Earthquake Safety in India: Achievements, Challenges and Opportunities

Synopsis

The Indian subcontinent has suffered some of the greatest earthquakes in the world with magnitude exceeding 8.0 and some of the traditional building construction practices in the country are known to be robust against earthquake shaking.  The earthquakes of the late 19th and early 20th century triggered a number of early developments in India towards science and engineering related to earthquakes.

Despite early developments towards seismic safety, moderate earthquakes in India continue to cause thousands of deaths, indicating poor seismic resilience of its built environment. The first seismic code was developed and implemented after the 1935 Quetta earthquake for reconstruction in Balochistan (now in Pakistan), and the first national seismic code was developed in 1962. And yet, effective implementation of the building codes remains a major challenge. The gap between state-of-the-art and state-of-the-practice in earthquake engineering in seismically-active developed countries (such as USA, Japan and New Zealand) and that in India has been widening with time for a host of reasons.

The lecture will outline the historical developments towards earthquake safety in India, the progress made in recent years, and the challenges that lie ahead to reduce earthquake risk. Whilst the context of this lecture is India, a large part of the observations remain valid and useful for other earthquake prone countries.

In particular, it will focus upon:

• The windows of opportunity for introducing improved safety measures after large, damaging events.
• The capacity building initiatives such as the founding of the National Information Centre of Earthquake Engineering (NICEE) at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur in 1999 and the comprehensive National Programme on Earthquake Engineering Education (NPEEE) that was carried out by the seven Indian Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institute of Science between 2003 and 2007.
• New seismically-resilient building typologies that have evolved that meet local needs in terms of local building materials, practices and weather conditions. One such technology is confined masonry construction, which has been used extensively in the development of the campus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar.
• Areas of concern such as the lack of an effective competence-based licensing system for civil and structural engineers, the general lack of an environment which enables adequate enforcement of building code provisions and the somewhat indiscriminate adoption of trends from the developed countries towards seismic safety, without adequately considering the local conditions.

India has made a lot of progress towards awareness and capacity-building in the last two decades, and this is particularly visible when one compares the situation with respect to other developing countries in general and with the neighbouring countries of the subcontinent in particular. However, if India were to be measured against its aspirations of counting amongst the world’s leading countries and economies, this progress may be viewed as being quite inadequate.

It is expected that the lecture will provide food for thought not just for those interested in seismic safety in India but also elsewhere.

About the speaker

Professor Sudhir Jain is an active academic and a passionate academic administrator and is currently serving as Director of the new Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar in Ahmedabad.

He has been instrumental in the development of several important seismic codes in India, and has trained a huge number of professional engineers and college teachers in earthquake engineering through highly successful continuing education programmes, having set up the National Information Centre of Earthquake Engineering (NICEE) at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and developed the National Programme on Earthquake Engineering Education (NPEEE), supported by the Government of India. Professor Jain has also been a consultant for major projects, such as bridges, petrochemical pipelines and concrete dams and has published more than 150 papers. His research interests include study of damaging earthquakes, reinforced concrete buildings, bridges, and seismic codes.

Professor Jain holds a Bachelor of Engineering from the University of Roorkee, and Masters and Doctoral degrees from the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. He is the current President of the International Association for Earthquake Engineering (IAEE) having served on its Board of Directors since 2000. He also served on the Board of Directors of the World Seismic Safety Initiative from 2002 to 2009. He was elected Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering in 2003, and was conferred Life Membership by the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering (NZSEE) in 2013.

Further information

The Mallet-Milne Lectures, a series of public biennial lectures, have been established by the Society for Earthquake and Civil Engineering Dynamics in honour of the pioneering British scientists Robert Mallet (1818-1883) and John Milne (1850-1913).

Please note that there is no charge to attend the Lecture. Seats are allocated on a first come, first served basis. Tea and biscuits will be served from 5.30pm - 6pm. Following the Lecture there will be an informal reception. Tickets are available at a cost of £10 payable on the night. If you wish to attend the reception, please reserve your place by contacting Pauline Arundel at the following email address:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..