Results of the Preliminary Risk Assessment of Buildings that May Be Severely Damaged by an Earthquake in the Northern Region

Abstract

The Department of Public Works and Town & Country Planning published a manual for preliminary risk assessment of buildings that may be severely damaged by earthquakes and cooperated with local governments in provinces located in high seismic zones to conduct preliminary risk assessment, by following guideline in the manual, of buildings with building types specified in the Ministerial Regulation NO.49 issued under the Building Control Act (B.E. 2522) and constructed before the regulation enacted. This specific group of the building was chosen because seismic force was not considered for their structural design. The preliminary risk assessment results, which were scores-based, were classified by types of structure, which was identified by its current condition, and type of soil layers, which was presumed into 2 types including hard soil and normal soil due to lacks of soil test result. The assessment result of 175 buildings from 4 provinces in northern region of Thailand, mostly were reinforced concrete buildings, indicated that the risk of severely damage of those building due to earthquakes of those building was approximately 62% for hard soil consideration and 86% for normal soil consideration. As a result, those buildings will be required detailed assessments to verify their seismic-force resisting performance and to prepare for prevention and damage mitigation from future earthquakes.