Workshop on Earthquake Risk Reduction in Palestine: A Training Workshop on Seismic Building Design

On Tuesday 9 August, in cooperation with An-Najah’s Urban Planning and Disaster Risk Reduction Center (UPDRRC) and the Engineers Union, held a training workshop on seismic building design as part of the Earthquake Risk Mitigation Project in Palestine (SASPARM-FP7).

The workshop opened with a welcoming speech by Engineer Abdelhakim Johari, Vice President for Local Governance and Infrastructure in the Global Communities, a member of the Nablus Engineers Union, and researcher at UPDRRC at An-Najah. Mr. Johari stressed the importance of the workshop and the seismic building code requirements. He also talked about the various activities undertaken in the different cities as part of the SASPARM project, led by An-Najah with European partners.

Dr. Dabbeek, Director of the UPDRRC, then ran delegates through a condensed training programme on the seismic building code and its practical application. Over the course of 2 hours Dr. Dabbeek took the engineers through the seismic conceptual design and minimum requirements of seismic building codes, the course contains the following key elements:

• Introduction to seismicity of Palestine, tectonic movement and faulting system.
• Local seismic site effect (Amplification, landslides and liquefaction)
• The effect of architectural and structural configurations in the seismic performance of buildings (Shape, mass and stiffness distribution of buildings).
• The important factors that affecting the seismic vulnerability of buildings.
• Reinforcement details of structural elements.

Dr. Dabbeek’s presentation utilized illustrations to accompany his lecture and included practical solutions to some problems engineers may come across as they start to apply the code.

Mr. Johari, also elaborated on the code requirements and its relation to a buildings’ response to a seismic force. In addition, he mentioned the possibility of undertaking and assessment of present buildings and their ability to be modified to conform to the code.

The workshop closed with a questions and answers session with delegates.