Safer construction through incremental improvements

Bill FlinnCentre for Development and Emergency Practice CENDEPOxford Brookes University

8,000 houses out of a total out of a total

need of 500,000 is

1.6%Cyclone Sidr,

Bangladesh 2008

One year on, the total number of

shelters constructed was 50,000, 10% of

total need

What about the 90%?

The majority frequently rebuild using their own resources, often

incorporating pre-disaster vulnerabilitiesvulnerabilities

cost

quality

cost

time

expertise

capacity

quality, safety,

reduction in vulnerability

Small, but significant, incremental improvements can be easily

achieved at low cost

Hurricane strapping

Roof retrofits - Cuba

Estimated minimum fatalities

Hurricane Mitch – 1998 10,000 Central American countries

Hurricane Katrina – 2005 1,836 USA

Hurricane Wilma – 2005 8 Mexico31 USA4 Cuba

Hurricane Dennis – 2005 56 Haiti15 USA4 Cuba4 Cuba

Hurricane Gustav and Ike – 2008 150 Haiti160 USA7 Cuba

Cyclone Nargis - 2008 146,000 BurmaCyclone Sidr – 2007 4,000 Bangladesh

Source : Wikipedia

Reinforced concrete

5” precast RC column

58 km/hr

5” precast RC column with diagonal cross-bracing

100 km/hr100 km/hr100 km/hr100 km/hr

10” brick column

Category 3158 km/h

15” composite column

Category 4+194++ km/hr

Steel trusses

Advantages:• Timber is expensive

• Steel in Bangladesh is well-understood

• The design and assembly of prefabricated parts leaves little room for error.

Disadvantages:• Maintenance

• Not very amenable to self-build

• Cost? Availability?