Seismic Damage in India and the Associated Reasons: A case study

Seismic Damage in India and the Associated Reasons: A case study | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Seismic Damage in India and the Associated Reasons: A case study Ruchir Kain, Vedant Gupta, Amit Kumar Shrivastava This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-1809160/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract India has had a rich historical account of seismic occurrences. However, our response to such events in the past has not been much effective in mitigating the dangers to society. Non-Adherence to seismic codes, sporadic revision practices and asynchronous provisions regarding materials and advancements in the market were barriers to earthquake-resistant building practices. We did case studies for three major earthquakes in the last three decades. We observed a similar pattern of practices and damages across the three earthquake occurrences. It was evident that very little change in the operations was noticed in each case. Incompliance with guidelines, the involvement of an inexpert workforce in building projects, and a weak system of checks and inspections led to huge losses as witnessed. We can prevent the large-scale damages witnessed after the onset of seismic events by using correct scientific and engineering principles. Through the active interest of the government and state regulatory bodies and the introduction of strict legal guidelines, our country's building infrastructure could perform better in response to seismic waves. This study presents a comprehensive study of the issues associated with earthquake mitigation strategies in India. We have discussed the far-reaching rationales for the associated damage and disruption of the system due to such calamities. Further, the socio-political reasons for the weak legal infrastructure, a section on the much-hyped Engineers Bill and other practical discussions and suggestions have been presented in this study. Seismology Civil Engineering City Management and Urban Policy Public Administration Seismic zone building code earthquake engineer's bill micro-zonation earthquake engineering Figures Figure 1 1. Introduction India is a land of immense geographical diversity. From the beautiful coastal plains in Southern India to the high-ranking peaks of the Himalayas in Northern India, the Indian Subcontinent has been gifted with immense diversity in its landforms. However, the dynamic nature of the tectonic plates underlying the crust is the source of seismic disturbances. With the collision of the Indian plate into the Eurasian Plate at a rate of 55mm/year (approximately), along with a vast network of local and sub-local fault systems dominating our Subcontinent, India comes under the world's most seismic prone regions. The evidence for this can be found in the historical literature, including manuscripts, personal letters, diaries, research papers and site reconnaissance reports. Our mutual curiosity for research work made us analyze the root cause of the widespread damage in the wake of a seismic sequence. The Uttarkashi earthquake (1991) ( Cotton et al., 1996 ), Latur earthquake (1993), Jabalpur earthquake (1997) ( Jain et al., 1997 ) and Bhuj earthquake (2001) were some of the major earthquakes that struck the Subcontinent in the last few decades and have accounted for massive damage across the nation, both economic as well as damage to the society in general. The total human causality recorded solely in these four seismic occurrences adds up to approximately 30,000 deaths, and the total economic loss is estimated at around $ 9 billion ( Gupta et al., 1998 ; Latur District Official Site, n.d.) . Amongst these, the Bhuj earthquake of 2001 was pivotal for India's revolution in earthquake engineering. It led to some significant initiatives and amendments upon which future frameworks and guidelines were developed. (Times of India, 2016) Building damage and failures account for the majority of the casualties in these disasters. At first, it seemed that we were at the mercy of Mother Nature; we had no control over the damages that occurred during these disasters. However, after gathering more perspectives and scientific standpoints, we realized our assumption was partly true. Although we have no control over the seismic instances, we have a large amount of control in mitigating and downscaling the extent of the disaster that succeeds. Although there are specific guidelines and bye-laws for constructing earthquake-resistant structures in our country, it is noticed that these provisions are inadequate in specific domains and are not adhered to at the national scale. The issues with communication barriers between the worker and engineer, untimely revision of building codes, lack of regulatory framework for practising engineers and more have been observed. India's prominent educational and research institutes led specific initiatives to build a culture of research and development in this field. Seeking inspiration from the professionals' outstanding works, we have come forward with this research paper. Our objective with this work is to create a state-of-art document highlighting the historical aspects of earthquakes and mitigative responses to these disasters. This work presents a critical analysis of the state of affairs in India's earthquake mitigation strategies and associated building practices. 2. Geology And Geotectonic Of The Indian Subcontinent 2.1 Geographical divisions Throwing light on the landscape of India from a geological point-of-view, which accounts for the regions of rocks having the same structure and history, the Indian Subcontinent can be divided into three major regions: 1. The Peninsular Plateau Region - Its base coincides with the southern boundary of the broad plain of North India, giving it a roughly triangular form. Kanyakumari is the highest point on the triangular plateau. It is a stable block made up mostly of Archaean gneisses and a typical rock system called schists. Since its creation, it has been a durable shield with few structural modifications. 2. The Himalayan Region - Plate tectonic forces create the Himalayan geology, moulded by weathering and erosion. The Himalayas, which span 2400 kilometres between Tibet's Namcha Barwa syntaxis and Kashmir's Nanga Parbat syntaxis, are the product of a continuing orogeny - the collision of two tectonic plates' continental crusts, the Indian plate pushing into the Eurasian Plate through subduction. Several thrusts (including the Main Boundary Thrust and the Main Central Thrust) and transverse lineaments appear to be operating along the Himalayan arc. Although thrust motions dominate over the Himalayan arc, typical and strike-slip faulting also occurs along part of the transverse lineaments, according to an analysis of focal processes. 3. The Indo-Gangetic Plains - Also known as the Indus-Ganga Plain, are rich plains spanning the Indian Subcontinent's northern regions, comprising much of northern and eastern India, eastern Pakistan, and almost all of Bangladesh and the southern lowlands of Nepal. The region is named after the rivers Indus and Ganges and includes many significant cities. The Himalayas feed the plain's numerous rivers and are the source of the rich alluvium deposited throughout the region by the two river systems bordering it on the north. The Chota Nagpur Plateau marks the plain's southern boundary. 2.2 Geo-tectonic Setting The Indian Subcontinent, which comes under some of the world's highly seismically active regions, has an immense variability in terms of relief features. The reason for such a variation is the interaction of the Indo-Australian Plate with the Eurasian Plate. According to tectonic theory, the Earth's surface is active, which means that the plates are in motion, changing the shape of the Earth's outer layer over some time. Geologists suggest that there are seven major tectonic plates and the Indian plate is a minor plate that is part of one of the major tectonic plates called the Indo-Australian plate. With almost 54% of the landmass of India recognized under high-risk, high seismic zones, roughly all of India's main faults/fault zones are considered active, with the ability to create significant earthquakes. India is dominated by numerous fault lines and ruptures in its landmass. The geological, geomorphic and seismological data analysis has resulted in the discovery of 67 active regional scale faults, 15 in the Himalayas, 17 in the bordering foredeep, and up to 30 neotectonic faults stable in Peninsular India (Verma & Bansal, 2016) . The continental interior, also known as the stable peninsular shield , has its geomorphology dominated by several inactive and unsuccessful rifts developed during the break-up of the Gondwana supercontinent during the Mesozoic period. These rifts divide the Indian shield linearly and are the sites of greater intraplate stress concentrations that are very active, with varying levels of seismicity. The Himalayan Mountain range was formed due to the historic collision of the Indian plate with the Eurasian Plate about 50-60 million years ago. The significant area of the Indo-Gangetic plains has evolved on the southern flank of the rising Himalayas, distinguished by some of the significant transverse faults (Valdiya, 1998) . The Indian plate is continuously under-thrusting beneath the Eurasian Plate, and stresses accumulate progressively in the Himalayas. As a result, the Himalayas are more seismically active than other geological units (Jayalakshmi & Raghukanth, 2017) . In the Himalayan collision zone, many fault zones that may be responding to continuing crustal deformation are known to be the location of major earthquakes, such as the Main Central Thrust (MCT), Main Boundary Thrust (MBT), and Himalayan Frontal Thrust (HFT). The Mishmi thrust, Lohit thrust, and Kopili fault in the North-East (N.E.) Indian region; The Narmada-Son-Tapti and Godavari rift zones in peninsular India; The Allah Bund fault, Kuchch Mainland fault, Katrol Hill fault, and Bhuj fault in the western Indian region and the, N–S trending faults in the Andaman Sumatra subduction zone. Above are all seismogenic sub-faults that dominate the geo-tectonic of the Indian landscape. The Indo-Gangetic Plain comprises alluvial plains and encompasses the Himalayas' southern flank. Compared to the Himalayas, the seismicity in this region is modest (Quittmeyer & Jacob, 1979) . Since the late Archean, the Son-Narmada-Tapti zone (SONATA) has been episodically active. The activity of this fault is linked to the Jabalpur earthquake of May 22, 1997. 2.3 Historical seismic activities The history of the Indian landscape has been subjected to a plethora of seismic activities across its landscape, ranging from the mighty Himalayas to even the relatively stable IGB and peninsular region. Following is a list of some significant seismic occurrences relevant from the past that occurred in the Indian Subcontinent. Serial Number Date Location Magnitude Intensity (a) 28-04-2021 Assam 6.0 M w VII (b) 03-01-2017 India, Bangladesh 5.7 M w V (c) 01-04-2016 India, Myanmar, Bangladesh 6.7 M w VII (d) 12-05-2015 Nepal, India 7.3 M w VIII (e) 25-04-2015 Nepal, India 7.8 M w IX (f) 01-05-2013 Kashmir 5.7 M w VIII (g) 18-09-2011 Gangtok, Sikkim 6.9 M w VII (h) 10-08-2009 Andaman Islands 7.5 M w VIII (i) 14-02-2006 Sikkim 5.3 M w V (j) 14-12-2005 Uttarakhand 5.1 M w VI (k) 08-10-2005 Kashmir 7.6 M w VIII (l) 13-09-2002 Andaman Islands 6.5 M w VI+ (m) 26-01-2001 Gujarat 7.7 M w X (n) 29-03-1999 Chamoli district-Uttarakhand 6.8 M w VIII (o) 21-11-1997 Bangladesh, India 6.1 M w V (p) 22-05-1997 Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh 5.8 M w VIII (q) 30-09-1993 Latur, Maharashtra 6.2 M w VIII (r) 20-10-1991 Uttarkashi, Uttarakhand 6.8 M w IX (s) 21-08-1988 Udayapur, Nepal 6.9 M w VIII (t) 06-08-1988 Myanmar, India 7.3 M w VII (u) 20-01-1982 Little Nicobar 6.1 M w VI (v) 23-03-1970 Bharuch district 5.4 M b V (w) 11-12-1967 Maharashtra 6.6 M w VIII (x) 21-07-1956 Gujarat 6.1 M w IX (y) 15-08-1950 Assam, Tibet 8.6 M w XI (z) 29-07-1947 India, China 7.3 M w V (Aa) 26-06-1941 Andaman Islands 7.7 - 8.1 M w VII (Ab) 31-05-1935 Quetta, Balochistan 7.7 M w X (Ac) 15-01-1934 Nepal 8.0 M w XI (Ad) 04-04-1905 Kangra 7.8 M w IX (Ae) 1897-06-12 Shillong, India 8.0 M w X (Af) 13-12-1881 Andaman Islands 7.9 M w VII (Ag) 26-08-1833 Bihar, Kathmandu 7.6-7.9 M w X (Ah) 16-06-1819 Gujarat 7.7-8.2 M w XI (Ai) 1505-06-06 Saldang, Karnali zone 8.2 - 8.8 M w XII Table 1: Seismic parameters of some of the prominent earthquakes in the history of India [Source: USGS (USGS, 2022) ] The above table indicates the scope of seismic activities in the Indian region. It is evident from the above data that the Himalayan Mountain range is significantly active in terms of seismic activity, the reasons for which are presented in the previous sections of the paper. The interest in earthquakes and their scientific involvement in India can be traced to ancient Indian literature, which has a quantitative and qualitative understanding of earthquakes, consequences, and even intensity. Those texts also contain several speculations about the causes of an earthquake, some of which are rooted in mythology—for example, the idea that earthquakes are caused by the collective "sigh of elephants supporting the Earth" — while others have geographical, geological, and climate bases (Iyengar, 1999) . The risks related to such disasters were identified by scientists and engineers worldwide. Consequently, it was realized that most of the deaths in any seismic event were (and still are) due to the collapse of buildings. The seasonal and temporal variations and the efficacy of post-seismic mitigation strategies are some secondary causes that increase the human casualty in such an event. Subsequently, some resources were developed, and steps were taken to reduce the damage incurred to society regarding loss of life and economy. Among those resources, building codes had the critical importance of establishing the guidelines regarding the construction of houses and buildings so that the public can stay safe from the damage caused due to building failure. The collision between the Indian and the Eurasian plate would make our Subcontinent prone to more such tremors in the future. This fact leads us to conclude that there is a need for dynamic infrastructure development in earthquake engineering. 3. Indian Building Codes 3.1 The General Introduction A building code (also known as building standard or building regulations) specifies the requirements for built items such as buildings and non-building structures. Buildings must adhere to the code to get planning approval, generally granted by a local municipality. The primary goal of building codes is to safeguard public health, safety, and the general welfare in the construction and occupation of buildings and structures. When a building code is formally established by the relevant governmental or private body, it becomes legislation in that jurisdiction. The procedure of drafting, approving, and enforcing building regulations differs significantly between countries. In certain nations, building codes are created by government agencies or quasi-governmental standards and subsequently enforced by the central government. These are known as national building codes (in a sense, they enjoy a mandatory nationwide application). Building regulations, particularly earthquake-resistant building codes, are essential for determining whether a building or structure can withstand an earthquake. These regulations offer engineers, designers, and architects' instructions on how a specific element in a structure should be built and constructed to guarantee adequate serviceability without harm. These codes are issued in India by the Bureau of Indian Standards, BIS, under the supervision of various academicians and field specialists. Stakeholders use several codes in civil engineering for building projects spanning from the design practice of concrete members to timber members. These include: IS 456: Code of practice for plain and reinforced concrete, IS 800: Code of practice for General steel construction, IS 1077: Specifications for bricks for masonry work, IS 3495: Methods for testing of bricks and more. In earthquake engineering, BIS has produced many codes that are amended at specific intervals. These codes are used in conjunction with other codes from the civil engineering department. The names are given below: I.S. 1893:2016 Criteria for Earthquake Design of Structures, PART 1: General provisions and Buildings PART 2: Liquid Retaining Tanks - Elevated and Ground Supported PART 3: Bridges and Retaining Walls PART 4: Industrial Structures Including Stack Like Structures PART 5: Dams and Embankments PART 6: Base Isolated Structures I.S. 4326:2013 Earthquake Resistant Design and Construction of Buildings – Code of Practice, I.S. 13827:1993 Improving Earthquake Resistance of Earthen Buildings – Guidelines, I.S. 13828:1993 Improving Earthquake Resistance of Low Strength Masonry Buildings – Guidelines, I.S. 13920:2016 Ductile Detailing of Reinforced Concrete Structures Subjected to Seismic Forces – Code of Practice, S.P. 22: Explanatory Handbook on Codes for Earthquake Engineering, I.S. 13935:2009 Seismic Evaluation, Repair and Strengthening of Masonry Buildings – Guidelines, I.S. 6922:1973 Criteria for Safety and Design of Structures Subject to Underground Blasts, I.S. 4991:1968 Criteria for Blast Resistant Design of Structures for Explosions Above Ground, and I.S. 4967:1968 Recommendations for Seismic Instrumentation for River Valley Projects. (Bureau of Indian Standards, 2015) 3.2 History of the Development of Indian Building Codes The current layout of building code provisions is quite comprehensive. However, this was not the case about a half-century back. India has an eventful history of developing a systematic institutional framework for building design. Post the seismic sequences, a need to establish a solid framework for earthquake-resistant construction design was felt by civil engineers and members of notable academic institutions. As a result, India's first seismic code was formulated and published in 1962 by the reference "I.S. 1893:1962 - Recommendations for Earthquake Resistant Design of Structures." Further, drawing upon relevant research and academic inputs, BIS revised it subsequently in 1966, 1970, 1975, and 1984 (Jain, 2016) . Further on, considering the significant earthquakes like Uttarkashi (1991), Latur(1993), Chamoli (1999) and Bhuj (2001), it was decided to split the IS 1893 into five parts for better implementation, referencing and easy revision of the codes. The proposed changes were reflected in the fifth revision of the code, I.S. 1893:2002. Then in 2016, the code was revised for the sixth time. It is the latest edition (Bureau of Indian Standards, n.d.) . In retrospect, we can observe that the turning point in earthquake-resistant construction practices and the associated institutional development was the Quetta Earthquake of 1935. It tested the lessons learnt from the 1931 Mach Earthquake (Magnitude: M7.4). The railway quarters survived the quake of 1935, which was part of earthquake-resistant structures constructed under the supervision of a railway engineer after the Mach earthquake (Jain, 2002) . Post-1935, several initiatives were taken by the administrative bodies and guidelines were proposed for earthquake-resistant constructions. These structures were further tested in future earthquakes, challenging the guidelines and developing systems based on the proposed codes. However, there are no pieces of evidence that those guidelines were followed on a broader scale. Their implementation was done locally rather than at a broader level of the jurisdiction (Jain & Nigam, 2000) . Also, a need for quality work and effective amendments to the Indian building codes was felt post the Bhuj Earthquake in 2001 as it caused widespread socio-economic loss to society. Hence, an initiative was taken by the Gujarat State Disaster Management Association (GSDMA), which it sponsored several large- and small-scale projects on code and provision development concerning earthquake, wind and fire safety of the buildings at IIT Kanpur. This initiative led to the development of new building codes, commentaries, explanatory handouts, modifications in existing codes, and many such reference materials under the supervision of a large team of experts. All of these resources were compiled at NICEE, which formed the foundation for the future revisions of the codes (Jain, 2002) . 3.3 Seismic Zonation Seismic zonation, one of the most significant components in the IS 1893, is crucial for India, with various landforms and geological features. Seismic zoning categorizes parts of a territory based on the predicted ground motion or ground shaking in PGA or PGV (Mohapatra & Mohanty, 2010) . The Indian Subcontinent has immense geological and geomorphological diversity. Marked by a highly seismically active landscape, high magnitude earthquakes in different regions could lead to damages that vary in nature. Hence, seismic zonation is crucial since it aids in hazard assessment and gives designers, architects, and engineers criteria to build earthquake-resistant structures. 3.3.1 The evolution of the seismic zone maps Over the last 85 years, several attempts were made by various individuals, international organizations and The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) to divide the landscape of India into seismic zones with adequate provisions for timely revision regarding the same. The earliest attempt was made in 1935 by the Geological Survey of India (GSI) after the Bihar-Nepal earthquake (1934) of magnitude 8.4 on the Richter Scale. In a paper published in 1956 (Tandon, 1956) , researchers devised a zoning map consisting of Three zones: Severe, Light, and Minor hazards. (Tandon, 1956) Then in 1962, BIS published the first official seismic zonation map of India in I.S. 1893:1962 (first edition of I.S. 1983), which marked the country into seven zones ranging from 0 (no damage) to VI (extensive damage), based on earthquake epicentres and isoseismal map published by GSI in 1935. In 1966, the zones were restructured in terms of area change in the first revision of IS 1893, i.e., I.S. 1893:1996. In 1967, post-Koyna earthquake, seismic zonation was majorly modified as the quake struck in the Deccan Plateau before the event was assigned to zone 0. After the event, zone 0 was removed, and zones V and VI were combined. Eventually, five zones were introduced, I to V, based on the MMI scale in the I.S. 1893:1970 edition. Then in the fifth edition of the code, I.S. 1893:1985, the zones were reoriented based on past earthquakes, regional tectonic features and technological advancements. Later in 1999, through Global Seismic Hazard Assessment Program (GSHAP), a map was developed representing hazard levels in PGA, with a 10% exceedance in 50 years (Tandon, 1956) . Hence, India was divided into four zones: II, III, IV and V, based on PGA values of 0.1g, 0.2g, 0.25g and 0.4g, respectively (Zhang et al., 1999) . The changes proposed in the 1999 research paper (Zhang et al., 1999) were considered in the IS 1893(Part I): 2002, and India was divided into four zones by combining zones I and II. Also, several adjustments took places, such as assigning Latur to zone III, modification in Peninsular India and more. The version of the seismic zone map in the IS 1893(Part 1): 2002 is the latest one in India, an improvement over the 1970 version. 4. Impediments To A Safe Infrastructural Ecosystem 4.1 Incompliance with The Bye-laws In May 2006, the Government of India set up a special committee named "Tejinder Khanna Committee of Experts" to formulate a report on rising levels of unauthorized construction in Delhi-NCR. The result revealed that around 80% of the structures are not compliant with the Building and Development Control Regulations. This highlights an issue that has been constant trouble for our country for decades. ( Khanna, 2006 ) . Talking about the Republic Day earthquake in Bhuj (2001), the building design and general infrastructure of the practices followed by design engineers, masons, architects and other people were revealed. The BIS's compliance to building by-laws was one of the major issues reported by the engineers involved in post-seismic reconnaissance initiatives by the EERI Reconnaissance Team in 2001 ( Jain & Murty et al., 2001 ). Not only in this case, but even in Latur (1993) and Sikkim (2011), similar issues were noted by the engineers in post-disaster assessment reports like incompliance with the bye-laws, and involvement of an unskilled workforce, among other factors. It has been over three decades since such problems persist in our system. ( Dutta et al., 2015 ) 4.2 Irregular Revision of Codes Going through the development procedure of the building codes, as mentioned in the previous sections − 3.2 History of Development of Indian Building Codes and 3.3 Seismic Zonation , it is evident that the codes were revised at irregular intervals of time. Sadly, this situation persists today. Not every building code is updated and revised as per the advances in science and technology. For example, the latest revision of IS 1893, "Criteria for Earthquake Resistant Design of Structures", came out in 2016, around fourteen years after the 2002 revision. Several earthquakes struck the nation between those fourteen years, but no lessons were learnt, which is evident from the earthquake site reconnaissance studies. It has been six years since 2016, but no further revisions of the codes have been made available. The BIS codes, in some cases, took approximately 5 to 10 years to get revised. These infrequent revisions lead to a lag between the guidelines in India and the updated state of practice on a global scale. Moreover, such a knowledge gap might make building codes irrelevant from a modern construction point of view. 4.3 Issues with The Advancement in The Material Industry Due to the fast-paced growth of the industries and environmental concerns, there is a revolution in the materials industry. New materials such as hollow concrete blocks, fly ash bricks, etcetera is being introduced into the market, thus significantly transforming the building industry in India. Also, materials like concrete and steel are available in wide varieties and are used in construction. However, our system does not have any provisions and regulations for the applications of such materials, as structural or non-structural systems are pretty concerning and alarming. Generally, these materials are used in the structures wholly at the discretion of the design engineer or architect, sometimes referring to foreign codes, giving rise to failures (Kumar, 2016) . Moreover, several essential parameters are not considered during the material testing process and are not specified in the codes, although these parameters play a significant role in providing stability. For instance, cement testing parameters such as specific gravity, normal consistency, and compatibility with admixtures and plasticizers for individual cement components are given; however, detailed results for the properties of mixtures made of individual components are not specified. Such testing parameters should be developed after proper research. 4.4 Material Quality Control & Checks Further, there are no systems to verify that the guidelines given by the BIS, both in design and in materials utilized, are followed appropriately before construction. The designer is responsible for ensuring safety, and only when a failure occurs is the design process investigated and the materials evaluated. On-site manipulations are also one the troublesome issues. In some situations, the contractor handling the construction site's ground operations influences the systematic approval process through unfair means. The quality control parameters often comply with the necessary standards on paper and are tested only in the wake of a severe disaster. 5. Socio-political Factors Amplifying Earthquake Damage Earthquakes are a natural phenomenon far beyond human potential to control these events at our will. We must accept that these natural calamities could ruin our day-to-day comfort in a few seconds. However, that does not mean we are at the mercy of these unpredictable occurrences. Since the rise of the scientific community around 200 years ago, a lot has been done to mitigate or significantly assess and reduce the chances of a massively destructive event that could render millions of people homeless and impede any functional society's growth and development. Some severe social and political hurdles have been a constant itch in acquiring a smooth workflow and ensuring a safe and robust architecture in our surroundings. Below are some of the issues that plague our institutional and professional efficiency in day-to-day operations: 5.1 Institutional Inefficiencies The consequences of structural failures in developing countries are far-reaching and complex, ranging from social to economic loss. When faced by such nations, these situations make it difficult for them to return to normalcy. Hence, the presence of a sound forensic and civil engineering ecosystem within the nation is a boon for its system. Even though many educational institutions in our country are at par with developed countries' standards, the number of facilities for research and development is not adequate to support a large population. Hence the demand of our construction industry is not met by a skilled set of workers. It is often witnessed in many institutions around our country. Due to a relatively healthy sum of money and overall opportunities offered to the engineering graduates abroad, it becomes an unavoidable option to consider leaving the country for a better quality of living on an overall basis. Even those who decide to stay back are often pulled by a lucrative pay package offered by the sectors such as finance, advertising, marketing, information technology and more. As a result, private institutions and universities have sprouted up, dispensing degrees without assuring the needed quality. Another critical reason is that owing to improvements in each field of speciality, a student's knowledge obtained from a bachelor's or even master's degree is sometimes insufficient for immediate professional practice. 5.2 Issues with The Ground Level Operation The difference and communication barrier between literate and illiterate workers is a crucial challenge with human resources in India, particularly in the construction sector. While a literate worker understands 'why it is to be done' but is frequently incapable of doing it himself. An illiterate worker understands 'how it is to be done,' often with the sole purpose of completing a task but has no idea of why it is to be done or the consequences of not following the correct method. Furthermore, design engineers provide preliminary designs that are difficult to manufacture, fabricate, or tricky to erect, while site technicians strive to fulfil the goal, frequently with devastating results. 5.3 Violation of the Idea of Sustainable Development Dr Anil P Joshi, the founder of the Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conservation Organisation (HESCO), pointed out in an article/interview that large-scale construction practices are feasible in urban areas. However, carrying out such practices with huge machinery in rural and vulnerable areas, specifically in ecologically sensitive zones like the Himalayas, is not recommended. That is because these ventures can disrupt the region's ecology and render this area to increased damage when natural calamities like earthquakes and flash floods, which are inevitable, occur in the future ( Sharma, 2017 ) . For instance, the state of Uttarakhand is surrounded by several active fault systems that together form the Himalayas, the Main Boundary Thrust (MBT) and the Main Frontal Thrust (MFT) being the major ones. Hence, any parallel slippage between them could lead to a significant seismic sequence in North India. The high seismic risk susceptibility of the state of Uttarakhand can be highlighted because 13 of its districts were listed under 100 per cent hypersensitive seismic zones. Furthermore, 9 of them are dominated by highly hilly terrain, while five districts are in the lower hilly terrain in the state. Primarily, in the region of Uttarakhand, structures were constructed through materials available at the local level, like a variety of timbers and stones. However, over time and alongside the pace of development, locals adopted advanced methods and materials for construction. But this process did not go along with the capacity building of the stakeholders, majorly the masons and labourers, leading to an increase in vulnerability to the structures. According to the Vulnerability Atlas of India, approximately 56 per cent of the houses in the state are constructed using materials like mud, un-burnt bricks and stone walls, which depicts the quality of the building stock in the region, which is one of the most seismically active zones in India (USDMA, 2021) . Despite the inherent vulnerability of hill locations to various calamities, many hill stations are created and later developed as critical urban centres in hill regions, resulting in high population density. Shillong, Mussoorie, Nainital, Dalhousie, Manali, Srinagar, Shimla, and Itanagar are just a few significant tourist destinations and fast-growing hill towns under intense development pressure in the current climate. Hill communities are usually found in environmentally vulnerable areas (Menon, Kapoor, & Kohli, 2009) . Major urban towns in the Himalayan ranges, namely Shimla, Mussoorie, Srinagar and Manali, do not have particular guidelines or provisions for slope considerations while building construction in these areas. Although the Indian Standards for building design have some guidelines and standards for safe construction, implementing these rules is costly. It makes the local builders and residents cut the costs and adopt less expensive methods but are highly susceptible to damage if some calamity arises. ( Kumar, 2018 ) . Various issues concerning the safety of building stock in hill towns continue to exist and have been exacerbated due to massive development on the steep and dangerous slopes, improper or insufficient site development and stabilization, irregular drainage pattern, and dilapidated housing stock. (Pushplata and Kumar, 2012) . Due to inadequate compliance and enforcement of various construction regulations, most completed or constructed structures do not adhere to safety requirements against natural hazards. They are vulnerable to significant damage from any natural disaster ( Kumar and Pushplata, 2015 a). 6. Case Studies The Indian landscape has been rocked by numerous moderate to high seismic sequences in the past. Owing to the subduction of the Indian plate into the Eurasian plate at the rate of 50–60 mm/year, several regions of our country come under the list of highly seismic-prone areas. Apart from this, numerous other fault lines in the interiors of the country have been a risk factor for other regions. Keeping this in mind, we present a case study of three of the most significant seismic sequences which disrupted the Indian landscape and caused a widespread socio-economic loss. We have considered the Uttarkashi Earthquake of 1991, the Bhuj Earthquake of 2001 and finally the Sikkim Earthquake of 2011, spanning approximately two decades, which would lay down the pattern of initiatives and development that took place over that period, signifying the seriousness in the system regarding earthquake management. These studies will also shed light on the building typologies present in those regions and their associated structural failures during seismic occurrences. 6.1 Bhuj earthquake (2001) One of the most devastating seismic activities witnessed by the Indian Subcontinent was the earthquake in Bhuj on Republic Day, January 26 2001, at 08:46:00 (Indian Standard Time). The epicentre was located at 23.36 o North and 70.34 o East with a focal depth of 16 km (10 mi), approximately 9 km south-southwest of Chobari Village in the Kutch district in Gujarat, India. As recorded by the USGS, the moment magnitude was 7.9 with an Intensity X (extreme) on the Modified Mercalli Index (MMI). Official site reconnaissance carried out by the EEFIT organization reports more than 20,000 casualties, over 167,000 people got injured, and more than 1,000,000 structures were affected, including bridges, R.C. buildings, temples, and stone masonry structures, small/large block masonry structures and more. The total economic loss was estimated at around 5 billion USD. Extensive building damage was observed on ground surveys carried out by the researchers. Extensive damage was observed in both the old non-engineered structures as well as in the newer engineered structures. In the Kutch region, for instance, extensive structural damage was observed owing to various factors like the use of random-rubble masonry practises, use of huge blocks of stones (25cm x 40cm x 60cm) with low grade/strength mortar, separation of thick masonry of roughly 40-60cm in two distinct wythes and more (Murty et al., 2001) . On a broader scale, damage to both the load-bearing and framed structures was seen. In the on-site survey, the reasons encountered for load-bearing structures were a) Unsymmetrical building design, (b) Insufficient gap between 2 or more buildings, (c) Absence of connecting band in structural elements, and (d) No through stone provision. Framed structures, even at a distance of 200–300 km from the epicentre, suffered significant damage, reasons for which were a) Violation/ noncompliance to codal provisions, (b) Lack of proper detailing, (c) Short column effect, (d) Soft story effect, (e) Poor artistry, (f) Appendage effect and more ( Bokey & Pajgade, 2004 ) . Even in Ahmedabad, about 250 km from the epicentre, several multi-storeyed buildings suffered total collapse. Upon analysis, it was found that these buildings were built unsymmetrically, with heavy mass concentration at the top of the structure and insufficient footing size. Other everyday observations include (a) Improper detailing at beam-column joint, (b) Discontinuous bars, (c) Absence of lateral ties, and (d) Insufficient lap length provided bars in columns and beams (Murty et al., 2001) . Throwing light on the geotechnical aspects of the Bhuj earthquake, widespread liquefaction was observed. In the Kachchh field, liquefaction was observed over a wide area. Sand boiling due to soil liquefaction was observed over large areas, with salt crusting resulting from drying. It is anticipated in the Rann of Kachchh due to saltwater near the ground level. Many civil engineering facilities in the Kachchh area and the Navalakhi port in the Saurashtra region were damaged by liquefaction. The Bhuj earthquake revealed some fascinating details about the efficiency of bridges built on liquefied soil foundations. The Bhachau-Vondh bridge location, in particular, was fascinating, with four bridges of various ages and types of design. Once the pillars had liquefied, the superstructure stiffness of the bridges tended to establish the possible cause of the collapse. The piers of the arch bridge were vulnerable to unequal settling. In contrast, the piers of a more recent plate girder bridge were vulnerable to torsion, with piers revolving along the bridge's longitudinal axis ( Madabhushi & Haigh, 2005 ) . Higher approach embankments in the current highway bridge seem to have caused large lateral forces on the bridge decks. The abutments could not withstand these large lateral forces until the base soil had liquefied. During this earthquake, the new bridge at Surajbari offered an excellent example of soil-structure interaction, with the base soil involved in the movements experienced by the bridge piers and decks. 6.2 Sikkim earthquake (2011) On September 18 2011, Sikkim was struck by a strong earthquake of magnitude 6.9 M w which caused several damages, including structural damage and loss of lives. The peak ground acceleration, PGA, was recorded at about 0.15g. The tremble was followed by three main aftershocks of more than 4.2 M w magnitudes, each of which could damage the URM with weak tensile and shear strength. The maximum intensity of ground shaking in the region was estimated to be VI + on the MSK scale. An approximate economic loss of $ 14 billion was calculated in the disaster. Most structures observed in Sikkim primarily fall under masonry (brick, block and stone), RCC and wooden building categories. The buildings are observed to have flat or sloping roofs of different materials, RCC, wood, etcetera. In general, government buildings suffered more damage as compared to their private counterparts. Also, more damage was observed in the newer structures compared to the older ones. Various types of damage patterns were observed after the earthquake, (a) collapse due to ground shaking amplification and lateral spreading, (b) pounding of buildings, (c) collapse due to out-of-plane rotation, (d) generation of structural cracks, (e) plastic hinge formation ( Dutta et al. 2015 ). Sikkim lies in the main boundary thrust(MBT) and main central thrust(MCT), collectively known as main thrust faults, due to which several earthquakes have struck the same region. One such quake of magnitude 5.7 M w occurred in 2006, which incurred some damage to the structures such as the URM building and infill walls, upon which the 2011 quake caused the other impact ( Kaushik et al. 2006 ). There were some instances where the buildings were not damaged, including both engineered and non-engineered ones—the sound bearing capacity of the ground upon which the building was built. Also, the structures made from locally available materials such as timber and bamboo, which have a better shock-absorbing capacity, performed well although non-engineered ( DMMC Uttarakhand, 2012 ) . The structures/portions retrofitted before the earthquake did not damage or suffered negligible damage. We can conclude that bye-laws were not adhered to, and there is an urgent need to improve and implement techno-legal guidelines. Apart from that, soft or open ground stories should be avoided. Retrofitting measures through bracing and intense beams may be adopted to arrest the problem of plastic hinges. Failures such as pounding can be avoided by providing the minimum necessary distance depending on the height of the adjacent buildings. Ground improvement before the construction of buildings should be a significant concern, especially in the hilly areas, as they cause a slope failure. Also, joints could be strengthened to avoid out-of-plane rotation. Structures could be made out of wood and bamboo as they provide lightweight roofing. In general, it can be seen that the traditional structures performed well; however, they are still not recognized under the building codes provided by the BIS. The experts should research the viability of traditional structures as they cost very little compared to the RCC buildings. 6.3 Uttarkashi earthquake (1991) An earthquake struck the Garhwal Himalayas in northern India on October 20, 1991, around 2:53 a.m. local time. The earthquake produced severe ground shakings in the Uttarakhand districts of Uttarkashi, Tehri, and Chamoli. According to official reports, 307,000 people were affected in 1,294 communities, with a death count of 768 people and 5,066 wounded. The USGS recorded a surface wave of magnitude 7.1 M w . The peak ground acceleration was measured to be 0.30 g. A total of 42,400 homes were damaged during the quake. The loss caused by the disaster was estimated to be around $ 60 million. ( Cotton et al., 1996 ) Uttarkashi, one of the most earthquake-prone regions in the country, is located in the significant Alpine Himalayan belt, one of the world's most seismic-prone stretches. Seismic activity in the belt is attributed to the movement of the Indian plate in the north direction, at a rate of 0.05–0.06 m per year against the Tibetan Eurasian platform block ( Dewey and Bird, 1970 ) and ( Molnar and Tapponnier, 1975 ) , which deforms rocks and piles them in order to build the Upper Himalayas. In addition to many minor faults from the visible tectonic structures, two major thrusts tend from the Northwest to the South East. The shaking intensity was mild, and a variation in intensity was observed over the whole region. In Budhakedar, Krishanpur, Maneri, Uttarkashi, Mahinanda and Bhatwari, the maximum intensity was VIII. The MMI VII quake was in Tehri, Ghansyali and Gangotri. Other reports suggest that the MMI VII also shook Pauri, Karnaprayag and Gopeshwar. India's seismic code categorizes the country into five seismic zones (I to V). Uttarkashi is in zone IV, whereas Tehri and Chamoli are in zone V. According to the seismic zone map of our country, the anticipated MMI for zones I to V is V (or less), VI, VII, VIII, and IX (above), respectively. Hence, it can be inferred that an earthquake of design level struck Uttarkashi and its environs ( Jain and Singh et al., 1992 ). There was severe damage to rural dwellings, which comprise random rubble masonry supported by a heavy roof. Most private structures and former state properties were built without following the seismic provisions. Uttarkashi has three and four floors of framed, damaged reinforced concrete (R.C.) structures. In a two-storey post office building in Uttarkashi, the shear cracks were produced in the first columns, erected by engineers who worked in the post and telegraph departments from 1985–1986. The powerful floor beams in the frame obliged them to enter the columns of the ground level. Random rubble stone masonry was implemented to construct the retaining walls in the area. A decent number of collapses of such walls were observed in the site inspection. This collapse led to the failure of embankments as the walls were designed similarly ( Jain and Singh et al., 1992 ). Slopes, retaining walls, and bridges failed, causing significant damage to the area's roads. Due to many landslides and the collapse of a central bridge, the Uttarkashi-Harsil-Nelong Road link was shut down for many days. The Uttarkashi-Lumgaon connection was lost due to the collapse of a recess on the route to the Kishanpur Bridge. On the Uttarkashi-Harsil route, many large landslides occurred, particularly on a 42-kilometre section between Uttarkashi and Bhatwari. The stretch is said to be the shakiest part of the body. While landslides are prevalent along this road during wet seasons, several of the landslides produced by the earthquake were completely new ( Jain and Singh et al., 1992 ). The Gawana Bridge is a bridge built in 1974, covering 56.0 m. It is located in the direction of Maneri, 6 km. The whole bridge descended from the abutments and fell into the river, cutting the entire region beyond Uttarkashi off. The damage was caused by inadequate rooms and anchor bolts and the lack of acceptable methods to prevent the distance from coming off the supports. According to the Indian seismic codes in those times, the bridges in zone IV should be designed to take the seismic design force from 0.05g to 0.075g, significantly less than the recorded PGA. This seismic occurrence somewhat depicted that the parameter was inadequate ( Jain and Singh et al., 1992 ). This implies that similar parameters are mentioned in the codes but are irrelevant from the on-ground perspective. Apart from the damage incurred to the houses and residential buildings, the earthquake affected lifeline facilities and other systems. The triggered landslides damaged several electric and telephone poles, leading to total electricity loss and a ten-day communication cut-off. This led to disruption in the communication between the dam and the powerhouse, leading to no electricity generation. ( Jain and Singh et al., 1992 ). Indeed, we cannot mitigate the damages caused by the seismic occurrences as these phenomena are under the order of nature. However, with proper planning and implementation of effective strategies by the government of any country, we can scale down the extent of damage caused to our society. Even with the advancements in the scientific community, the field of earthquake engineering needs inputs from post-earthquake occurrences to learn about the response of structures to seismic waves, the local geology of a region and more. When these post-event learnings are clubbed with technological advances, robust literature encompassing relevant knowledge for better structural response could be produced. 7. Initiatives In The Earthquake Mitigation Industry As discussed above, the circle of influence in mitigating the disaster is quite limited. In that, the role of higher education institutes cannot be overlooked. With a comprehensive and strict curriculum encompassing the up-to-date study materials, state-of-art laboratories, an adequate number of instruments to carry out research, mass awareness campaigns organized by qualified teachers for students and general masses regarding the first response in the wake of a disaster, the disaster can be mitigated to a great degree. These institutes have highly skilled professionals whose competence is highly utilized when laying down the frameworks of the building codes in any country. However, with the rise of engineering colleges in our country, an ever-increasing number of students are getting degrees in civil engineering without adequate knowledge to practice in the real world. Our government has glanced over this issue, but no concrete steps have been taken. The role of scientific and technological R&D cannot be taken lightly as these initiatives ensure safe building ecosystems and help stay miles from a catastrophe. Keeping these things in mind, let us look at some advances in the previous decades that aimed to strengthen our legal and institutional frameworks for dealing with earthquake disasters. Post this, some critical points and suggestions need to be kept in mind while aiming to better the system will also be discussed. 7.1 Capacity Building and Reforms in The Education System Talking about the historical involvement of premier educational institutes in India, it has been observed that some institutes have emerged as a pioneer that has worked in-depth in the field of earthquake engineering as they have published the majority of papers and handouts as compared to any other institute in the country. To site an example, among many seminars conducted by these educational institutes, IIT Guwahati organized a three-day workshop led by Prof. C.V.R. Murty for professional engineers on "Seismic Design of Reinforced Concrete Buildings". This was possible because the institutes were backed with funds by various other organizations like CSIR (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research), Ministry of Surface Transport (MOST), Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority (GSDMA) and Research Design and Standards Organization (RSDO). So more funds were invested in R&D ( Jain, 2016 ) . Such fund allocation must be done to support R&D in other institutes so that earthquake engineering in India can be up-to-date. 7.1.1 Two Major Bodies for Earthquake Education and Awareness Dissemination 7.1.1.1 National Information Centre of Earthquake Engineering (NICEE) NICEE (The National Information Centre of Earthquake Engineering), at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT Kanpur), was established in 1999. Its primary objective was to collect and maintain earthquake engineering information resources and publications and make them available to interested users, conducting other outreach activities to help mitigate earthquake disasters. IIT Kanpur features a world-class infrastructure and central library and an exceptional degree of seismic engineering activity. The Centre is run so that infrastructure construction and administration expenditures are kept to a minimum. Even though it is situated within IIT Kanpur, NICEE is a national resource. Various colleagues from around the nation (and beyond) lead the Centre's varied activities. A National Advisory Committee oversees the Centre made up of members from various institutions, companies, and individuals who meet yearly to assess the Centre's operations and give direction and advice. An Advisory Committee consisting of members across multiple institutions, companies, and individuals oversees the Centre's operations. Ar. Balbir Verma of Balbir Verma & Associates in New Delhi chairs the Committee. The Committee oversees the Center's operations and provides policy and guidelines advice. The primary objectives of NICEE are as follows: Keeping track of the availability of new earthquake engineering papers and other information. To build and maintain a sound library of earthquake engineering publications and other information. To educate interested professionals, researchers, and academics about the availability of the content as mentioned earlier at IITK, and To make the content available to anyone interested in it as soon as possible (Annual Report, NICEE. n.d.) . Several organizations and individuals, including the Multidisciplinary Centre for Earthquake Engineering Research (MCEER) in Buffalo (USA), the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) in the USA, the New Zealand National Society for Earthquake Engineering (NZSEE), and the late Professor George Housner of the California Institute of Technology, provided publications or other resources as gifts in the early days. Analyzing the sustained efforts by the team of NICEE at IIT Kanpur, their concern for a seismic-resistant building environment is highly evident. Since its inception, they have continuously participated in capacity-building initiatives, including organizing quizzes for 11th and 12th standards, workshops and interactive programs for undergraduate and graduate students, and seminars and conclaves for working professionals and architecture and civil engineering professors. Such sustained efforts are highly appreciated. Further, more such societies and professional bodies, which leverage the power of collaboration and innovation, should come up, aiming to cover the vast educational institutes producing an ever-increasing mass of engineering graduates. 7.1.1.2 National Programme on Earthquake Engineering Education (NPEEE) The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), during 2003–2007, provided grants to the National Programme on Earthquake Engineering Education (NPEEE), coordinated by the seven IITs and the IISc Bangalore, with IIT Kanpur governing the operations. Following several significant talks and meetings about the changes to be made in the aftermath of the Bhuj earthquake in 2001, it was realized that academic institutions needed to create capability in earthquake engineering. As a result, a proposal for a National Programme on Earthquake Engineering Education (NPEEE) was created. The seven IITs and the IISc planned to establish a partnership to carry out the job as resource institutions. The proposal was sent to other involved Ministries and Departments for input and suggestions by the MHRD. The MHRD's Standing Finance Committee approved the project in August 2002, and the Ministry issued the first funding for NPEEE in March 2003. The project ran until March 2007, when it came to a close with a workshop at IIT Delhi on January 5, 2007, to look back and assess the progress made over the previous four years. Several initiatives were taken under the programme. Faculty training and curricula development across all the colleges and universities of engineering and architecture were some of the focus areas. Some of the critical features of NPEEE included short- and long-term training sessions for interested faculty from the colleges, library and laboratory support in terms of facilities development, international collaborations and many more. According to a survey conducted in December 2005, it was found that the programme was successful as the results reflected the satisfaction in the education sector. The programme completed most of the objectives and, in some cases, exceeded the proposed objective. The management part was under the National Committee on Earthquake Engineering Education (NCEEE), and the implementation part was carried out by the Programme Implementation Committee (PIC). The programme's success is attributed to the administrative system and unbiased policies keeping in mind that private and public institutes were under the same umbrella. The programme was implemented until 2007 and gave the directions for proper implementation and addition of earthquake engineering in undergraduate and postgraduate curricula. As mentioned in the documents, it laid down the milestone for the next 10 to 20 years. The initiative was commendable, keeping in mind that those suggestions were applicable in the system in that period (Activities, NICEE. n.d.) . However, during the current times, when the industry has been developed and better technology is available, those reforms are on their own not sufficient for implementation. It is crucial to take similar initiatives in the current time so that the foundation can be laid for future times based on current knowledge. 7.2 Reforms in The Architecture Institutes Since architecture plays an essential role in the survival of a structure during any seismic activity, it was found that some steps should be taken so that architects can efficiently play the role of building conceptualization. The importance of skilled architects can be backed by the fact that if a building is framed efficiently with an exemplary configuration, the structure acquires a certain amount of stability and safety irrespective of the engineer's quality. NPEEE played an equally important role for the architecture profession as it did for engineering. Several workshops were carried out highlighting the inclusion of earthquake-resistant architecture in the curriculum and training of the faculties. Moreover, NPEEE led the complementary distribution of IITK-BMTPC Earthquake Tips amongst the architect community in India and was included in the Indian Institute of Architects (IIA) inventory. A couple of projects were taken forward in collaboration with Prof. Andrew Charleson of Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. One of them was carried out by Prof. C.V.R. Murty of IITK, in which both developed a presentation covering the architecture curriculum, which was circulated on a large scale. Another notable NPEEE-sponsored project was developing an Indian version of the RESIST software by Prof. Charleson. The main aim was to improve the knowledge and visualization related to the building design in terms of seismic and wind load. The software was made available to architecture colleges and universities. The Annual Workshop Series at IITK was started in the year 2008 by the NICEE. Currently, 12 such workshops have been organized, with 2019 being the recent one. Several hundred undergraduate students from various institutes participated in such workshops stimulating curious minds. Also, NICEE has participated in the National Association of Students of Architecture (NASA) Conventions, a national-level conference for architecture students to exchange their knowledge and experience. 8. Engineers Bill Quoting the headline of a prominent newspaper, ' Like C.A.s, engineers may have to register ', the author-editor talks about the upcoming Engineers Bill. Following this initiative by the MHRD, upon a constant interest shown by the Engineering Council of India (ECI), the practising engineers would have to register themselves under the frameworks laid down by the ECI ( Mukul A., 2009 ) . The MHRD took this step to regulate an industry that holds immense importance to the states and individuals. The cabinet had a view; if this initiative were realized successfully, it would "lead to public accountability and innovation in that profession." A couple of bodies exist in the country, such as the Institution of Engineers in India(IEI) and the Engineering Council of India(ECI). However, no such law can govern them under a single umbrella. All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) is responsible for imparting quality technical education and regulating norms and standards in education. The quality of education has been degraded over time. Most of the institutions out of 10,396 in the country are producing non-professional and incompetent graduates (Staff Reporter, The Hindu 2020) . About 85% of the graduates lack the quality and standard of knowledge required while practising. About 27% of the industrial sector can be traced back to the Indian engineering industry. The current scenario for engineers in India is quite different compared to other professions. Most professions have a governing body and laws to check on the members and ensure proper regulation of code and conduct and ethics of operation among them. Some of these statutory bodies are the Medical Council of India (MCI), the Council of Architects (CoA), The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), etcetera for keeping checks on medical doctors, architects, chartered accountants, respectively. However, no such governing framework exists on the national level for engineers. The system lacks a mechanism that can ensure the credibility of an engineer, hence making the profession unorganized. Due to conflicts in opinion and multiple other administrative problems in formulating this bill, it has still not been passed. 8.1 History of Development The need for a regulatory framework was felt long back when special committees were formed to bring this bill to life. In 1970, the Planning Commission's Barve Committee emphasized the need to realize two essential objectives - (a) Statutory Recognition of the Profession of Engineering and (b) Engineer Registration - for the proper growth and development of the country's engineering profession. In October 2000, an attempt was made to bring all professional bodies together. During a conference of many professional engineering organizations in Delhi, it was determined that engineers should be registered for regulation, and all Institutions would work collaboratively under the direction of IEI. 8.2 Features of the Final Draft (September 2007) The Engineers Bill, 2007 would put forward the roadmap for the council to regulate the practices carried out by the engineers in India. According to the bill: It would become compulsory for practising engineers to get themselves registered. This registration process will make them accountable and responsible for their conduct and regulate their practice. Moreover, it could lead to the de-licensing of that member in violation of the Code of Conduct. The Act aims to ensure that all the engineering-related activities are carried out by a competent and qualified member, which could lead to sustainable development and ensure the safety of people. After several discussions in the initial phase, the stakeholders agreed that there would not be a prerequisite of experience for the registration. The registered member can use the title of engineer, 'Er' with their name. The licensing period will be five years, and the renewal will be based on the member's experience gained in the last five years. This experience can be measured in terms of Continuous Professional Development (CPD) level, which will be achieved by participating in various industry-based events and activities, such as attending seminars and conferences, publishing papers, etcetera. The concept of CPD will push the engineers to keep them up to date with the current state of the art and further improve the quality on a broader scale. This overall system would significantly impact the engineers in the country as they will get recognition in the professional field. Another takeaway of this bill would be that the engineers would have a platform and channel to convey their concerns and raise their voices. 8.3 Current Scenario The Engineers' Bill proposal has been an exciting and crucial step taken by the Institution of Engineers in India (IEI) to systematize practising engineers and engineering as a profession under a common rule of law. However, 11 years later, it still exists in files of offices and several articles on the internet. The absence of a regulatory system, such as a practice licence, has long been addressed by various authors. "There is no licensing system in the country for structural engineers, and any person with a degree in Civil Engineering can generally practice as one. In a few cities, the structural engineers' licences are issued by local authorities based on qualifications and years of experience. As a result, the customer has no way of ensuring that the engineer participating in the project is competent in general, and in seismic engineering in particular." ( Jain, 2002 ) . In most countries, obtaining such a licence requires either a specific amount of experience under a peer, passing a qualifying examination, or both. Engineers and technicians are equally subject to these standards. A lack of a regulatory framework like this significantly contributes to widespread socio-economic loss in the wake of such disasters (Kumar, 2016) . AICTE formed a committee headed by M.S Ananth, former Director of IIT-Madras, to prepare the Engineers Bill. It was reported to be in the later stages of drafting. Hopefully, the bill will be passed in Parliament soon (Staff Reporter, The Hindu 2020) . 9. Discussions And Suggestions 9.1 Seismic Zone Maps & Micro-zonation The National Seismic Zone Map depicts the seismic zones throughout the country on a big scale. Local differences in soil type and geology cannot be reflected at that size. As a result, for big projects like a dam or a nuclear power plant, the seismic hazard is assessed particularly for that location. In addition, metropolitan regions are micro-zoned for urban planning objectives. Seismic micro-zonation considers local differences in geology, soil profile, etcetera. A prerequisite of an effective zonation is necessary for achieving functional micro-zonation, which could help us understand different structure typologies present in the country and their vulnerabilities. For a country like India, with a wide variety of terrain and landscapes, such national level zonation is not a practical solution for minimizing damages caused by the failure of natural and artificial systems in earthquake disasters. Instead, micro-zoning of specific regions seems to be a better method, as mentioned in some papers published in 1968, 1984 ( Bhatia et al., 1999 ) and 1999 ( Jain, 2007 ) , which propose a division of the country into sixteen, twenty-four and eighty-six seismic zones respectively. Further, the micro-zonation and site-specific studies need to be carried out on a large scale under a systematic framework laid down by the Central Government. Currently, the state of knowledge in this field is fragmented; students and scholars carry out research and publish articles that do not have an immediate application on a national level. Hence, the government needs to promote research initiatives on a grander level and incentivize the process by providing grants and benefits that generate interest among the youth and scholars, ensuring mass participation. The author also highlights the lack of competent and qualified professional architects and engineers who could authorize the construction process and provide necessary recommendations that precede safe and quality construction in such a geologically sensitive area. According to NBC 2005 (Annexure G part III), habitation development in hill regions has significant environmental effects. To plan new settlements or develop growth strategies for existing settlements, a detailed environmental inventory/impact assessment is required. This assessment comprises geological investigations, slope analysis, soil, flora and fauna analysis, climatic inventories, vulnerability assessment to natural disasters, and aesthetic factors, cultural, architectural, and historical considerations. It also suggests that appropriate precautions be taken in planning and building in hilly areas to achieve catastrophe resistance against earthquakes, avalanches, flash floods, landslides, and other natural disasters (NBC, 2005) . 9.2 Role of Institutions The institutions concerned with disaster mitigation and prevention come under two categories. The first acts before a disaster occur in preparation and preparedness, while the other is responsible for post-catastrophe mitigation strategies. The former aims to reduce & control the consequences of a future event using building codes and regulations and their enforcement on the ground level. This category includes various government agencies, institutes of higher education, and professional bodies of experts in a given field, such as civil engineering, architecture, etcetera. Most of the articles and papers published by several remarkable institutions were published post some catastrophic events, and subsequently, lessons were taken from the incidents in seismic design and construction. Hence, our government should recognize the capabilities and weaknesses of our institutions and encourage them to carry out more such studies. This would create a solid institutional infrastructure that minimizes the losses incurred during a devastating earthquake. There exists an issue with the way classroom teaching is conducted at the undergraduate level of education. The curriculum of U.G. courses of Civil Engineering tends to focus less on topics on and related to Earthquake Engineering. Even with the topics that are taught, the course material is not regularly updated according to the changes taking place in the industry. Moreover, a visible discord between classroom teaching and industrial practice is found in these courses. There are no practical on-site demonstrations of the concepts that have applications outside books. This creates a gap between the concepts delivered by the professor and the knowledge that the students grasp, which is highly understood and apparent. Our education system might be producing engineers on a massive level. However, significantly fewer 'Practising Engineers' are being produced as they have all the concepts taught to them but lack the industrial experience which should have been provided to them during their studying years. 9.3 Public Awareness It has been noticed that the general public is not well informed about the stages and intricacies that go into making a structure seismically safe. When such a situation persists, most of the built structures pose a risk to the safety and well-being of its dwellers. Talking about the Indian context, with such a vast population and a wide variety of structures built across its landscape, public awareness of building architecture's ethical and safe practices is crucial. This can be achieved by introducing a dedicated column in daily newspapers, circulating pamphlets and booklets from door to door so that this topic catches the attention of masses and becomes a point of conversation in everyday life. Moreover, people can be informed about the same through social media campaigns and dedicated workshops in the offices and workplaces of people. Generally, the masses perceive that the standards and the norms for proper building development are for the usual circumstances and hence start ignoring the same during the construction. 10. Conclusion The Indian Subcontinent is subjected to high seismic risk. This can be attributed to its geology, marked by the interaction of the Indo-Australian plate with the Eurasian plate. There is enough historical evidence which supports this statement. It has been established from numerous post-earthquake reconnaissance studies that the majority of the loss, economic or human lives, has taken place due to the collapse of structures in the wake of seismic events. The first seismic code for earthquake-resistant structures was formulated in 1962 after the seismic sequences in Mach (1931), Bihar-Nepal (1934), Quetta (1935) and Anjar (1956) in previous decades. Glancing back at the history of the development of the building codes, it has been observed that the procedure to update the seismic codes in our country is erratic. There is no particular time frame within which they are revised. It has been observed that many issues need to be acknowledged and worked for at the level of education and research. There seems to be a smaller number of educational and research institutions in our country that can be utilized to carry out quality research in earthquake engineering. This issue can become a deterrent to the advancement of the structural engineering scenario in India. Engineering Institutes all over the country need advanced laboratories and technology that enable students and professors to conduct state-of-the-art research. USDMA stated in 2021 that 13 of the districts in Uttarakhand are listed as 100 per cent hypersensitive seismic zones, while numerous other districts in highly hilly terrain are susceptible to seismic risks. The long-awaited Engineer's Bill can potentially bring a change in the domain of earthquake engineering. According to the MHRD, a regulation in the industry can be brought by this bill as that would lead to public accountability. Registration of the practising engineers, renewal of the licence based on experience and de-licensing of those who violate the code of conduct are some of the key features that were proposed in the bill, drafted in September 2007. Seismic zonation and micro-zonation can solve the problem, as varying structure typologies is a better approach than having a similar building stock, depending upon the terrain and the seismic characteristic of the area. Moreover, institutions should be encouraged by the government to carry out research and development in the specified domain to achieve state-of-the-art technology. Alongside, public awareness is a key step as bringing the masses to light could decrease the malpractices while construction, thus, reducing the damage to the structure during a disaster. Declarations Funding The authors declare that no funds, grants, or other support were received during the preparation of this manuscript. Competing Interests All authors certify that they have no financial or non-financial interests in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript, and that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity that has a financial or non-financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript. Author Contributions Ruchir Kain performed the literature review and formed the framework of the study; Vedant Gupta edited and wrote the sections and contributed to the final analyses of the study. Amit Kumar Shrivastava supervised and commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. References Activities. National information centre of earthquake engineering - IIT-KANPUR-INDIA. (n.d.). https://www.nicee.org/npeee/showpage.php?id=101 . Annual Report. National Information Centre of Earthquake Engineering (NICEE) - IIT-Kanpur-INDIA. (n.d.). https://www.nicee.org/index.php . Ashwani, K., Pushplata (2012). Building regulations: a means of ensuring sustainable development in hill towns. Journal of Environmental Research and Development, 7(1A), 553-560. Bhatia, S. C., Kumar, M. R., & Gupta, H. K. (1999). A probabilistic seismic hazard map of India and adjoining regions. -16. https://www.earth-prints.org/bitstream/2122/1382/1/13%20bhatia.pdf Bokey, P. B., & Pajgade, P. S. (2004, August). Lessons from Jan, 26, 2001 Gujarat (India) Earthquake. In 13th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering. https://www.iitk.ac.in/nicee/wcee/article/13_1874.pdf Cotton, F., Campillo, M., Deschamps, A., & Rastogi, B. K. (1996). Rupture history and seismotectonics of the 1991 Uttarkashi, Himalaya earthquake. Tectonophysics, 258(1-4), 35-51. https://doi.org/10.1016/0040-1951(95)00154-9 Dewey J.F. and Bird J.M. (1970) Mountain belts and the new global tectonics, J.geophys. Res., 75, 2625-2647. ) DMMC Uttarakhand. (2012). Sikkim Earthquake of September 18 2011; A Report. Dutta, S. C., Mukhopadhyay, P. S., Saha, R., & Nayak, S. (2015). 2011 Sikkim Earthquake at Eastern Himalayas: Lessons learnt from performance of structures. Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, 75, 121-129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soildyn.2015.03.020 Gupta, H. K., Rastogi, B. K., Mohan, I., Rao, C. V. R. K., Sarma, S. V. S., & Rao, R. U. M. (1998). An investigation into the Latur earthquake of September 29, 1993 in southern India. Tectonophysics, 287(1-4), 299-318. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0040-1951(98)80075-9 INDIAN STANDARDS ON EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING. (n.d.). https://bis.gov.in/other/quake.htm . Iyengar, R. N. (1999). Earthquakes in ancient India. Current Science, 77(6), 827-829. Jain, S. K. (2002). Codes, licensing, and education. Earthquake spectra, 18(1_suppl), 319-339. https://doi.org/10.1193/1.2803918 Jain, S. K. (2007). Need for a national initiative on research and development in earthquake engineering. CURRENT SCIENCE-BANGALORE-, 92(8), 1045. -17. http://www.iitk.ac.in/nicee/RP/2007_Research_Initiative_Current_Science.pdf Jain, S. K. (2016). Earthquake safety in India: achievements, challenges and opportunities. Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering, 14(5), 1337-1436. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10518-016-9870-2 Jain, S. K., & Nigam, N. C. (2000, January). Historical developments and current status of earthquake engineering in India. In Proceedings of the twelfth world conference on earthquake engineering, Auckland, New Zealand (Vol. 30). https://www.iitk.ac.in/nicee/wcee/article/1792.pdf Jain, S. K., Murty, C. V. R., Arlekar, J. N., Sinha, R., Goyal, A., & Jain, C. K. (1997). Some observations on engineering aspects of the Jabalpur earthquake of May 22 1997. EERI special earthquake report, EERI newsletter, 32(2), 1-18. Jain, S. K., Murty, C. V. R., Dayal, U., Arlekar, J. N., & Chaubey, S. K. (2001). Learning from Earthquakes: A field report on structural and geotechnical damages sustained during the January 26 2001 M 7.9 Bhuj Earthquake. Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. Jain, S. K., Murty, C. V. R., Dayal, U., Arlekar, J. N., & Chaubey, S. K. (2001). The republic day earthquake in the land of MK Gandhi, the father of the nation. Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India. -18. https://www.humanitarianlibrary.org/sites/default/files/2014/02/seismic%2520construction%2520learnings%2520-%2520Gujarat%2520earthquake%2520-%2520IITK.pdf Jain, S. K., Singh, R. P., Gupta, V. K., & Nagar, A. (1992). Garhwal earthquake of October 20, 1991. EERI Newsl., 26(2). https://www.nicee.org/eqe-iitk/uploads/EQR_Uttarkashi.pdf Jayalakshmi, S., & Raghukanth, S. T. G. (2017). Finite element models to represent seismic activity of the Indian plate. Geoscience Frontiers, 8(1), 81-91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gsf.2015.12.004 Kapoor, M., Kohli, K., & Menon, M. (2009). India's Notified Ecologically Sensitive Areas (ESAs): The Story So Far... Kalpavriksh. Kaushik, H. B., Dasgupta, K., Sahoo, D. R., & Kharel, G. (2006). Sikkim earthquake of February 14 2006. NICEE Reconnaissance Report, National Information Center of Earthquake Engineering, Kanpur, 1-13. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.694.4525&rep=rep1&type=pdf Khanna, T. (2006). Report of the Tejendra Khanna Committee of Experts set up by Govt. of India to look Into various aspects of Unauthorized Constructions & Misuse of Premises in Delhi. New Delhi. https://mohua.gov.in/upload/uploadfiles/files/tkc.pdf Khattri, K. N., Rogers, A. M., Perkins, D. M., & Algermissen, S. T. (1984). A seismic hazard map of India and adjacent areas. Tectonophysics, 108(1-2), 93-134. -15 Kumar, A. (2018). Review of building regulations for safety against hazards in Indian hill towns. Journal of Urban Management, 7(2), 97-110. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jum.2018.06.002 Kumar, A., & Pushplata. (2015). Building regulations for hill towns of India. HBRC Journal, 11(2), 275-284. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hbrcj.2014.06.006 Latur District Official Site. (n.d.). Retrieved April 18, 2022, from https://web.archive.org/web/20140209043831/http://latur.nic.in/html/earthquake.htm Madabhushi, S. P. G., & Haigh, S. K. (2005). The Bhuj, India earthquake of January 26 2001: a field report by EEFIT. https://www.istructe.org/IStructE/media/Public/Resources/report-eefit-bhuj-india-20190814.pdf Mithila Verma & Brijesh K. Bansal (2016); Active fault research in India: achievements and future perspective, Geomatics, Natural Hazards and Risk, 7:1, 65-84; DOI: 10.1080/19475705.2013.868371 Mohapatra, A. K., & Mohanty, W. K. (2010, December). An overview of seismic zonation studies in India. In Proc. Indian Geotechnical Conference, GEOtrendz, December (pp. 16-18). Molnar P. and Tapponnier P. (1975) Cenozoic tectonics of Asia Effects of a continental collision, Science, 489, 419-426. Mukul, A. (2009, November 30). Like C.A.s, engineers may have to register -times of India. The Times of India. https://timesofindiatestcaptcha.indiatimes.com/india/like-cas-engineers-may-have-to-register/articleshow/5285520.cms . National Building Code of India (NBC) (2005) Quittmeyer, R. C., & Jacob, K. H. (1979). Historical and modern seismicity of Pakistan, Afghanistan, northwestern India, and southeastern Iran. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 69(3), 773-823 Reporter, S. (2020, October 13). AICTE constitutes panel for Engineers bill. The Hindu. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/aicte-constitutes-panel-for-engineers-bill/article32844887.ece . Satish Kumar, R. (2016). Lessons from structural failures in India. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers-Forensic Engineering, 169(4), 143-148. https://doi.org/10.1680/jfoen.16.00019 Sharma. V. (2017, February 23). Uttarakhand has a history of earthquakes but Nobody cares! The New Indian Express. https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2017/feb/23/uttarakhand-has-a-history-of-earthquakes-but-nobody-cares-1573958.html . Tandon, A. N. (1956). Zones of India liable to earthquake damage. Indian Journal of Meteorological Geophysics, 10, 137-146. -13 TNN / Updated: Jan 26, 2016. (n.d.). 15 years of Gujarat earthquake: A trauma etched in Gujarat's memory: Ahmedabad News - Times of India. The Times of India. Retrieved April 18, 2022, from https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/15-years-of-Gujarat-earthquake-A-trauma-etched-in-Gujarats-memory/articleshow/50730183.cms U.S. Geological Survey, 2022, Earthquake Lists, Maps, and Statistics, accessed January 20, 2022 at https://www.usgs.gov/natural-hazards/earthquake-hazards/lists-maps-and-statistics Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority. (n.d.). Retrieved February 14, 2022 from: http://usdma.uk.gov.in/PDFFiles/Notification/19493db4-51a8-4b99-9f22-367526243004.pdf Valdiya, K., 1998; Dynamic Himalaya. Universities Press, India. Zhang, P., Yang, Z. X., Gupta, H. K., Bhatia, S. C., & Shedlock, K. M. (1999). Global seismic hazard assessment program (GSHAP) in continental Asia. -14 Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-1809160","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":117402646,"identity":"88e3714b-b37d-4978-ae94-e7a0c56184c2","order_by":0,"name":"Ruchir Kain","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA6UlEQVRIie3PsQrCMBCA4QuBuFTnFAVfoaWgCIqvEolkquDoWCjEpTrXyVdwcnJQBH0FIYsunetWxMHWzcEaN8H8B4GD+4YAmEy/GQGWDwF8zNJiregTwuy4WLEOgZwAWE7dKvZPpB3z5HzZiGatHjle97Zu1jCg9Oq/J42TaDss8V3ZOIz5aK5ciQHbi/V7QqlPKNtOkKR8tR9FCuWE4KoG6UvK3LATqb4u8QeSDj0MmRp8JlbSyongkgqBZoHiEqOw/C8VntjZlveWMT9Adle95TTcpdcS8hqSzzfQvS+6f3NsMplM/9IDusNLQDDnWIwAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6248-3958","institution":"Delhi Technological University","correspondingAuthor":true,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ruchir","middleName":"","lastName":"Kain","suffix":""},{"id":117402647,"identity":"6f0a7a23-3933-4a2b-b457-91fd7a2af0a7","order_by":1,"name":"Vedant Gupta","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0521-4377","institution":"Delhi Technological University","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Vedant","middleName":"","lastName":"Gupta","suffix":""},{"id":117402648,"identity":"f01c6988-41dd-4df4-af96-6cf62b8011d8","order_by":2,"name":"Amit Kumar Shrivastava","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7281-1097","institution":"Delhi Technological University","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Amit","middleName":"Kumar","lastName":"Shrivastava","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2022-06-29 20:05:11","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":{"humanSubjects":false,"vertebrateSubjects":false,"conflictsOfInterestStatement":true,"humanSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false,"humanSubjectConsent":false,"humanSubjectClinicalTrial":false,"humanSubjectCaseReport":false,"vertebrateSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false,"coiExplicitlySet":false},"doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-1809160/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1809160/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":23327302,"identity":"94454b74-b1ba-4a81-842a-d58a3258ba6a","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2022-07-01 14:41:47","extension":"jpeg","order_by":1,"title":"Figure 1","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":5541915,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eLocation of epicenters of some major earthquakes in the history of India\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Fig1.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-1809160/v1/e620110353127f47b859ab56.jpeg"},{"id":23327303,"identity":"ef51e4fe-9d59-45c3-af62-e84d85efcfe5","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2022-07-01 14:41:50","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":608047,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-1809160/v1/4c69f2de-a56b-4a43-9104-7d68c68219e6.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"","formattedTitle":"\u003cp\u003eSeismic Damage in India and the Associated Reasons: A case study\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[{"header":"1. Introduction","content":"\u003cp\u003eIndia is a land of immense geographical diversity. From the beautiful coastal plains in Southern India to the high-ranking peaks of the Himalayas in Northern India, the Indian Subcontinent has been gifted with immense diversity in its landforms. However, the dynamic nature of the tectonic plates underlying the crust is the source of seismic disturbances. With the collision of the Indian plate into the Eurasian Plate at a rate of 55mm/year (approximately), along with a vast network of local and sub-local fault systems dominating our Subcontinent, India comes under the world's most seismic prone regions. The evidence for this can be found in the historical literature, including manuscripts, personal letters, diaries, research papers and site reconnaissance reports.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOur mutual curiosity for research work made us analyze the root cause of the widespread damage in the wake of a seismic sequence. The Uttarkashi earthquake (1991) \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e(\u003c/span\u003eCotton et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR8\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1996\u003c/span\u003e), Latur earthquake (1993), Jabalpur earthquake (1997) \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e(\u003c/span\u003eJain et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR22\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1997\u003c/span\u003e) and Bhuj earthquake (2001) were some of the major earthquakes that struck the Subcontinent in the last few decades and have accounted for massive damage across the nation, both economic as well as damage to the society in general. The total human causality recorded solely in these four seismic occurrences adds up to approximately 30,000 deaths, and the total economic loss is estimated at around \u003cspan\u003e$\u003c/span\u003e9\u0026nbsp;billion \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e(\u003c/span\u003eGupta et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR13\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1998\u003c/span\u003e; \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003eLatur District Official Site, n.d.)\u003c/span\u003e. Amongst these, the Bhuj earthquake of 2001 was pivotal for India's revolution in earthquake engineering. It led to some significant initiatives and amendments upon which future frameworks and guidelines were developed. \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e(Times of India, 2016)\u003c/span\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBuilding damage and failures account for the majority of the casualties in these disasters. At first, it seemed that we were at the mercy of Mother Nature; we had no control over the damages that occurred during these disasters. However, after gathering more perspectives and scientific standpoints, we realized our assumption was partly true. Although we have no control over the seismic instances, we have a large amount of control in mitigating and downscaling the extent of the disaster that succeeds.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAlthough there are specific guidelines and bye-laws for constructing earthquake-resistant structures in our country, it is noticed that these provisions are inadequate in specific domains and are not adhered to at the national scale. The issues with communication barriers between the worker and engineer, untimely revision of building codes, lack of regulatory framework for practising engineers and more have been observed. India's prominent educational and research institutes led specific initiatives to build a culture of research and development in this field.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSeeking inspiration from the professionals' outstanding works, we have come forward with this research paper. Our objective with this work is to create a state-of-art document highlighting the historical aspects of earthquakes and mitigative responses to these disasters. This work presents a critical analysis of the state of affairs in India's earthquake mitigation strategies and associated building practices.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"2. Geology And Geotectonic Of The Indian Subcontinent","content":"\u003cp\u003e2.1 Geographical divisions\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThrowing light on the landscape of India from a geological point-of-view, which accounts for the regions of rocks having the same structure and history, the Indian Subcontinent can be divided into three major regions:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e1. The Peninsular Plateau Region - Its base coincides with the southern boundary of the broad plain of North India, giving it a roughly triangular form. Kanyakumari is the highest point on the triangular plateau. It is a stable block made up mostly of Archaean gneisses and a typical rock system called schists. Since its creation, it has been a durable shield with few structural modifications.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e2. The Himalayan Region - Plate tectonic forces create the Himalayan geology, moulded by weathering and erosion. The Himalayas, which span 2400 kilometres between Tibet\u0026apos;s Namcha Barwa syntaxis and Kashmir\u0026apos;s Nanga Parbat syntaxis, are the product of a continuing orogeny - the collision of two tectonic plates\u0026apos; continental crusts, the Indian plate pushing into the Eurasian Plate through \u003cem\u003esubduction.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSeveral thrusts (including the Main Boundary Thrust and the Main Central Thrust) and transverse lineaments appear to be operating along the Himalayan arc. Although thrust motions dominate over the Himalayan arc, typical and strike-slip faulting also occurs along part of the transverse lineaments, according to an analysis of focal processes.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e3. The Indo-Gangetic Plains - Also known as the Indus-Ganga Plain, are rich plains spanning the Indian Subcontinent\u0026apos;s northern regions, comprising much of northern and eastern India, eastern Pakistan, and almost all of Bangladesh and the southern lowlands of Nepal.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe region is named after the rivers Indus and Ganges and includes many significant cities. The Himalayas feed the plain\u0026apos;s numerous rivers and are the source of the rich alluvium deposited throughout the region by the two river systems bordering it on the north. The Chota Nagpur Plateau marks the plain\u0026apos;s southern boundary.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e2.2 Geo-tectonic Setting\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Indian Subcontinent, which comes under some of the\u0026nbsp;world\u0026apos;s highly seismically active regions, has an immense variability in terms of relief features. The reason for such a variation is the interaction of the Indo-Australian Plate with the Eurasian Plate. According to tectonic theory, the Earth\u0026apos;s surface is active, which means that the plates are in motion, changing the shape of the Earth\u0026apos;s outer layer over some time. Geologists suggest that there are seven major tectonic plates and the Indian plate is a minor plate that is part of one of the major tectonic plates called the Indo-Australian plate.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith almost 54% of the landmass of India recognized\u0026nbsp;under high-risk, high seismic zones, roughly all of India\u0026apos;s main faults/fault zones are considered active, with the ability to create significant earthquakes. India is dominated by numerous fault lines and ruptures in its landmass. The geological, geomorphic and seismological data analysis has resulted in the discovery of 67 active regional scale faults, 15 in the Himalayas, 17 in the bordering foredeep, and up to 30 neotectonic faults stable in Peninsular India\u0026nbsp;\u003ca href=\"#3o7alnk\"\u003e(Verma \u0026amp; Bansal, 2016)\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe continental interior, also known as the \u003cem\u003estable peninsular shield\u003c/em\u003e, has its geomorphology dominated by several inactive and unsuccessful rifts developed during the break-up of the Gondwana supercontinent during the Mesozoic period. These rifts divide the Indian shield linearly and are the sites of greater intraplate stress concentrations that are very active, with varying levels of seismicity.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Himalayan Mountain range was formed due to the historic collision of the Indian plate with the Eurasian Plate about 50-60 million years ago. The significant area of the Indo-Gangetic plains has evolved on the southern flank of the rising Himalayas, distinguished by some of the significant transverse faults\u0026nbsp;\u003ca href=\"#3tbugp1\"\u003e(Valdiya, 1998)\u003c/a\u003e . The Indian plate is continuously under-thrusting beneath the Eurasian Plate, and stresses accumulate progressively in the Himalayas. As a result, the Himalayas\u0026nbsp;are more seismically active than other geological units\u0026nbsp;\u003ca href=\"#1ci93xb\"\u003e(Jayalakshmi \u0026amp; Raghukanth, 2017)\u003c/a\u003e. In the Himalayan collision zone, many fault zones that may be responding to continuing crustal deformation are known to be the location of major earthquakes, such as the Main Central Thrust (MCT), Main Boundary Thrust (MBT), and Himalayan Frontal Thrust (HFT).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003col start=\"1\" type=\"a\"\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eThe Mishmi thrust, Lohit thrust, and Kopili fault in the North-East (N.E.) Indian region;\u0026nbsp;\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eThe Narmada-Son-Tapti and Godavari rift zones in peninsular India;\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eThe Allah Bund fault, Kuchch Mainland fault, Katrol Hill fault, and Bhuj fault in the western Indian region and the,\u0026nbsp;\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eN\u0026ndash;S trending faults in the Andaman Sumatra subduction zone.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAbove are all seismogenic sub-faults that dominate the geo-tectonic of the Indian landscape.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Indo-Gangetic Plain comprises alluvial plains and encompasses the Himalayas\u0026apos; southern flank. Compared to the Himalayas, the seismicity in this region is modest\u0026nbsp;\u003ca href=\"#41mghml\"\u003e(Quittmeyer \u0026amp; Jacob, 1979)\u003c/a\u003e. Since the late Archean, the Son-Narmada-Tapti zone (SONATA) has been episodically active. The activity of this fault is linked to the Jabalpur earthquake of May 22, 1997.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e2.3 Historical seismic activities\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe history of the Indian landscape has been subjected to a plethora of seismic activities across its landscape, ranging from the mighty Himalayas to even the relatively stable IGB and peninsular region. Following is a list of some significant seismic occurrences relevant from the past that occurred in the Indian Subcontinent.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ctable border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"594\"\u003e\n \u003ctbody\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"19.865319865319865%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSerial Number\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"13.804713804713804%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDate\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"32.65993265993266%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLocation\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMagnitude\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIntensity\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"19.865319865319865%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e(a)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"13.804713804713804%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e28-04-2021\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"32.65993265993266%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eAssam\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e6.0 M\u003csub\u003ew\u003c/sub\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eVII\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"19.865319865319865%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e(b)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"13.804713804713804%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e03-01-2017\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"32.65993265993266%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eIndia, Bangladesh\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e5.7 M\u003csub\u003ew\u003c/sub\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eV\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"19.865319865319865%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e(c)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"13.804713804713804%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e01-04-2016\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"32.65993265993266%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eIndia, Myanmar, Bangladesh\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e6.7 M\u003csub\u003ew\u003c/sub\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eVII\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"19.865319865319865%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e(d)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"13.804713804713804%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e12-05-2015\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"32.65993265993266%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eNepal, India\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e7.3 M\u003csub\u003ew\u003c/sub\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eVIII\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"19.865319865319865%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e(e)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"13.804713804713804%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e25-04-2015\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"32.65993265993266%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eNepal, India\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e7.8 M\u003csub\u003ew\u003c/sub\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eIX\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"19.865319865319865%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e(f)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"13.804713804713804%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e01-05-2013\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"32.65993265993266%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eKashmir\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e5.7 M\u003csub\u003ew\u003c/sub\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eVIII\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"19.865319865319865%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e(g)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"13.804713804713804%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e18-09-2011\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"32.65993265993266%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eGangtok, Sikkim\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e6.9 M\u003csub\u003ew\u003c/sub\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eVII\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"19.865319865319865%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e(h)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"13.804713804713804%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e10-08-2009\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"32.65993265993266%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eAndaman Islands\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e7.5 M\u003csub\u003ew\u003c/sub\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eVIII\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"19.865319865319865%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e(i)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"13.804713804713804%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e14-02-2006\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"32.65993265993266%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eSikkim\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e5.3 M\u003csub\u003ew\u003c/sub\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eV\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"19.865319865319865%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e(j)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"13.804713804713804%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e14-12-2005\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"32.65993265993266%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eUttarakhand\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e5.1 M\u003csub\u003ew\u003c/sub\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eVI\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"19.865319865319865%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e(k)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"13.804713804713804%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e08-10-2005\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"32.65993265993266%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eKashmir\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e7.6 M\u003csub\u003ew\u003c/sub\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eVIII\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"19.865319865319865%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e(l)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"13.804713804713804%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e13-09-2002\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"32.65993265993266%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eAndaman Islands\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e6.5 M\u003csub\u003ew\u003c/sub\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eVI+\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"19.865319865319865%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e(m)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"13.804713804713804%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e26-01-2001\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"32.65993265993266%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eGujarat\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e7.7 M\u003csub\u003ew\u003c/sub\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eX\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"19.865319865319865%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e(n)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"13.804713804713804%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e29-03-1999\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"32.65993265993266%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eChamoli district-Uttarakhand\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e6.8 M\u003csub\u003ew\u003c/sub\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eVIII\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"19.865319865319865%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e(o)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"13.804713804713804%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e21-11-1997\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"32.65993265993266%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eBangladesh, India\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e6.1 M\u003csub\u003ew\u003c/sub\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eV\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"19.865319865319865%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e(p)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"13.804713804713804%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e22-05-1997\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"32.65993265993266%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eJabalpur, Madhya Pradesh\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e5.8 M\u003csub\u003ew\u003c/sub\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eVIII\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"19.865319865319865%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e(q)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"13.804713804713804%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e30-09-1993\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"32.65993265993266%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eLatur, Maharashtra\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e6.2 M\u003csub\u003ew\u003c/sub\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eVIII\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"19.865319865319865%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e(r)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"13.804713804713804%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e20-10-1991\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"32.65993265993266%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eUttarkashi, Uttarakhand\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e6.8 M\u003csub\u003ew\u003c/sub\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eIX\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"19.865319865319865%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e(s)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"13.804713804713804%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e21-08-1988\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"32.65993265993266%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eUdayapur, Nepal\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e6.9 M\u003csub\u003ew\u003c/sub\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eVIII\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"19.865319865319865%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e(t)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"13.804713804713804%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e06-08-1988\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"32.65993265993266%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eMyanmar, India\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e7.3 M\u003csub\u003ew\u003c/sub\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eVII\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"19.865319865319865%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e(u)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"13.804713804713804%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e20-01-1982\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"32.65993265993266%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eLittle Nicobar\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e6.1 M\u003csub\u003ew\u003c/sub\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eVI\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"19.865319865319865%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e(v)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"13.804713804713804%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e23-03-1970\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"32.65993265993266%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eBharuch district\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e5.4 M\u003csub\u003eb\u003c/sub\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eV\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"19.865319865319865%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e(w)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"13.804713804713804%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e11-12-1967\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"32.65993265993266%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eMaharashtra\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e6.6 M\u003csub\u003ew\u003c/sub\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eVIII\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"19.865319865319865%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e(x)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"13.804713804713804%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e21-07-1956\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"32.65993265993266%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eGujarat\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e6.1 M\u003csub\u003ew\u003c/sub\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eIX\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"19.865319865319865%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e(y)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"13.804713804713804%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e15-08-1950\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"32.65993265993266%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eAssam, Tibet\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e8.6 M\u003csub\u003ew\u003c/sub\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eXI\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"19.865319865319865%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e(z)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"13.804713804713804%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e29-07-1947\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"32.65993265993266%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eIndia, China\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e7.3 M\u003csub\u003ew\u003c/sub\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eV\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"19.865319865319865%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e(Aa)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"13.804713804713804%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e26-06-1941\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"32.65993265993266%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eAndaman Islands\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e7.7 - 8.1 M\u003csub\u003ew\u003c/sub\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eVII\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"19.865319865319865%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e(Ab)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"13.804713804713804%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e31-05-1935\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"32.65993265993266%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eQuetta, Balochistan\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e7.7 M\u003csub\u003ew\u003c/sub\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eX\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"19.865319865319865%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e(Ac)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"13.804713804713804%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e15-01-1934\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"32.65993265993266%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eNepal\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e8.0 M\u003csub\u003ew\u003c/sub\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eXI\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"19.865319865319865%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e(Ad)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"13.804713804713804%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e04-04-1905\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"32.65993265993266%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eKangra\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e7.8 M\u003csub\u003ew\u003c/sub\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eIX\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"19.865319865319865%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e(Ae)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"13.804713804713804%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e1897-06-12\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"32.65993265993266%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eShillong, India\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e8.0 M\u003csub\u003ew\u003c/sub\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eX\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"19.865319865319865%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e(Af)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"13.804713804713804%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e13-12-1881\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"32.65993265993266%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eAndaman Islands\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e7.9 M\u003csub\u003ew\u003c/sub\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eVII\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"19.865319865319865%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e(Ag)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"13.804713804713804%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e26-08-1833\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"32.65993265993266%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eBihar, Kathmandu\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e7.6-7.9 M\u003csub\u003ew\u003c/sub\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eX\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"19.865319865319865%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e(Ah)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"13.804713804713804%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e16-06-1819\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"32.65993265993266%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eGujarat\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e7.7-8.2 M\u003csub\u003ew\u003c/sub\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eXI\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"19.865319865319865%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e(Ai)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"13.804713804713804%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e1505-06-06\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"32.65993265993266%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eSaldang, Karnali zone\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e8.2 - 8.8 M\u003csub\u003ew\u003c/sub\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"bottom\" width=\"16.835016835016834%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eXII\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003c/tbody\u003e\n\u003c/table\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTable 1:\u003c/strong\u003e Seismic parameters of some of the prominent earthquakes in the history of India\u003cem\u003e\u0026nbsp;[Source: USGS\u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003e\u003ca href=\"#2u6wntf\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e(USGS, 2022)\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cem\u003e]\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe above table indicates the scope of seismic activities in the Indian region. It is evident from the above data that the Himalayan Mountain range is significantly active in terms of seismic activity, the reasons for which are presented in the previous sections of the paper.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe interest in earthquakes and their scientific involvement in India can be traced to ancient Indian literature, which has a quantitative and qualitative understanding of earthquakes, consequences, and even intensity. Those texts also contain several speculations about the causes of an earthquake, some of which are rooted in mythology\u0026mdash;for example, the idea that earthquakes are caused by the collective \u0026quot;sigh of elephants supporting the Earth\u0026quot; \u0026mdash; while others have geographical, geological, and climate bases\u003ca href=\"#35nkun2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;(Iyengar, 1999)\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe risks related to such disasters were identified by scientists and engineers worldwide. Consequently, it was realized that most of the deaths in any seismic event were (and still are) due to the collapse of buildings. The seasonal and temporal variations and the efficacy of post-seismic mitigation strategies are some secondary causes that increase the human casualty in such an event. Subsequently, some resources were developed, and steps were taken to reduce the damage incurred to society regarding loss of life and economy. Among those resources, building codes had the critical importance of establishing the guidelines regarding the construction of houses and buildings so that the public can stay safe from the damage caused due to building failure. The collision between the Indian and the Eurasian plate would make our Subcontinent prone to more such tremors in the future. This fact leads us to conclude that there is a need for dynamic infrastructure development in earthquake engineering.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"3. Indian Building Codes","content":"\u003cdiv id=\"Sec7\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e3.1 The General Introduction\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eA building code (also known as building standard or building regulations) specifies the requirements for built items such as buildings and non-building structures. Buildings must adhere to the code to get planning approval, generally granted by a local municipality. The primary goal of building codes is to safeguard public health, safety, and the general welfare in the construction and occupation of buildings and structures. When a building code is formally established by the relevant governmental or private body, it becomes legislation in that jurisdiction.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe procedure of drafting, approving, and enforcing building regulations differs significantly between countries. In certain nations, building codes are created by government agencies or quasi-governmental standards and subsequently enforced by the central government. These are known as national building codes (in a sense, they enjoy a mandatory nationwide application).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBuilding regulations, particularly earthquake-resistant building codes, are essential for determining whether a building or structure can withstand an earthquake. These regulations offer engineers, designers, and architects' instructions on how a specific element in a structure should be built and constructed to guarantee adequate serviceability without harm. These codes are issued in India by the Bureau of Indian Standards, BIS, under the supervision of various academicians and field specialists.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eStakeholders use several codes in civil engineering for building projects spanning from the design practice of concrete members to timber members. These include:\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003col\u003e \u003cspan\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eIS 456: Code of practice for plain and reinforced concrete,\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003c/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eIS 800: Code of practice for General steel construction,\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003c/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eIS 1077: Specifications for bricks for masonry work,\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003c/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eIS 3495: Methods for testing of bricks and more.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003c/span\u003e \u003c/ol\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn earthquake engineering, BIS has produced many codes that are amended at specific intervals. These codes are used in conjunction with other codes from the civil engineering department. The names are given below:\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e\u003col start=\"1\" type=\"1\"\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eI.S. 1893:2016 Criteria for Earthquake Design of Structures,\u0026nbsp;\u003col start=\"1\" type=\"a\"\u003e\n \u003cli\u003ePART 1: General provisions and Buildings\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003ePART 2: Liquid Retaining Tanks - Elevated and Ground Supported\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003ePART 3: Bridges and Retaining Walls\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003ePART 4: Industrial Structures Including Stack Like Structures\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003ePART 5: Dams and Embankments\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003ePART 6: Base Isolated Structures\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003c/ol\u003e\n \u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eI.S. 4326:2013 Earthquake Resistant Design and Construction of Buildings \u0026ndash; Code of Practice,\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eI.S. 13827:1993 Improving Earthquake Resistance of Earthen Buildings \u0026ndash; Guidelines,\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eI.S. 13828:1993 Improving Earthquake Resistance of Low Strength Masonry Buildings \u0026ndash; Guidelines,\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eI.S. 13920:2016 Ductile Detailing of Reinforced Concrete Structures Subjected to Seismic Forces \u0026ndash; Code of Practice,\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eS.P. 22: Explanatory Handbook on Codes for Earthquake Engineering,\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eI.S. 13935:2009 Seismic Evaluation, Repair and Strengthening of Masonry Buildings \u0026ndash; Guidelines,\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eI.S. 6922:1973 Criteria for Safety and Design of Structures Subject to Underground Blasts,\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eI.S. 4991:1968 Criteria for Blast Resistant Design of Structures for Explosions Above Ground, and I.S. 4967:1968 Recommendations for Seismic Instrumentation for River Valley Projects.\u0026nbsp;\u003ca href=\"#lnxbz9\"\u003e(Bureau of Indian Standards, 2015)\u003c/a\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e3.2 History of the Development of Indian Building Codes\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe current layout of building code provisions is quite comprehensive. However, this was not the case about a half-century back. India has an eventful history of developing a systematic institutional framework for building design.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePost the seismic sequences, a need to establish a solid framework for earthquake-resistant construction design was felt by civil engineers and members of notable academic institutions. As a result, India\u0026apos;s first seismic code was formulated and published in 1962 by the reference \u0026quot;I.S. 1893:1962 - Recommendations for Earthquake Resistant Design of Structures.\u0026quot; Further, drawing upon relevant research and academic inputs, BIS revised it subsequently in 1966, 1970, 1975, and 1984\u0026nbsp;\u003ca href=\"#3of9lxll40n7\"\u003e(Jain, 2016)\u003c/a\u003e. Further on, considering the significant earthquakes like Uttarkashi (1991), Latur(1993), Chamoli (1999) and Bhuj (2001), it was decided to split the IS 1893 into five parts for better implementation, referencing and easy revision of the codes. The proposed changes were reflected in the fifth revision of the code, I.S. 1893:2002. Then in 2016, the code was revised for the sixth time. It is the latest edition\u0026nbsp;\u003ca href=\"#lnxbz9\"\u003e(Bureau of Indian Standards, n.d.)\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn retrospect, we can observe that the turning point in earthquake-resistant construction practices and the associated institutional development was the Quetta Earthquake of 1935. It tested the lessons learnt from the 1931 Mach Earthquake (Magnitude: M7.4). The railway quarters survived the quake of 1935, which was part of earthquake-resistant structures constructed under the supervision of a railway engineer after the Mach earthquake\u0026nbsp;\u003ca href=\"#1ksv4uv\"\u003e(Jain, 2002)\u003c/a\u003e. Post-1935, several initiatives were taken by the administrative bodies and guidelines were proposed for earthquake-resistant constructions. These structures were further tested in future earthquakes, challenging the guidelines and developing systems based on the proposed codes. However, there are no pieces of evidence that those guidelines were followed on a broader scale. Their implementation was done locally rather than at a broader level of the jurisdiction\u0026nbsp;\u003ca href=\"#z337ya\"\u003e(Jain \u0026amp; Nigam, 2000)\u003c/a\u003e. Also, a need for quality work and effective amendments to the Indian building codes was felt post the Bhuj Earthquake in 2001 as it caused widespread socio-economic loss to society. Hence, an initiative was taken by the Gujarat State Disaster Management Association (GSDMA), which it sponsored several large- and small-scale projects on code and provision development concerning earthquake, wind and fire safety of the buildings at IIT Kanpur. This initiative led to the development of new building codes, commentaries, explanatory handouts, modifications in existing codes, and many such reference materials under the supervision of a large team of experts. All of these resources were compiled at NICEE, which formed the foundation for the future revisions of the codes\u0026nbsp;\u003ca href=\"#1ksv4uv\"\u003e(Jain, 2002)\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e3.3 Seismic Zonation\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSeismic zonation, one of the most significant components in the IS 1893, is crucial for India, with various landforms and geological features. Seismic zoning categorizes parts of a territory based on the predicted ground motion or ground shaking in PGA or PGV\u0026nbsp;\u003ca href=\"#23ckvvd\"\u003e(Mohapatra \u0026amp; Mohanty, 2010)\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Indian Subcontinent has immense geological and geomorphological diversity. Marked by a highly seismically active landscape, high magnitude earthquakes in different regions could lead to damages that vary in nature. Hence, seismic zonation is crucial since it aids in hazard assessment and gives designers, architects, and engineers criteria to build earthquake-resistant structures.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e3.3.1 The evolution of the seismic zone maps\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOver the last 85 years, several attempts were made by various individuals, international organizations and The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) to divide the landscape of India into seismic zones with adequate provisions for timely revision regarding the same.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eThe earliest attempt was made in 1935 by the Geological Survey of India (GSI) after the Bihar-Nepal earthquake (1934) of magnitude 8.4 on the Richter Scale.\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eIn a paper published in 1956\u0026nbsp;\u003ca href=\"#1v1yuxt\"\u003e(Tandon, 1956)\u003c/a\u003e, researchers devised a zoning map consisting of Three zones: Severe, Light, and Minor hazards.\u0026nbsp;\u003ca href=\"#1v1yuxt\"\u003e(Tandon, 1956)\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eThen in 1962, BIS published the first official seismic zonation map of India in I.S. 1893:1962 (first edition of I.S. 1983), which marked the country into seven zones ranging from 0 (no damage) to VI (extensive damage), based on earthquake epicentres and isoseismal map published by GSI in 1935.\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eIn 1966, the zones were restructured in terms of area change in the first revision of IS 1893, i.e., I.S. 1893:1996. In 1967, post-Koyna earthquake, seismic zonation was majorly modified as the quake struck in the Deccan Plateau before the event was assigned to zone 0. After the event, zone 0 was removed, and zones V and VI were combined. Eventually, five zones were introduced, I to V, based on the MMI scale in the I.S. 1893:1970 edition.\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eThen in the fifth edition of the code, I.S. 1893:1985, the zones were reoriented based on past earthquakes, regional tectonic features and technological advancements.\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eLater in 1999, through Global Seismic Hazard Assessment Program (GSHAP), a map was developed representing hazard levels in PGA, with a 10% exceedance in 50 years\u0026nbsp;\u003ca href=\"#1v1yuxt\"\u003e(Tandon, 1956)\u003c/a\u003e. Hence, India was divided into four zones: II, III, IV and V, based on PGA values of 0.1g, 0.2g, 0.25g and 0.4g, respectively\u0026nbsp;\u003ca href=\"#28h4qwu\"\u003e(Zhang et al., 1999)\u003c/a\u003e. The changes proposed in the 1999 research paper\u0026nbsp;\u003ca href=\"#28h4qwu\"\u003e(Zhang et al., 1999)\u003c/a\u003e were considered in the IS 1893(Part I): 2002, and India was divided into four zones by combining zones I and II. Also, several adjustments took places, such as assigning Latur to zone III, modification in Peninsular India and more. The version of the seismic zone map in the IS 1893(Part 1): 2002 is the latest one in India, an improvement over the 1970 version.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e"},{"header":"4. Impediments To A Safe Infrastructural Ecosystem","content":"\u003cdiv id=\"Sec13\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e4.1 Incompliance with The Bye-laws\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn May 2006, the Government of India set up a special committee named \"Tejinder Khanna Committee of Experts\" to formulate a report on rising levels of unauthorized construction in Delhi-NCR. The result revealed that around 80% of the structures are not compliant with the Building and Development Control Regulations. This highlights an issue that has been constant trouble for our country for decades. \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e(\u003c/span\u003eKhanna, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR31\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2006\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e)\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTalking about the Republic Day earthquake in Bhuj (2001), the building design and general infrastructure of the practices followed by design engineers, masons, architects and other people were revealed. The BIS's compliance to building by-laws was one of the major issues reported by the engineers involved in post-seismic reconnaissance initiatives by the EERI Reconnaissance Team in 2001 \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e(\u003c/span\u003eJain \u0026amp; Murty et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR23\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2001\u003c/span\u003e). Not only in this case, but even in Latur (1993) and Sikkim (2011), similar issues were noted by the engineers in post-disaster assessment reports like incompliance with the bye-laws, and involvement of an unskilled workforce, among other factors. It has been over three decades since such problems persist in our system. \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e(\u003c/span\u003eDutta et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR12\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2015\u003c/span\u003e)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec14\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e4.2 Irregular Revision of Codes\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eGoing through the development procedure of the building codes, as mentioned in the previous sections \u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;\u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e3.2 History of Development of Indian Building Codes\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e3.3 Seismic Zonation\u003c/span\u003e, it is evident that the codes were revised at irregular intervals of time. Sadly, this situation persists today. Not every building code is updated and revised as per the advances in science and technology. For example, the latest revision of IS 1893, \"Criteria for Earthquake Resistant Design of Structures\", came out in 2016, around fourteen years after the 2002 revision. Several earthquakes struck the nation between those fourteen years, but no lessons were learnt, which is evident from the earthquake site reconnaissance studies. It has been six years since 2016, but no further revisions of the codes have been made available.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe BIS codes, in some cases, took approximately 5 to 10 years to get revised. These infrequent revisions lead to a lag between the guidelines in India and the updated state of practice on a global scale. Moreover, such a knowledge gap might make building codes irrelevant from a modern construction point of view.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec15\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e4.3 Issues with The Advancement in The Material Industry\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eDue to the fast-paced growth of the industries and environmental concerns, there is a revolution in the materials industry. New materials such as hollow concrete blocks, fly ash bricks, etcetera is being introduced into the market, thus significantly transforming the building industry in India.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAlso, materials like concrete and steel are available in wide varieties and are used in construction. However, our system does not have any provisions and regulations for the applications of such materials, as structural or non-structural systems are pretty concerning and alarming. Generally, these materials are used in the structures wholly at the discretion of the design engineer or architect, sometimes referring to foreign codes, giving rise to failures \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e(Kumar, 2016)\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMoreover, several essential parameters are not considered during the material testing process and are not specified in the codes, although these parameters play a significant role in providing stability. For instance, cement testing parameters such as specific gravity, normal consistency, and compatibility with admixtures and plasticizers for individual cement components are given; however, detailed results for the properties of mixtures made of individual components are not specified. Such testing parameters should be developed after proper research.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec16\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e4.4 Material Quality Control \u0026amp; Checks\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cul\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eFurther, there are no systems to verify that the guidelines given by the BIS, both in design and in materials utilized, are followed appropriately before construction. The designer is responsible for ensuring safety, and only when a failure occurs is the design process investigated and the materials evaluated.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eOn-site manipulations are also one the troublesome issues. In some situations, the contractor handling the construction site's ground operations influences the systematic approval process through unfair means. The quality control parameters often comply with the necessary standards on paper and are tested only in the wake of a severe disaster.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003c/ul\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"5. Socio-political Factors Amplifying Earthquake Damage","content":"\u003cp\u003eEarthquakes are a natural phenomenon far beyond human potential to control these events at our will. We must accept that these natural calamities could ruin our day-to-day comfort in a few seconds. However, that does not mean we are at the mercy of these unpredictable occurrences. Since the rise of the scientific community around 200 years ago, a lot has been done to mitigate or significantly assess and reduce the chances of a massively destructive event that could render millions of people homeless and impede any functional society's growth and development. Some severe social and political hurdles have been a constant itch in acquiring a smooth workflow and ensuring a safe and robust architecture in our surroundings. Below are some of the issues that plague our institutional and professional efficiency in day-to-day operations:\u003c/p\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec18\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e5.1 Institutional Inefficiencies\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe consequences of structural failures in developing countries are far-reaching and complex, ranging from social to economic loss. When faced by such nations, these situations make it difficult for them to return to normalcy. Hence, the presence of a sound forensic and civil engineering ecosystem within the nation is a boon for its system.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEven though many educational institutions in our country are at par with developed countries' standards, the number of facilities for research and development is not adequate to support a large population. Hence the demand of our construction industry is not met by a skilled set of workers. It is often witnessed in many institutions around our country. Due to a relatively healthy sum of money and overall opportunities offered to the engineering graduates abroad, it becomes an unavoidable option to consider leaving the country for a better quality of living on an overall basis. Even those who decide to stay back are often pulled by a lucrative pay package offered by the sectors such as finance, advertising, marketing, information technology and more. As a result, private institutions and universities have sprouted up, dispensing degrees without assuring the needed quality.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAnother critical reason is that owing to improvements in each field of speciality, a student's knowledge obtained from a bachelor's or even master's degree is sometimes insufficient for immediate professional practice.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec19\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e5.2 Issues with The Ground Level Operation\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe difference and communication barrier between literate and illiterate workers is a crucial challenge with human resources in India, particularly in the construction sector. While a literate worker understands 'why it is to be done' but is frequently incapable of doing it himself. An illiterate worker understands 'how it is to be done,' often with the sole purpose of completing a task but has no idea of why it is to be done or the consequences of not following the correct method.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFurthermore, design engineers provide preliminary designs that are difficult to manufacture, fabricate, or tricky to erect, while site technicians strive to fulfil the goal, frequently with devastating results.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec20\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e5.3 Violation of the Idea of Sustainable Development\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eDr Anil P Joshi, the founder of the Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conservation Organisation (HESCO), pointed out in an article/interview that large-scale construction practices are feasible in urban areas. However, carrying out such practices with huge machinery in rural and vulnerable areas, specifically in ecologically sensitive zones like the Himalayas, is not recommended. That is because these ventures can disrupt the region's ecology and render this area to increased damage when natural calamities like earthquakes and flash floods, which are inevitable, occur in the future \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e(\u003c/span\u003eSharma, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR49\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e)\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFor instance, the state of Uttarakhand is surrounded by several active fault systems that together form the Himalayas, the Main Boundary Thrust (MBT) and the Main Frontal Thrust (MFT) being the major ones. Hence, any parallel slippage between them could lead to a significant seismic sequence in North India. The high seismic risk susceptibility of the state of Uttarakhand can be highlighted because 13 of its districts were listed under 100 per cent hypersensitive seismic zones. Furthermore, 9 of them are dominated by highly hilly terrain, while five districts are in the lower hilly terrain in the state. Primarily, in the region of Uttarakhand, structures were constructed through materials available at the local level, like a variety of timbers and stones. However, over time and alongside the pace of development, locals adopted advanced methods and materials for construction. But this process did not go along with the capacity building of the stakeholders, majorly the masons and labourers, leading to an increase in vulnerability to the structures. According to the Vulnerability Atlas of India, approximately 56 per cent of the houses in the state are constructed using materials like mud, un-burnt bricks and stone walls, which depicts the quality of the building stock in the region, which is one of the most seismically active zones in India \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e(USDMA, 2021)\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eDespite the inherent vulnerability of hill locations to various calamities, many hill stations are created and later developed as critical urban centres in hill regions, resulting in high population density. Shillong, Mussoorie, Nainital, Dalhousie, Manali, Srinagar, Shimla, and Itanagar are just a few significant tourist destinations and fast-growing hill towns under intense development pressure in the current climate. Hill communities are usually found in environmentally vulnerable areas \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e(Menon, Kapoor, \u0026amp; Kohli, 2009)\u003c/span\u003e. Major urban towns in the Himalayan ranges, namely Shimla, Mussoorie, Srinagar and Manali, do not have particular guidelines or provisions for slope considerations while building construction in these areas. Although the Indian Standards for building design have some guidelines and standards for safe construction, implementing these rules is costly. It makes the local builders and residents cut the costs and adopt less expensive methods but are highly susceptible to damage if some calamity arises. \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e(\u003c/span\u003eKumar, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR33\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e)\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eVarious issues concerning the safety of building stock in hill towns continue to exist and have been exacerbated due to massive development on the steep and dangerous slopes, improper or insufficient site development and stabilization, irregular drainage pattern, and dilapidated housing stock. \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e(Pushplata and Kumar, 2012)\u003c/span\u003e. Due to inadequate compliance and enforcement of various construction regulations, most completed or constructed structures do not adhere to safety requirements against natural hazards. They are vulnerable to significant damage from any natural disaster \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e(\u003c/span\u003eKumar and Pushplata, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR34\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2015\u003c/span\u003e a).\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"6. Case Studies","content":"\u003cp\u003eThe Indian landscape has been rocked by numerous moderate to high seismic sequences in the past. Owing to the subduction of the Indian plate into the Eurasian plate at the rate of 50\u0026ndash;60 mm/year, several regions of our country come under the list of highly seismic-prone areas. Apart from this, numerous other fault lines in the interiors of the country have been a risk factor for other regions.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eKeeping this in mind, we present a case study of three of the most significant seismic sequences which disrupted the Indian landscape and caused a widespread socio-economic loss. We have considered the Uttarkashi Earthquake of 1991, the Bhuj Earthquake of 2001 and finally the Sikkim Earthquake of 2011, spanning approximately two decades, which would lay down the pattern of initiatives and development that took place over that period, signifying the seriousness in the system regarding earthquake management. These studies will also shed light on the building typologies present in those regions and their associated structural failures during seismic occurrences.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec22\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e6.1 Bhuj earthquake (2001)\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eOne of the most devastating seismic activities witnessed by the Indian Subcontinent was the earthquake in Bhuj on Republic Day, January 26 2001, at 08:46:00 (Indian Standard Time). The epicentre was located at 23.36\u003csup\u003eo\u003c/sup\u003e North and 70.34\u003csup\u003eo\u003c/sup\u003e East with a focal depth of 16 km (10 mi), approximately 9 km south-southwest of Chobari Village in the Kutch district in Gujarat, India. As recorded by the USGS, the moment magnitude was 7.9 with an Intensity X (extreme) on the Modified Mercalli Index (MMI).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOfficial site reconnaissance carried out by the EEFIT organization reports more than 20,000 casualties, over 167,000 people got injured, and more than 1,000,000 structures were affected, including bridges, R.C. buildings, temples, and stone masonry structures, small/large block masonry structures and more. The total economic loss was estimated at around 5\u0026nbsp;billion USD.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eExtensive building damage was observed on ground surveys carried out by the researchers. Extensive damage was observed in both the old non-engineered structures as well as in the newer engineered structures. In the Kutch region, for instance, extensive structural damage was observed owing to various factors like the use of random-rubble masonry practises, use of huge blocks of stones (25cm x 40cm x 60cm) with low grade/strength mortar, separation of thick masonry of roughly 40-60cm in two distinct wythes and more \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e(Murty et al., 2001)\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOn a broader scale, damage to both the load-bearing and framed structures was seen. In the on-site survey, the reasons encountered for load-bearing structures were a) Unsymmetrical building design, (b) Insufficient gap between 2 or more buildings, (c) Absence of connecting band in structural elements, and (d) No through stone provision.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFramed structures, even at a distance of 200\u0026ndash;300 km from the epicentre, suffered significant damage, reasons for which were a) Violation/ noncompliance to codal provisions, (b) Lack of proper detailing, (c) Short column effect, (d) Soft story effect, (e) Poor artistry, (f) Appendage effect and more \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e(\u003c/span\u003eBokey \u0026amp; Pajgade, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR7\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2004\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e)\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEven in Ahmedabad, about 250 km from the epicentre, several multi-storeyed buildings suffered total collapse. Upon analysis, it was found that these buildings were built unsymmetrically, with heavy mass concentration at the top of the structure and insufficient footing size. Other everyday observations include (a) Improper detailing at beam-column joint, (b) Discontinuous bars, (c) Absence of lateral ties, and (d) Insufficient lap length provided bars in columns and beams \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e(Murty et al., 2001)\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThrowing light on the geotechnical aspects of the Bhuj earthquake, widespread liquefaction was observed. In the Kachchh field, liquefaction was observed over a wide area. Sand boiling due to soil liquefaction was observed over large areas, with salt crusting resulting from drying. It is anticipated in the Rann of Kachchh due to saltwater near the ground level.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMany civil engineering facilities in the Kachchh area and the Navalakhi port in the Saurashtra region were damaged by liquefaction. The Bhuj earthquake revealed some fascinating details about the efficiency of bridges built on liquefied soil foundations. The Bhachau-Vondh bridge location, in particular, was fascinating, with four bridges of various ages and types of design. Once the pillars had liquefied, the superstructure stiffness of the bridges tended to establish the possible cause of the collapse. The piers of the arch bridge were vulnerable to unequal settling. In contrast, the piers of a more recent plate girder bridge were vulnerable to torsion, with piers revolving along the bridge's longitudinal axis \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e(\u003c/span\u003eMadabhushi \u0026amp; Haigh, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR37\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2005\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e)\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHigher approach embankments in the current highway bridge seem to have caused large lateral forces on the bridge decks. The abutments could not withstand these large lateral forces until the base soil had liquefied. During this earthquake, the new bridge at Surajbari offered an excellent example of soil-structure interaction, with the base soil involved in the movements experienced by the bridge piers and decks.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec23\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e6.2 Sikkim earthquake (2011)\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eOn September 18 2011, Sikkim was struck by a strong earthquake of magnitude 6.9 M\u003csub\u003ew\u003c/sub\u003e which caused several damages, including structural damage and loss of lives. The peak ground acceleration, PGA, was recorded at about 0.15g. The tremble was followed by three main aftershocks of more than 4.2 M\u003csub\u003ew\u003c/sub\u003e magnitudes, each of which could damage the URM with weak tensile and shear strength. The maximum intensity of ground shaking in the region was estimated to be VI\u0026thinsp;+\u0026thinsp;on the MSK scale. An approximate economic loss of \u003cspan\u003e$\u003c/span\u003e14\u0026nbsp;billion was calculated in the disaster.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMost structures observed in Sikkim primarily fall under masonry (brick, block and stone), RCC and wooden building categories. The buildings are observed to have flat or sloping roofs of different materials, RCC, wood, etcetera. In general, government buildings suffered more damage as compared to their private counterparts. Also, more damage was observed in the newer structures compared to the older ones. Various types of damage patterns were observed after the earthquake, (a) collapse due to ground shaking amplification and lateral spreading, (b) pounding of buildings, (c) collapse due to out-of-plane rotation, (d) generation of structural cracks, (e) plastic hinge formation \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e(\u003c/span\u003eDutta et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR12\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2015\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSikkim lies in the main boundary thrust(MBT) and main central thrust(MCT), collectively known as main thrust faults, due to which several earthquakes have struck the same region. One such quake of magnitude 5.7 M\u003csub\u003ew\u003c/sub\u003e occurred in 2006, which incurred some damage to the structures such as the URM building and infill walls, upon which the 2011 quake caused the other impact \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e(\u003c/span\u003eKaushik et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR30\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2006\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere were some instances where the buildings were not damaged, including both engineered and non-engineered ones\u0026mdash;the sound bearing capacity of the ground upon which the building was built. Also, the structures made from locally available materials such as timber and bamboo, which have a better shock-absorbing capacity, performed well although non-engineered \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e(\u003c/span\u003eDMMC Uttarakhand, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR11\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2012\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e)\u003c/span\u003e. The structures/portions retrofitted before the earthquake did not damage or suffered negligible damage.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWe can conclude that bye-laws were not adhered to, and there is an urgent need to improve and implement techno-legal guidelines. Apart from that, soft or open ground stories should be avoided. Retrofitting measures through bracing and intense beams may be adopted to arrest the problem of plastic hinges. Failures such as pounding can be avoided by providing the minimum necessary distance depending on the height of the adjacent buildings. Ground improvement before the construction of buildings should be a significant concern, especially in the hilly areas, as they cause a slope failure. Also, joints could be strengthened to avoid out-of-plane rotation. Structures could be made out of wood and bamboo as they provide lightweight roofing. In general, it can be seen that the traditional structures performed well; however, they are still not recognized under the building codes provided by the BIS. The experts should research the viability of traditional structures as they cost very little compared to the RCC buildings.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec24\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e6.3 Uttarkashi earthquake (1991)\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eAn earthquake struck the Garhwal Himalayas in northern India on October 20, 1991, around 2:53 a.m. local time. The earthquake produced severe ground shakings in the Uttarakhand districts of Uttarkashi, Tehri, and Chamoli. According to official reports, 307,000 people were affected in 1,294 communities, with a death count of 768 people and 5,066 wounded. The USGS recorded a surface wave of magnitude 7.1 M\u003csub\u003ew\u003c/sub\u003e. The peak ground acceleration was measured to be 0.30 g. A total of 42,400 homes were damaged during the quake. The loss caused by the disaster was estimated to be around \u003cspan\u003e$\u003c/span\u003e60\u0026nbsp;million. \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e(\u003c/span\u003eCotton et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR8\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1996\u003c/span\u003e)\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eUttarkashi, one of the most earthquake-prone regions in the country, is located in the significant Alpine Himalayan belt, one of the world's most seismic-prone stretches. Seismic activity in the belt is attributed to the movement of the Indian plate in the north direction, at a rate of 0.05\u0026ndash;0.06 m per year against the Tibetan Eurasian platform block \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e(\u003c/span\u003eDewey and Bird, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR10\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1970\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e)\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e(\u003c/span\u003eMolnar and Tapponnier, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR41\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1975\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e)\u003c/span\u003e, which deforms rocks and piles them in order to build the Upper Himalayas. In addition to many minor faults from the visible tectonic structures, two major thrusts tend from the Northwest to the South East. The shaking intensity was mild, and a variation in intensity was observed over the whole region. In Budhakedar, Krishanpur, Maneri, Uttarkashi, Mahinanda and Bhatwari, the maximum intensity was VIII. The MMI VII quake was in Tehri, Ghansyali and Gangotri. Other reports suggest that the MMI VII also shook Pauri, Karnaprayag and Gopeshwar. India's seismic code categorizes the country into five seismic zones (I to V). Uttarkashi is in zone IV, whereas Tehri and Chamoli are in zone V. According to the seismic zone map of our country, the anticipated MMI for zones I to V is V (or less), VI, VII, VIII, and IX (above), respectively. Hence, it can be inferred that an earthquake of design level struck Uttarkashi and its environs \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e(\u003c/span\u003eJain and Singh et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR26\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1992\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere was severe damage to rural dwellings, which comprise random rubble masonry supported by a heavy roof. Most private structures and former state properties were built without following the seismic provisions. Uttarkashi has three and four floors of framed, damaged reinforced concrete (R.C.) structures. In a two-storey post office building in Uttarkashi, the shear cracks were produced in the first columns, erected by engineers who worked in the post and telegraph departments from 1985\u0026ndash;1986. The powerful floor beams in the frame obliged them to enter the columns of the ground level. Random rubble stone masonry was implemented to construct the retaining walls in the area. A decent number of collapses of such walls were observed in the site inspection. This collapse led to the failure of embankments as the walls were designed similarly \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e(\u003c/span\u003eJain and Singh et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR26\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1992\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSlopes, retaining walls, and bridges failed, causing significant damage to the area's roads. Due to many landslides and the collapse of a central bridge, the Uttarkashi-Harsil-Nelong Road link was shut down for many days. The Uttarkashi-Lumgaon connection was lost due to the collapse of a recess on the route to the Kishanpur Bridge. On the Uttarkashi-Harsil route, many large landslides occurred, particularly on a 42-kilometre section between Uttarkashi and Bhatwari. The stretch is said to be the shakiest part of the body. While landslides are prevalent along this road during wet seasons, several of the landslides produced by the earthquake were completely new \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e(\u003c/span\u003eJain and Singh et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR26\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1992\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Gawana Bridge is a bridge built in 1974, covering 56.0 m. It is located in the direction of Maneri, 6 km. The whole bridge descended from the abutments and fell into the river, cutting the entire region beyond Uttarkashi off. The damage was caused by inadequate rooms and anchor bolts and the lack of acceptable methods to prevent the distance from coming off the supports. According to the Indian seismic codes in those times, the bridges in zone IV should be designed to take the seismic design force from 0.05g to 0.075g, significantly less than the recorded PGA. This seismic occurrence somewhat depicted that the parameter was inadequate \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e(\u003c/span\u003eJain and Singh et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR26\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1992\u003c/span\u003e). This implies that similar parameters are mentioned in the codes but are irrelevant from the on-ground perspective.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eApart from the damage incurred to the houses and residential buildings, the earthquake affected lifeline facilities and other systems. The triggered landslides damaged several electric and telephone poles, leading to total electricity loss and a ten-day communication cut-off. This led to disruption in the communication between the dam and the powerhouse, leading to no electricity generation. \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e(\u003c/span\u003eJain and Singh et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR26\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1992\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIndeed, we cannot mitigate the damages caused by the seismic occurrences as these phenomena are under the order of nature. However, with proper planning and implementation of effective strategies by the government of any country, we can scale down the extent of damage caused to our society. Even with the advancements in the scientific community, the field of earthquake engineering needs inputs from post-earthquake occurrences to learn about the response of structures to seismic waves, the local geology of a region and more. When these post-event learnings are clubbed with technological advances, robust literature encompassing \u003cem\u003erelevant\u003c/em\u003e knowledge for better structural response could be produced.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"7. Initiatives In The Earthquake Mitigation Industry","content":"\u003cp\u003eAs discussed above, the circle of influence in mitigating the disaster is quite limited. In that, the role of higher education institutes cannot be overlooked. With a comprehensive and strict curriculum encompassing the up-to-date study materials, state-of-art laboratories, an adequate number of instruments to carry out research, mass awareness campaigns organized by qualified teachers for students and general masses regarding the first response in the wake of a disaster, the disaster can be mitigated to a great degree. These institutes have highly skilled professionals whose competence is highly utilized when laying down the frameworks of the building codes in any country.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHowever, with the rise of engineering colleges in our country, an ever-increasing number of students are getting degrees in civil engineering without adequate knowledge to practice in the real world. Our government has glanced over this issue, but no concrete steps have been taken. The role of scientific and technological R\u0026amp;D cannot be taken lightly as these initiatives ensure safe building ecosystems and help stay miles from a catastrophe.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eKeeping these things in mind, let us look at some advances in the previous decades that aimed to strengthen our legal and institutional frameworks for dealing with earthquake disasters. Post this, some critical points and suggestions need to be kept in mind while aiming to better the system will also be discussed.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec26\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e7.1 Capacity Building and Reforms in The Education System\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eTalking about the historical involvement of premier educational institutes in India, it has been observed that some institutes have emerged as a pioneer that has worked in-depth in the field of earthquake engineering as they have published the majority of papers and handouts as compared to any other institute in the country. To site an example, among many seminars conducted by these educational institutes, IIT Guwahati organized a three-day workshop led by Prof. C.V.R. Murty for professional engineers on \"Seismic Design of Reinforced Concrete Buildings\". This was possible because the institutes were backed with funds by various other organizations like CSIR (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research), Ministry of Surface Transport (MOST), Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority (GSDMA) and Research Design and Standards Organization (RSDO). So more funds were invested in R\u0026amp;D \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e(\u003c/span\u003eJain, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR20\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2016\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e)\u003c/span\u003e. Such fund allocation must be done to support R\u0026amp;D in other institutes so that earthquake engineering in India can be up-to-date.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec27\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e7.1.1 Two Major Bodies for Earthquake Education and Awareness Dissemination\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec28\" class=\"Section4\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e7.1.1.1 National Information Centre of Earthquake Engineering (NICEE)\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"BlockQuote\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNICEE (The National Information Centre of Earthquake Engineering), at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT Kanpur), was established in 1999. Its primary objective was to collect and maintain earthquake engineering information resources and publications and make them available to interested users, conducting other outreach activities to help mitigate earthquake disasters. IIT Kanpur features a world-class infrastructure and central library and an exceptional degree of seismic engineering activity. The Centre is run so that infrastructure construction and administration expenditures are kept to a minimum.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEven though it is situated within IIT Kanpur, NICEE is a national resource. Various colleagues from around the nation (and beyond) lead the Centre's varied activities. A National Advisory Committee oversees the Centre made up of members from various institutions, companies, and individuals who meet yearly to assess the Centre's operations and give direction and advice.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAn Advisory Committee consisting of members across multiple institutions, companies, and individuals oversees the Centre's operations. Ar. Balbir Verma of Balbir Verma \u0026amp; Associates in New Delhi chairs the Committee. The Committee oversees the Center's operations and provides policy and guidelines advice. The primary objectives of NICEE are as follows:\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003col\u003e \u003cspan\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eKeeping track of the availability of new earthquake engineering papers and other information.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003c/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eTo build and maintain a sound library of earthquake engineering publications and other information.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003c/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eTo educate interested professionals, researchers, and academics about the availability of the content as mentioned earlier at IITK, and\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003c/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eTo make the content available to anyone interested in it as soon as possible \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e(Annual Report, NICEE. n.d.)\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003c/span\u003e \u003c/ol\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"BlockQuote\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eSeveral organizations and individuals, including the Multidisciplinary Centre for Earthquake Engineering Research (MCEER) in Buffalo (USA), the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) in the USA, the New Zealand National Society for Earthquake Engineering (NZSEE), and the late Professor George Housner of the California Institute of Technology, provided publications or other resources as gifts in the early days.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAnalyzing the sustained efforts by the team of NICEE at IIT Kanpur, their concern for a seismic-resistant building environment is highly evident. Since its inception, they have continuously participated in capacity-building initiatives, including organizing quizzes for 11th and 12th standards, workshops and interactive programs for undergraduate and graduate students, and seminars and conclaves for working professionals and architecture and civil engineering professors. Such sustained efforts are highly appreciated. Further, more such societies and professional bodies, which leverage the power of collaboration and innovation, should come up, aiming to cover the vast educational institutes producing an ever-increasing mass of engineering graduates.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec29\" class=\"Section4\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e7.1.1.2 National Programme on Earthquake Engineering Education (NPEEE)\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"BlockQuote\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), during 2003\u0026ndash;2007, provided grants to the National Programme on Earthquake Engineering Education (NPEEE), coordinated by the seven IITs and the IISc Bangalore, with IIT Kanpur governing the operations.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFollowing several significant talks and meetings about the changes to be made in the aftermath of the Bhuj earthquake in 2001, it was realized that academic institutions needed to create capability in earthquake engineering. As a result, a proposal for a National Programme on Earthquake Engineering Education (NPEEE) was created. The seven IITs and the IISc planned to establish a partnership to carry out the job as resource institutions. The proposal was sent to other involved Ministries and Departments for input and suggestions by the MHRD.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe MHRD's Standing Finance Committee approved the project in August 2002, and the Ministry issued the first funding for NPEEE in March 2003. The project ran until March 2007, when it came to a close with a workshop at IIT Delhi on January 5, 2007, to look back and assess the progress made over the previous four years.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSeveral initiatives were taken under the programme. Faculty training and curricula development across all the colleges and universities of engineering and architecture were some of the focus areas. Some of the critical features of NPEEE included short- and long-term training sessions for interested faculty from the colleges, library and laboratory support in terms of facilities development, international collaborations and many more. According to a survey conducted in December 2005, it was found that the programme was successful as the results reflected the satisfaction in the education sector. The programme completed most of the objectives and, in some cases, exceeded the proposed objective. The management part was under the National Committee on Earthquake Engineering Education (NCEEE), and the implementation part was carried out by the Programme Implementation Committee (PIC). The programme's success is attributed to the administrative system and unbiased policies keeping in mind that private and public institutes were under the same umbrella.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe programme was implemented until 2007 and gave the directions for proper implementation and addition of earthquake engineering in undergraduate and postgraduate curricula. As mentioned in the documents, it laid down the milestone for the next 10 to 20 years. The initiative was commendable, keeping in mind that those suggestions were applicable in the system in that period \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e(Activities, NICEE. n.d.)\u003c/span\u003e. However, during the current times, when the industry has been developed and better technology is available, those reforms are on their own not sufficient for implementation. It is crucial to take similar initiatives in the current time so that the foundation can be laid for future times based on current knowledge.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec30\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e7.2 Reforms in The Architecture Institutes\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eSince architecture plays an essential role in the survival of a structure during any seismic activity, it was found that some steps should be taken so that architects can efficiently play the role of building conceptualization. The importance of skilled architects can be backed by the fact that if a building is framed efficiently with an exemplary configuration, the structure acquires a certain amount of stability and safety irrespective of the engineer's quality.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eNPEEE played an equally important role for the architecture profession as it did for engineering. Several workshops were carried out highlighting the inclusion of earthquake-resistant architecture in the curriculum and training of the faculties. Moreover, NPEEE led the complementary distribution of IITK-BMTPC Earthquake Tips amongst the architect community in India and was included in the Indian Institute of Architects (IIA) inventory. A couple of projects were taken forward in collaboration with Prof. Andrew Charleson of Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. One of them was carried out by Prof. C.V.R. Murty of IITK, in which both developed a presentation covering the architecture curriculum, which was circulated on a large scale.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAnother notable NPEEE-sponsored project was developing an Indian version of the RESIST software by Prof. Charleson. The main aim was to improve the knowledge and visualization related to the building design in terms of seismic and wind load. The software was made available to architecture colleges and universities.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Annual Workshop Series at IITK was started in the year 2008 by the NICEE. Currently, 12 such workshops have been organized, with 2019 being the recent one. Several hundred undergraduate students from various institutes participated in such workshops stimulating curious minds. Also, NICEE has participated in the National Association of Students of Architecture (NASA) Conventions, a national-level conference for architecture students to exchange their knowledge and experience.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"8. Engineers Bill","content":"\u003cp\u003eQuoting the headline of a prominent newspaper, ' Like C.A.s, engineers may have to register ', the author-editor talks about the upcoming Engineers Bill. Following this initiative by the MHRD, upon a constant interest shown by the Engineering Council of India (ECI), the practising engineers would have to register themselves under the frameworks laid down by the ECI \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e(\u003c/span\u003eMukul A., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR42\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2009\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e)\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe MHRD took this step to regulate an industry that holds immense importance to the states and individuals. The cabinet had a view; if this initiative were realized successfully, it would \"lead to public accountability and innovation in that profession.\"\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eA couple of bodies exist in the country, such as the Institution of Engineers in India(IEI) and the Engineering Council of India(ECI). However, no such law can govern them under a single umbrella. All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) is responsible for imparting quality technical education and regulating norms and standards in education. The quality of education has been degraded over time. Most of the institutions out of \u003cem\u003e10,396\u003c/em\u003e in the country are producing non-professional and incompetent graduates \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e(Staff Reporter, The Hindu 2020)\u003c/span\u003e. About 85% of the graduates lack the quality and standard of knowledge required while practising. About 27% of the industrial sector can be traced back to the Indian engineering industry.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe current scenario for engineers in India is quite different compared to other professions. Most professions have a governing body and laws to check on the members and ensure proper regulation of code and conduct and ethics of operation among them. Some of these statutory bodies are the Medical Council of India (MCI), the Council of Architects (CoA), The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), etcetera for keeping checks on medical doctors, architects, chartered accountants, respectively. However, no such governing framework exists on the national level for engineers. The system lacks a mechanism that can ensure the credibility of an engineer, hence making the profession unorganized. Due to conflicts in opinion and multiple other administrative problems in formulating this bill, it has still not been passed.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec32\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e8.1 History of Development\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe need for a regulatory framework was felt long back when special committees were formed to bring this bill to life. In 1970, the Planning Commission's Barve Committee emphasized the need to realize two essential objectives - (a) Statutory Recognition of the Profession of Engineering and (b) Engineer Registration - for the proper growth and development of the country's engineering profession.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn October 2000, an attempt was made to bring all professional bodies together. During a conference of many professional engineering organizations in Delhi, it was determined that engineers should be registered for regulation, and all Institutions would work collaboratively under the direction of IEI.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec33\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e8.2 Features of the Final Draft (September 2007)\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Engineers Bill, 2007 would put forward the roadmap for the council to regulate the practices carried out by the engineers in India. According to the bill:\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cul\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eIt would become compulsory for practising engineers to get themselves registered. This registration process will make them accountable and responsible for their conduct and regulate their practice. Moreover, it could lead to the de-licensing of that member in violation of the Code of Conduct.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Act aims to ensure that all the engineering-related activities are carried out by a competent and qualified member, which could lead to sustainable development and ensure the safety of people.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eAfter several discussions in the initial phase, the stakeholders agreed that there would not be a prerequisite of experience for the registration.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe registered member can use the title of engineer, 'Er' with their name.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe licensing period will be five years, and the renewal will be based on the member's experience gained in the last five years.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis experience can be measured in terms of Continuous Professional Development (CPD) level, which will be achieved by participating in various industry-based events and activities, such as attending seminars and conferences, publishing papers, etcetera. The concept of CPD will push the engineers to keep them up to date with the current state of the art and further improve the quality on a broader scale.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003c/ul\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis overall system would significantly impact the engineers in the country as they will get recognition in the professional field. Another takeaway of this bill would be that the engineers would have a platform and channel to convey their concerns and raise their voices.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec34\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e8.3 Current Scenario\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Engineers' Bill proposal has been an exciting and crucial step taken by the Institution of Engineers in India (IEI) to systematize practising engineers and engineering as a profession under a common rule of law. However, 11 years later, it still exists in files of offices and several articles on the internet.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe absence of a regulatory system, such as a practice licence, has long been addressed by various authors. \"There is no licensing system in the country for structural engineers, and any person with a degree in Civil Engineering can generally practice as one. In a few cities, the structural engineers' licences are issued by local authorities based on qualifications and years of experience. As a result, the customer has no way of ensuring that the engineer participating in the project is competent in general, and in seismic engineering in particular.\" \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e(\u003c/span\u003eJain, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR16\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2002\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e)\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn most countries, obtaining such a licence requires either a specific amount of experience under a peer, passing a qualifying examination, or both. Engineers and technicians are equally subject to these standards. A lack of a regulatory framework like this significantly contributes to widespread socio-economic loss in the wake of such disasters \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e(Kumar, 2016)\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAICTE formed a committee headed by M.S Ananth, former Director of IIT-Madras, to prepare the Engineers Bill. It was reported to be in the later stages of drafting. Hopefully, the bill will be passed in Parliament soon \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e(Staff Reporter, The Hindu 2020)\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"9. Discussions And Suggestions","content":"\u003cdiv id=\"Sec36\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e9.1 Seismic Zone Maps \u0026amp; Micro-zonation\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe National Seismic Zone Map depicts the seismic zones throughout the country on a big scale. Local differences in soil type and geology cannot be reflected at that size. As a result, for big projects like a dam or a nuclear power plant, the seismic hazard is assessed particularly for that location. In addition, metropolitan regions are micro-zoned for urban planning objectives. Seismic micro-zonation considers local differences in geology, soil profile, etcetera. A prerequisite of an effective zonation is necessary for achieving functional micro-zonation, which could help us understand different structure typologies present in the country and their vulnerabilities.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFor a country like India, with a wide variety of terrain and landscapes, such national level zonation is not a practical solution for minimizing damages caused by the failure of natural and artificial systems in earthquake disasters. Instead, micro-zoning of specific regions seems to be a better method, as mentioned in some papers published in 1968, 1984 \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e(\u003c/span\u003eBhatia et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR5\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1999\u003c/span\u003e) and \u003cspan citationid=\"CR5\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1999\u003c/span\u003e \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e(\u003c/span\u003eJain, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR17\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2007\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e)\u003c/span\u003e, which propose a division of the country into sixteen, twenty-four and eighty-six seismic zones respectively.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFurther, the micro-zonation and site-specific studies need to be carried out on a large scale under a systematic framework laid down by the Central Government. Currently, the state of knowledge in this field is fragmented; students and scholars carry out research and publish articles that do not have an immediate application on a national level. Hence, the government needs to promote research initiatives on a grander level and incentivize the process by providing grants and benefits that generate interest among the youth and scholars, ensuring mass participation.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe author also highlights the lack of competent and qualified professional architects and engineers who could authorize the construction process and provide necessary recommendations that precede safe and quality construction in such a geologically sensitive area.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAccording to NBC 2005 (Annexure G part III), habitation development in hill regions has significant environmental effects. To plan new settlements or develop growth strategies for existing settlements, a detailed environmental inventory/impact assessment is required. This assessment comprises geological investigations, slope analysis, soil, flora and fauna analysis, climatic inventories, vulnerability assessment to natural disasters, and aesthetic factors, cultural, architectural, and historical considerations. It also suggests that appropriate precautions be taken in planning and building in hilly areas to achieve catastrophe resistance against earthquakes, avalanches, flash floods, landslides, and other natural disasters \u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e(NBC, 2005)\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec37\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e9.2 Role of Institutions\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe institutions concerned with disaster mitigation and prevention come under two categories. The first acts before a disaster occur in preparation and preparedness, while the other is responsible for post-catastrophe mitigation strategies. The former aims to reduce \u0026amp; control the consequences of a future event using building codes and regulations and their enforcement on the ground level. This category includes various government agencies, institutes of higher education, and professional bodies of experts in a given field, such as civil engineering, architecture, etcetera.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMost of the articles and papers published by several remarkable institutions were published post some catastrophic events, and subsequently, lessons were taken from the incidents in seismic design and construction. Hence, our government should recognize the capabilities and weaknesses of our institutions and encourage them to carry out more such studies. This would create a solid institutional infrastructure that minimizes the losses incurred during a devastating earthquake.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere exists an issue with the way classroom teaching is conducted at the undergraduate level of education. The curriculum of U.G. courses of Civil Engineering tends to focus less on topics on and related to Earthquake Engineering. Even with the topics that are taught, the course material is not regularly updated according to the changes taking place in the industry. Moreover, a visible discord between classroom teaching and industrial practice is found in these courses. There are no practical on-site demonstrations of the concepts that have applications outside books. This creates a gap between the concepts delivered by the professor and the knowledge that the students grasp, which is highly understood and apparent.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOur education system might be producing engineers on a massive level. However, significantly fewer 'Practising Engineers' are being produced as they have all the concepts taught to them but lack the industrial experience which should have been provided to them during their studying years.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec38\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e9.3 Public Awareness\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eIt has been noticed that the general public is not well informed about the stages and intricacies that go into making a structure seismically safe. When such a situation persists, most of the built structures pose a risk to the safety and well-being of its dwellers. Talking about the Indian context, with such a vast population and a wide variety of structures built across its landscape, public awareness of building architecture's ethical and safe practices is crucial. This can be achieved by introducing a dedicated column in daily newspapers, circulating pamphlets and booklets from door to door so that this topic catches the attention of masses and becomes a point of conversation in everyday life. Moreover, people can be informed about the same through social media campaigns and dedicated workshops in the offices and workplaces of people. Generally, the masses perceive that the standards and the norms for proper building development are for the usual circumstances and hence start ignoring the same during the construction.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"10. Conclusion","content":"\u003cp\u003e \u003cul\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Indian Subcontinent is subjected to high seismic risk. This can be attributed to its geology, marked by the interaction of the Indo-Australian plate with the Eurasian plate. There is enough historical evidence which supports this statement.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eIt has been established from numerous post-earthquake reconnaissance studies that the majority of the loss, economic or human lives, has taken place due to the collapse of structures in the wake of seismic events.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe first seismic code for earthquake-resistant structures was formulated in 1962 after the seismic sequences in Mach (1931), Bihar-Nepal (1934), Quetta (1935) and Anjar (1956) in previous decades.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eGlancing back at the history of the development of the building codes, it has been observed that the procedure to update the seismic codes in our country is erratic. There is no particular time frame within which they are revised.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eIt has been observed that many issues need to be acknowledged and worked for at the level of education and research. There seems to be a smaller number of educational and research institutions in our country that can be utilized to carry out quality research in earthquake engineering. This issue can become a deterrent to the advancement of the structural engineering scenario in India.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eEngineering Institutes all over the country need advanced laboratories and technology that enable students and professors to conduct state-of-the-art research.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eUSDMA stated in 2021 that 13 of the districts in Uttarakhand are listed as 100 per cent hypersensitive seismic zones, while numerous other districts in highly hilly terrain are susceptible to seismic risks.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe long-awaited Engineer's Bill can potentially bring a change in the domain of earthquake engineering. According to the MHRD, a regulation in the industry can be brought by this bill as that would lead to public accountability. Registration of the practising engineers, renewal of the licence based on experience and de-licensing of those who violate the code of conduct are some of the key features that were proposed in the bill, drafted in September 2007.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eSeismic zonation and micro-zonation can solve the problem, as varying structure typologies is a better approach than having a similar building stock, depending upon the terrain and the seismic characteristic of the area. Moreover, institutions should be encouraged by the government to carry out research and development in the specified domain to achieve state-of-the-art technology. Alongside, public awareness is a key step as bringing the masses to light could decrease the malpractices while construction, thus, reducing the damage to the structure during a disaster.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003c/ul\u003e \u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Declarations","content":"\u003cp\u003eFunding\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe authors declare that no funds, grants, or other support were received during the preparation of this manuscript.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCompeting Interests\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAll authors certify that they have no financial or non-financial interests in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript, and that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity that has a financial or non-financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAuthor Contributions\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRuchir Kain performed the literature review and formed the framework of the study; Vedant Gupta edited and wrote the sections and contributed to the final analyses of the study. Amit Kumar Shrivastava supervised and commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"References","content":"\u003col start=\"1\" type=\"1\"\u003e\n \u003cli\u003e\u003cem\u003eActivities.\u003c/em\u003e National information centre of earthquake engineering - IIT-KANPUR-INDIA. (n.d.).\u003cbr\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003ca href=\"https://www.nicee.org/npeee/showpage.php?id=101\"\u003ehttps://www.nicee.org/npeee/showpage.php?id=101\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003e\u003cem\u003eAnnual Report.\u003c/em\u003e National Information Centre of Earthquake Engineering (NICEE) - IIT-Kanpur-INDIA. (n.d.).\u0026nbsp;\u003ca href=\"https://www.nicee.org/index.php\"\u003ehttps://www.nicee.org/index.php\u003c/a\u003e.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eAshwani, K., Pushplata (2012). Building regulations: a means of ensuring sustainable development in hill towns. 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Global seismic hazard assessment program (GSHAP) in continental Asia. -14\u0026nbsp;\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e"}],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":true,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"Delhi Technological University","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":false,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":false,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Seismic zone, building code, earthquake, engineer's bill, micro-zonation, earthquake engineering","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-1809160/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1809160/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eIndia has had a rich historical account of seismic occurrences. However, our response to such events in the past has not been much effective in mitigating the dangers to society. Non-Adherence to seismic codes, sporadic revision practices and asynchronous provisions regarding materials and advancements in the market were barriers to earthquake-resistant building practices. We did case studies for three major earthquakes in the last three decades. We observed a similar pattern of practices and damages across the three earthquake occurrences. It was evident that very little change in the operations was noticed in each case. Incompliance with guidelines, the involvement of an inexpert workforce in building projects, and a weak system of checks and inspections led to huge losses as witnessed. We can prevent the large-scale damages witnessed after the onset of seismic events by using correct scientific and engineering principles. Through the active interest of the government and state regulatory bodies and the introduction of strict legal guidelines, our country's building infrastructure could perform better in response to seismic waves. This study presents a comprehensive study of the issues associated with earthquake mitigation strategies in India. We have discussed the far-reaching rationales for the associated damage and disruption of the system due to such calamities. Further, the socio-political reasons for the weak legal infrastructure, a section on the much-hyped Engineers Bill and other practical discussions and suggestions have been presented in this study.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Seismic Damage in India and the Associated Reasons: A case study","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2022-07-01 14:41:45","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-1809160/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"ada42bb5-080b-4d6c-baa8-277bba45f54b","owner":[],"postedDate":"July 1st, 2022","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":13642392,"name":"Seismology"},{"id":13642393,"name":"Civil Engineering"},{"id":13642394,"name":"City Management and Urban Policy"},{"id":13642395,"name":"Public Administration"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2022-07-01T14:41:45+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2022-07-01 14:41:45","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-1809160","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-1809160","identity":"rs-1809160","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"7rjqhiLT3MXkJMwkYKINL","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}