FEMA issues seismic guidelines for rehabilitation of buildings
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has published guidelines for rehabilitating buildings so that they will be more resistant to damage from earthquakes.
Among project resources are a 400-page [National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program] NEHRP Guidelines for Seismic Rehabilitation of Buildings, a 400-page Commentary, and several complementary documents that provide technically sound and nationally applicable guidance concerning the seismic rehabilitation of buildings. The Guidelines are intended to serve as a ready tool for design professionals, a reference document for building regulatory officials, and a foundation for the future development and implementation of building code provisions and standards, according to the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS).
Among the topics addressed in the Guidelines and its Commentary are systematic rehabilitation pertaining to modeling and analysis foundations and geotechnical hazards steel and cast iron, concrete, masonry, wood and light metal framing, and seismic isolation and energy dissipation as well as simplified rehabilitation with regard to architectural, mechanical, and electrical components.
Design professionals must have seismic engineering expertise to use the materials properly. The documents are designed so that engineers and architects can use them to help a building owner select seismic protection criteria when the owner`s risk-reduction efforts are voluntary or when public pressure or policy mandates rehabilitation.
A project of the NEHRP, created by Congress and for which FEMA serves as the lead, the guidelines took five years to formulate and the efforts of hundreds of volunteer experts in various areas including seismic engineering. Project director was the Building Seismic Safety Council, a council of the NIBS. The two major subcontractors were the Applied Technology Council and the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Copies of the publications are available through FEMA. Call (800) 480-2520; refer to Publications 273 (Guidelines) and 274 (Commentary). Additional information is available from the Building Seismic Safety Council at (202) 289-7800; fax (202) 289-1092; e-mail: jsmith@nibs.org.
