- USAID supports education system restoration in Jajarkot and Rukum West
- Symposium on “Lumbini’s Path to Disaster Resilience and Tomorrow’s Rapti” concludes with “Rapti Declaration 2024”
- Geospatial Information Management Workshop is underway at NSET
- Co-Creation Workshop on Update of Comprehensive School Safety Master Plan and Green School Guidelines held
- “2024 Advanced Institute on Natural Hazard of Himalaya – Landslide and Fault Activity” kicks off in Kathmandu
- NSET constitutes New Management Board (2024-2026)
- 31st NSET Day marked
- Action Planning Workshop for Tomorrow's Khokana held in Lalitpur
- "Action Planning Workshop for Tomorrow's Rapti Valley (Deukhuri) Capital City" Held in Lamahi, Lumbini Province
- Media Interaction held on plan for Tomorrow’s Rapti Valley (Deukhuri) Capital City
- View all
EERI Reconnaissance Team commenced the Gorkha Earthquake field research
The EERI Reconnaissance Team concluded their nine-day mission in Nepal on June 8. After visiting outlying regions, the team finished its reconnaissance with meetings and detailed observations in Nepal’s capital city, Kathmandu, and the surrounding valley.
Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) mobilized Reconnaissance Team has accomplished reconnaissance with filed visits and meetings in the affected areas of Gorkha Earthquake. EERI began its field research from the most affected districts Gorkha, Dolakha and Sindhupalchok. EERI, dedicated to reducing earthquake risk, had dispatched a multidisciplinary reconnaissance team to perform field research in Nepal from May 31 to June 7, 2015. While in Nepal, the team had to focus its study on the impacts of the April 25, 2015 earthquake and its aftershocks.
The team assembled for the Nepal reconnaissance trip was led by Mr. Bret Lizundia, Structural Engineer and Principal at Rutherford + Chekene in San Francisco and Mr. Surya Narayan Shrestha, Deputy Executive Director and Senior Structural Engineer at the National Society for Earthquake Technology-Nepal (NSET). The Gorkha Earthquake Reconnaissance Mission is focused on nine main themes as listed below:
1. Evaluate effectiveness of past mitigation and preparedness efforts, especially in hospitals and schools, in a region with well-known, very high seismic risk
2. Investigate lessons from emergency response and building management practices
3. Investigate impacts on lifelines and communications systems, including expected and actual restoration times
4. Investigate recovery and resilience related issues
5. Improve understanding of damage to regional building types
6. Evaluate impacts on World Heritage sites
7. Investigate landslide and avalanche impacts on communities
8. Investigate casualty causes (epidemiology)
9. Summarize key ground motion features and their significance
In the tradition of EERI reconnaissance efforts, professionals from earthquake engineering and disaster-response disciplines have been united under one roof. The experienced team members include Mr. Luke Allen (Registered Architect), Mr. John Bevington (Geospatial Technologist), Ms. Rachel Davidson (Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering), Mr. Kishor Jaiswal (Licensed Professional Engineer, Loss Model Developer), Mr. Ganesh Kumar Jimee (Director, Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Response Division, NSET), Mr. Hemant Kaushik (Associate Professor, Civil Engineering, IIT, Guwahati), Mr. Hari Kumar (Civil Engineer, DRR), Mr. Jan Kupec (Geotechnical Engineer), Ms. Judy Mitrani-Reiser (Assistant Professor, Civil Engineering, Johns Hopkins University), Mr. Chris Poland (Structural Engineer), Mr. Suraj Shrestha (Sr. Engineer, Dharan Sub Metropolitan City) and Ms. Courtney Welton-Mitchell (Social Psychologist)
After its return from the field, the team has briefly shared on findings. Detail analysis and further works are on to consolidate the research findings.
