Preliminary Papers
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Browsing Preliminary Papers by Subject "Architecture"
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Item Explaining Support for Seismic Loss-reduction Measures: Data from a Household Survey in the East Bay Region of Northern California(Disaster Research Center, 2001) Tierney, Kathleen J.; Sheng, XuewengA willingness-to-pay framework is used to assess public support for further enhancing the seismic resistance of elements in the built environment. Using data from a survey of 727 households in the Oakland/East Bay Region, a series of models are tested in order to identify factors associated with willingness to pay to further strengthen public safety buildings, utility lifelines, transportation lifelines, schools, and residential and commercial buildings. A substantial portion of the sample expressed a willingness to pay at least something to strengthen one or more of these structures and systems, with public safety buildings and utility systems receiving the highest priority. Although a variety of factors influenced willingness to invest in strengthening different types of structures and systems, some factors did show a consistent influence across models. Those factors include gender, education, trust in government (particularly the State of California), and having experienced property damage and other problems following the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Findings provide insight into which elements in the built environment community residents value most and help identify pockets of support for stronger earthquake safety measures in a seismically-vulnerable region.Item Perceptions Of Acceptable Levels Of Performance Of Different Elements In The Built Environment In The Event Of A Major Earthquake(Disaster Research Center, 2003) Argothy, VictorUsing data from a mail survey and focus group discussions, this paper examines how residents of Alameda County, CA perceive the operational importance of different elements in the built environment in the event of a major earthquake. Survey rankings of individual elements in the built environment indicate that major hospitals, natural gas pipelines, electrical and water pipelines, and public safety buildings are respondents’ most valued elements in terms of continued functionality and operational capacity. Six regression models were run to test whether social demographic variables and earthquake experience had an influence on respondents’ assigned levels to the operational importance of six groupings of systems (utility and transportation) and structures (schools, public safety, residential, and commercial buildings). Women were more likely than men to assign greater levels of operational importance to all six grouping of systems and structures. Also, racial and ethnic minorities were more likely than Whites to assign higher levels of operational importance to transportation systems, schools, and commercial buildings. Finally, increase in age was significantly associated with a decrease in the levels assigned to the operational importance of utility systems and commercial buildings. Focus group data corroborated quantitative results and allowed to explore some issues in more detail.Item Thorns of Seismic Safety: Risk Mitigation Policy(Disaster Research Center, 2008) Aguirre, Benigno E.; Sousa e Silva, DeltaThis paper's aim is to identify and discuss some societal problems that emerge in risk mitigation policy processes associated with earthquake, using the experience of California with SB 1953, the state building code. The intent is to bring attention to the embeddedness of mitigation efforts in social processes and the often unexpected and unintended effects of such efforts. The California experience with SB1953 is an excellent example of how no mitigation action is possible without formal efforts at "changing the rules" by willing policy leaders and legislators who may not be able to estimate the unwelcome impact of their well intended actions, in this case the mandated retrofitting of hospital buildings. Earthquake mitigation policies imply the involvement of diverse stakeholders, such as owners and tenants, seismic experts, government officials and planners, land speculators and developers. Each of these categories of people has specific interests. Even when they share the values of "life safety" they may react differently to the social and economic rehabilitation costs. To understand these differences in perception of various categories of people involved in mitigation, in this paper we explore the logic of building retrofitting from the perspective of hospital administrators, to show that it is an important albeit only partial determinant of the ability of hospitals to perform their services. There is considerable uncertainty as to what is the most efficacious way for hospitals to invest money to protect against earthquakes, and doubt that structural retrofitting solutions are cost effective. There is also consensus among hospital administrators and managers that the vulnerability of their hospitals is not solely a matter of seismically unsound buildings but also results in part from the specific characteristics of the hazard and their linkages to the social organizations of communities. Hospitals in the sample did non-structural seismic retrofitting of their physical plant to improve the earthquake-related safety of buildings, and complied with seismic code requirements for all new buildings, but for lack of financial resources largely ignored seismic structural retrofitting of existing buildings. Hospitals incorporate seismic retrofitting as part of their programs, but they optimize rather than maximize, doing what they can with the resources they have available. All mandated disaster mitigation efforts should involve a comprehensive and detailed assessment of the multiple effects such laws could produce, with emphasis on the institutions that would be more directly impacted by the laws and regulations, as well as remedies to the collateral damage the mitigation could create.