A Methodology for documenting Housing Typologies in the Moderate-Severe Seismic Zones

Abstract

The paper presents first-cut of the salient findings and inferences of a pilot study of housing sub-typologies practiced in seven locations in moderate to severe seismic zones in India. Field trips were conducted to understand housing approaches, methods and constraints employed in 7 locations of the moderate-to-severe seismic zones of India. Based on these field trips, the following deliverables are offered: (1) A methodology for technical documentation of housing typologies in moderate-to-severe seismic zones, through documentation of all safety-related information of an individual house; and (2) A base-level Technical Evaluation Method of earthquake safety of a house for the prevalent earthquake hazard at the location of the house. This method provides both Seismic Safety Index and Performance Rating Method for benchmarking an individual house with respect to an ideal house of the same typology built to resist earthquake shaking in the same seismic environment.