a natural calamity, such as an earthquake, the district administration
and the disaster management team in a city knows how to go about
rescue operations. A. Bhoominathan, Professor, Department of Civil
Engineering, IIT, Madras, says that study of soil properties is
important to know the kind of design a building should have. Since
Ernakulam has different compositions of soil because it has both
coastal and mountainous terrains, it is important that the town
planners have an idea of seismic micro-zoning.
Prof. Bhoominathan, who is in charge of micro-zoning studies in
Chennai for which IIT, Madras, is the nodal agency, says that
constructing tall buildings and bridges on deep soil sites (where
thickness of soil is in several layers) requires effective designing
to lessen the risk of damage during earthquakes. Similarly, rocky
areas require a different design. More damage is expected on single-
or double-floor buildings in a rocky area. The thickness of soil
decides the response of the constructed structure during an
earthquake. The district administration can suitably plan if
micro-zoning for earthquakes is taken up, he adds. Prof. Bhoominathan
was in Kochi on a training programme for engineers and architects
organised by the United Nations Development Programme and the district
administration. As Kochi has been recently included as a vulnerable
city for earthquakes, the training programme aimed at equipping the
engineers working in government institutions and private organisations
to get an update on design modules for disaster mitigation. The
micro-zoning study is part of a project of the Union Ministry of Earth
Sciences. The National Earthquake Disaster Mitigation project for
training the engineers is being jointly implemented by the Union
government and the United Nations Development Programme through the
district administration.
The Hindu, June 20
No comments:
Post a Comment