Explains how earthquakes damage wood-framed buildings of various ages and styles. Shows detailed methods to strengthen various weaknesses. Methods are based on author's experience investigating hundreds of existing wood-framed houses and small apartment buildings and designing retrofit systems that work in the real world. Discusses structural and non-structural earthquake hazards and how to mitigate them. Illustrated with over 400 photos, illustrations and construction details.

Wood-framed shear walls are a crucial part of modern residential and small commercial buildings. Shear walls resist wind and earthquake forces to protect buildings from collapse. This book explains the engineering principles involved with shear wall design and proper construction. It is written in non-technical language intended for carpenters and builders. The basic, unchanging physical principles are explained with illustrated examples. This guide goes into detail that no other book on the subject even approaches. Over 180 pages and 150 color photos and illustrations show actual construction conditions and examples of proper and improper installations. It is extensively indexed for quick reference to specific topics. A detailed two-page illustration shows many basic requirements in graphical format for easy guidance. Specific sections of the International Building Code and International Residential Code are referenced where appropriate. This edition includes a new chapter on earthquake strengthening methods for existing buildings. This chapter was itself expanded into a completely separate book (over 250 pages) titled "Earthquake Strengthening for Vulnerable Homes." The book is intended mostly for carpenters and builders, but engineers and building inspectors also find the information very useful. Engineers may learn methods to make their shear wall designs more efficient and effective. An extensive inspection checklist (over 70 items) is included. This checklist is the basis for Special Inspection Guidelines for Wood-Frame Construction, currently under development by the Structural Engineers Association of Northern California.

The Loma Prieta earthquake struck the San Francisco area on October 17, 1989, causing 63 deaths and $10 billion worth of damage. This book reviews existing research on the Loma Prieta quake and draws from it practical lessons that could be applied to other earthquake-prone areas of the country. The volume contains seven keynote papers presented at a symposium on the earthquake and includes an overview written by the committee offering recommendations to improve seismic safety and earthquake awareness in parts of the country susceptible to earthquakes.

The Rapid Visual Screening (RVS) handbook can be used by trained personnel to identify, inventory, and screen buildings that are potentially seismically vulnerable. The RVS procedure comprises a method and several forms that help users to quickly identify, inventory, and score buildings according to their risk of collapse if hit by major earthquakes. The RVS handbook describes how to identify the structural type and key weakness characteristics, how to complete the screening forms, and how to manage a successful RVS program.

Earthquakes represent a major risk to buildings, bridges and other civil infrastructure systems, causing catastrophic loss to modern society. Handbook of seismic risk analysis and management of civil infrastructure systems reviews the state of the art in the seismic risk analysis and management of civil infrastructure systems.Part one reviews research in the quantification of uncertainties in ground motion and seismic hazard assessment. Part twi discusses methodologies in seismic risk analysis and management, whilst parts three and four cover the application of seismic risk assessment to buildings, bridges, pipelines and other civil infrastructure systems. Part five also discusses methods for quantifying dependency between different infrastructure systems. The final part of the book considers ways of assessing financial and other losses from earthquake damage as well as setting insurance rates.Handbook of seismic risk analysis and management of civil infrastructure systems is an invaluable guide for professionals requiring understanding of the impact of earthquakes on buildings and lifelines, and the seismic risk assessment and management of buildings, bridges and transportation. It also provides a comprehensive overview of seismic risk analysis for researchers and engineers within these fields. - This important handbook reviews the wealth of recent research in the area of seismic hazard analysis in modern earthquake design code provisions and practices - Examines research into the analysis of ground motion and seismic hazard assessment, seismic risk hazard methodologies - Addresses the assessment of seismic risks to buildings, bridges, water supply systems and other aspects of civil infrastructure

The United States will certainly be subject to damaging earthquakes in the future. Some of these earthquakes will occur in highly populated and vulnerable areas. Coping with moderate earthquakes is not a reliable indicator of preparedness for a major earthquake in a populated area. The recent, disastrous, magnitude-9 earthquake that struck northern Japan demonstrates the threat that earthquakes pose. Moreover, the cascading nature of impacts-the earthquake causing a tsunami, cutting electrical power supplies, and stopping the pumps needed to cool nuclear reactors-demonstrates the potential complexity of an earthquake disaster. Such compound disasters can strike any earthquake-prone populated area. National Earthquake Resilience presents a roadmap for increasing our national resilience to earthquakes. The National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) is the multi-agency program mandated by Congress to undertake activities to reduce the effects of future earthquakes in the United States. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)-the lead NEHRP agency-commissioned the National Research Council (NRC) to develop a roadmap for earthquake hazard and risk reduction in the United States that would be based on the goals and objectives for achieving national earthquake resilience described in the 2008 NEHRP Strategic Plan. National Earthquake Resilience does this by assessing the activities and costs that would be required for the nation to achieve earthquake resilience in 20 years. National Earthquake Resilience interprets resilience broadly to incorporate engineering/science (physical), social/economic (behavioral), and institutional (governing) dimensions. Resilience encompasses both pre-disaster preparedness activities and post-disaster response. In combination, these will enhance the robustness of communities in all earthquake-vulnerable regions of our nation so that they can function adequately following damaging earthquakes. While National Earthquake Resilience is written primarily for the NEHRP, it also speaks to a broader audience of policy makers, earth scientists, and emergency managers.