Innovation - Spring 2024

FEATURE

Is BC ready for the ‘big one?’

A partially collapsed building in Hatay stands beside piles of rubble where other buildings once stood. Photo: Allison Chen

U nderstanding how other countries in seismic zones address earthquake preparedness helps BC better prepare for a significant earthquake—and the smaller ones. People living in Türkiye are familiar with the damage earthquakes can inflict; on average, significant earthquakes strike every 20 years. In BC, the last substantive earthquake of magnitude 8.1, was in 1949 along the fault by Haida Gwaii. So, without recent experience with an earthquake, gathering information from around the world is an important means to assess how to mitigate, prepare, respond, and recover. The Canadian members of the reconnaissance team that went to Türkiye in June 2023, focused on gleaning information from the February 6, 2023, earthquake and its after-shocks that would be valuable closer to home. In BC, “up to 3,000 quakes are reported every year,” said team member Dr. Tony Yang, P.Eng., a civil engineering professor at UBC, “and we face the potential threat of a megathrust quake that’s often called the ‘Big One,’ which could occur offshore along the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate. Our journey to Türkiye gave us a deeper understanding of these events.”

Japan at the forefront of preparedness When considering earthquake preparedness in building construction, the primary concern is to ensure life safety—that all people inside a building can exit safely. Japan, also in a high seismic zone and prone to frequent sizeable earthquakes, is recognized for its preparedness. This includes strict building codes focussing on building resilience, according to the Global Disaster Preparedness Centre. In 1981, Japan’s building standard laws were amended to ensure buildings, not just public buildings such as schools and hospitals, are constructed to sustain a magnitude 7 earthquake with only minor damage and still function. For larger earthquakes, the building code specifies minimally no building should collapse. In enforcing that buildings must remain structurally sound, fewer lives are lost, as well. Japanese builders use techniques, such as “installing pads made of absorbent material like rubber at the base of a building’s foundation, dampening the shock of movement to the structure itself. Another approach, the base isolation system, calls for not just having these pads at the base, but building the entire structure atop thick padding so that there is a full layer of separation between the unit and the moving earth,” according to the Global Disaster Preparedness Centre.

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Spring 2024

Innovation