This project investigates the physical vulnerability of school buildings, the effectiveness of different building retrofitting measures and social preparedness in terms of perceptions, perspectives and hazard adjustments of Chinese students regarding earthquakes.

The CROSSH project is funded by the Sharing and Learning on Community Based Disaster Management in Asia Programme (CBDM Asia) Phase II.

Location

Beichuan Qiang Autonomous County, Sichuan Province, China.

Researchers

Partners

International Center for Collaborative Research on Disaster Risk Reduction (ICCR-DRR), Beijing Normal University, China

Main Objectives

Main aims of the project are:

1) to define a methodology for physical vulnerability assessment and its application to school buildings in Beichuan Qiang Autonomous County, Sichuan, China, through new analytical models.

2) to conduct a preliminary investigation on the enhancement of seismic resilience of schools through seismic strengthening of school buildings and disaster risk reduction education.

Publications

Zhou L, Galasso C, Yan S, Xue Z, Wang Y, D’Ayala D. CROSSH: China Resilience of Schools to Seismic Hazard. Proceedings of the 11th National Conference in Earthquake Engineering, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, Los Angeles, CA. 2018. (accepted)

Photo 1. A RC framed school buildings in Beichuan Qing Autonomous County, Sichuan, China

Photo 2. Seismic pounding damage to RC school buildings after 2008 M7.9 Wenchuan Earthquake in the relic site of old Beichuan county.