MARK ANDREW KELLY

RECONSTRUCTION IN HAITI AFTER JANUARY 12TH 2010:

A GUIDE FOR NGOS, SELF-BUILDERS AND AID AGENCIES
University of California, BERKELEY
Arch 253 - Seismic Design and Construction
December 16th 2010

Contents
3

Guidelines for NGOs

Earthquake Description

uences
Timber or Brick?: Seismic, Ecological and Economic in

Earthquake Recovery

The Human Cost

Assessment of Damage

Soft Storeys

10

Design of reinforced masonry

12

Selecting a Site

13

Wood Buildings

14

Masonry Wall Skirt

15

Design: The Plan

16

Non-Structural Damage and Concrete Frames

17

Timber connections

18

Foundations

20

Buildings which survived

21

Case Study: Builders without Borders

22

Permanent housing for Haiti

23

Respecting cultural differences

25

Conclusion

27

Bibliography

Guidelines for NGO organisations

g
when usingg this Manual

Construction after a disaster is an important area to explain to builders,

particularly when housing is urgently required. This illustrated guide could be
given to a construction layman in Haiti, to describe how to safely build a new
home for his family. The aim is to produce a handbook containing clear,
illustrations to explain techniques for seismic mitigation of structural problems.
These design guidelines are for Haitians who would like to build their own
homes, to understand structural principles which can provide the minimum
standard to keep their families safe during earthquakes. I made reference to a
variety of FEMA documents and numerous documents, in the Bibliography.

As a word of Introduction the following report outlines work needed to form

a permanent sanitary rehabilitation and housing reconstruction strategy for the
people of Haiti.
Block of Flats in Port-au-Prince, Haiti January 2010

c Earthquake Engineering Research group at

Thanks goes to the Paci
University of California at Berkeley, where I have been working for Professor
Khalid Mosalam on post-earthquake reconnaissance efforts in Haiti. The photography from Haiti is credited to Berkeley Earthquake Engineering Research
Institute (EERI) in January 2010 during earthquake reconnaissance.

In the reconstruction of Haiti, if earthquake-resistant bulilding practices can

be promoted and emphasised, the standards of construction and safety will
improve.

Emergency temporary housing

Haiti January 12th 2010 Earthquake

Haiti is located off the south-eastern tip of Florida, where a very large StrikeSlip earthquake hit on January 12th 2010, measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale.
The epicenter was near the town of Logne, approximately 25 km (16 miles)
west of Port-au-Prince, Haitis capital. The earthquake occurred at 16:53 local
time (21:53 UTC) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010. In 12 days after the
earthquake, there were 52 aftershocks measuring 4.5 or greater. The
Haitian people were severely affected with nearly 200,000 lives lost. The
Haitian authorities said the powerful quake destroyed most of the capital city of
Port-au-Prince. The Red Cross estimate 3 million people - one-third of Haitis
population were affected and 1,000,000 people were left homeless. Haitians
mainly live in shantytown dwellings, constructed from cheap locally-quarried
limestone, which were badly hit by the quake and this housing was levelled.
The Haitian Government estimated 250,000 residences and 30,000 commercial
buildings had collapsed or were severely damaged. The emergency services
were unable to cope in the event of a major disaster. Haiti is the poorest country
in the Western Hemisphere, worldwide Haiti is ranked 149th in 182 countries
on the Human Development Index. The damage and destruction caused by the
earthquake was exacerbated by Haitis dense population and lack of adequate
building standards.
The rebuilding period offers a great opportunity to protect lives and
Illustrations from C.V.R. Murty at IIT, India (a)

communities from future disasters. Disaster relief organisations which supply

food, temporary shelter and healthcare in a time of crisis, are meant to be
temporary solutions. Although these shelters meet the urgent needs of today,
these short term solutions will not provide safe, secure and inhabitable
buildings. This paper touches on these temporary solutions, delivered by the
Haitian government which are likely to be in place for longer than intended.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Cover - Photo taken by Eduardo Fierra and Eduardo Miranda.
a Location and Plate Illustrations from C.V.R. Murty at Indian Institute of Technology
in Kanpur, India and NICEE - National Indian Center for Earthquake Engineering 04/02
b Photo taken by Eduardo Fierra and Eduardo Miranda. Copyright of NEES
FOOTNOTES
USGS Earthquake Hazards Program http://earthquake.usgs.gov
Millar, Lisa (17 January 2010) Tens of thousands isolated at epicentre ABC News
Red Cross: 3M Haitians Affected by Quake. CBS News. 01/13/10
Red Cross Report. Quoted form a Red Cross report on January 15th 2010 Red Cross: 3M
Haitians Affected by Quake CBS News. 13 January 2010.
Clarens Renois (5 February 2010). Haitians angry over slow aid. The Age Journal
(Melbourne). 5 February 2010.
Human Development Report 2009 Haiti, United Nations Development Program- 13
January 2010.UNICEF appeals for aid for Haiti following devastating earthquake

Photo taken by Eduardo Fierra and Eduardo Miranda (b)

Human Development Report 2009 Haiti, United Nations Development- 01/13/10.

Timber of Brick?
Choosing the appropriate material depends on the building purpose, budget,
soil type, occupancy and quality of the workmanship. In most cases lightweight
construction is safer than heavy modular building construction, for the
following reasons:
1) Single storey conned masonry houses with lightweight and exible roofs,
can be well designed conned masonry buildings, which perform well in
earthquakes. However if brick buildings are designed and built poorly, they
can be deadly. Even a well built conned masonry building will probably have
cracks in a strong earthquake. Advice from a civil engineer for conned masonry buildings is advisable.
2) Gable wall construction is safer with timber or a hipped roof. Avoid masonry
inll which may easily crack, dislodge and crack during an earthquake.
3) In reinforced brick walls put horizontal steel reinforcement in every 7 course
bricks on top and below the frame. Brick walls also require minor concrete
columns on either side of the frame, which connects to the lintel beam on top
and below the frame. Timber houses need secure connections but require less
reinforcement because the lightweight material holds itself together more easily.
Guidelines for seismic-resistant building methods

4) Foundations can be made from a heavy material like concrete, brick or stone.
But above 3 feet, it is strongly recommended to use a lightweight material,
particularly on gable walls, which are likely to collapse.

Environmental and Economic Factors inuencing building material choices

From an economic perspective, timber houses make more sense in Haiti than
masonry. At the moment nearly 80% of the population live under poverty,
earning less than $2 per day. (CIA 2010). Food security is a chronic problem.
Forces affesting a unreinforced brick masonry wall

Environmental degradation exacerbates these troubles as deforestation of 98%

of the land area has left Haitis landscape eroded and its soil quality inadequate
for large-scale agricultural production. In 1925 there was 60% surface in forest,
in 1952 there was 18% left, and in 2006 there was 1.5% forest. From deforestation there is soil erosion, which reduces agricultural production and the ability
to grow food. Deforestation also causes soil sedimentation in the Lac de Peligre
reservoir and lost 30% of the drinking water capacity. In Gonaives City in

How a masonry wall breaks

Haiti there was a tropical hurricane which caused mud sliding. Natural energy
resources are 75% Wood, 15% Petroleum and 5% hydroelectric power. There
have been ecological impacts from large scale deforestation.

FOOTNOTE
CIA. 2010. Haiti. The World Factbook. Retrieved April 19, 2010
Forces affecting buildings in earthquakes: L,S, and P waves

(https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ha.html).
5

The Earthquake Recovery

Since the Haiti Earthquake on January 12th 2010, there has been a coordinated
short-term aid effort. In the long-term NGOs have been working to restore the
country by building better infrastructure including water, power, roads,
buildings, schools and hospitals. Development in Haiti should incorporate in
sustainable energy, better government and policies, a functional healthcare,
education system and an improved economy. One NGO Rebuilding Haiti
Now focuses on rebuilding Educational institutions. Rebuilding Haiti now
organisation selects school projects in Haiti further from Port-au-Prince, hard
to reach, and therefore last to receive help. There is social and economic impact
from these projects to rebuild schools, with a long-term impact on the local
community. Improvement of know-how in building techniques under the
leadership of recognized Hatian professionals. Buildings should use local
workmanship and local materials for each site repaired.

Challenges to Rebuilding
Leadership and Government
The earthquake completely destroyed 13 of the 15 main government buildings,
leaving the countrys leadership without a rm place to govern from. Politicians
were displaced and they had lost all of the demographic population data,
geographical maps, census records, records of other ofcials and policy
documents. People were left without a government at the time when they
required leadership the most.

Homelessness
One million people were left homeless without their possessions.
Camping grounds were erected by international aid agencies, to provide
immediate temporary housing. There is a drastic need to rebuild houses, to
provide shelter from tropical storms and to prevent disease from spreading.

Healthcare
There were 300,000 injuries and 220,000-250,000 casualties. Most of the
Haitian hospitals had collapsed with all patient documents inside (dental
records, blood type, age, immunodeciency records, vaccination and insulin).
The existing healthcare infrastructure was in a very poor situation before the
earthquake.

In the rescue plan there should be adequate help for orphans,

who may have last their parents and have been separated from their immediate
family.

The Human Cost

Aside from the economic impact which can be overwhelming, the human
impact is all to often not adequately accounted for in policy and accountable
government actions. The disaster damaged food kitchens, hospitals, police,
re engines, which has a recurring human impact one year later. Fresh water
becomes contaminated quickly and on the small Haitian island surrounded by
oceanic salt water, dehydration can quickly lead to further casualties.
Immediate care is needed to stop wounds becoming infected, bone fractures to
be cast and adequate services for longer term concussion.

Fatalities are often collected on lorries and deposited in large un-named graves.
Some casualties were unrecognisable and the dental records had been lost
leaving no means to identify those lost. Haitian people have showed
Red Cross Hospital Building in Port-au-Prince

tremendous resilience to carry on without their loved ones. School children

loose out on their education or face considerable delays in completion of their
course. Often these children have lost one or both of their parents, so their
family life is often in domestic turmoil. Aid agencies may provide a service for
young people to have a friend to talk to or be supported by.

If someone is injured in an accident, they may not be able to work in their

former occupation and be made unemployed. For a father an occupational
disability, can be devastating for his family. Social security from the public
government has been neglected by political instability, poor leadership and a
Car trapped under a soft story

lack of personal accountability at the top.

Sanitation and toilets are important considerations for a sensible
reconstruction. People need clean water and composting toilets, to stop disease
spreading in overcrowded refugee facilities. Composting toilets are relatively
simple to build and maintain. The safe use of human waste as agricultural
fertiliser is strongly encouraged. This practice has been widely used in Sweden,
China and parts of Africa.
The government needs to commit to educating Haitian citizens in the
long term to allow their people to enter formal work, with basic analytical,
writing and word processing skills. The United Nations has tried to foster
a self-sustaining state in Haiti, between 1994-2004 before the departure of
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on 29th February 2004. Policy remains
detrimental to the immediate needs. The international community wants a fair
democratically elected government, to reduce corruption and embezzlement of
aid money. Meanwhile the people most in need remain forgotten.

Child separated from her family

UN Peace Operations: A case study of Haiti(New York;2009:UN Press)C.T.Call

7

Assessment of Damage
Residents often fear reoccupying their home after the structure has been
compromised by and earthquake. Damage is best measured by inspection form
a team of building engineers and architects, to determine the damage and
column deection. A recently issued report notes the complete absence of
seismic detailing in Haitian construction, from informal housing to recent
multi-storey buildings in downtown Port-au-Prince (Fierro and Perry 2010:4).
The report concisely explains how much damage was avoidable if standard
concrete codes were followed to greatly acceptable rigidity in moment frames.
Ministry of Justice Courthouse

Debris and Rubble Clearance

There is a considerable amount of waste aggregate, broken street furniture
and roof tiles which need to be removed, for space for new houses to be built.
International aid would prefer not to fund this less glamorous rubble-clearance
activity although it is essential, to simply provide a high numbers of houses.
Accountable development is not just linked to the number of houses built, but
how they are built and intelligent reuse of left over material.

Leadership without infrastructure

The central Haitian government was equally unprepared for the earthquake,
which had catastrophic impacts on rescue efforts, communication and
Historic Building Damage

international aid coordination. The bottom-left image shows the Parliament

where the President normally organises the country. On January 12th 2010,
when the country was in need of hard decisions being made, the government
could not give the necessary leadership. Searches for survivors, drinking water
and medical services were difcult to address.

The role of the NGO

Non-governmental organisations are powerful groups who can avoid
bureaucracy and build homes for Haitian people in need. Clean sanitary housing
Ministry of Agriculture

is a priority, with an emphasis on implementing safe seismic-resistant codes to

prevent unavoidable future earthquakes. NGOs are independent from the
corrupt government, so international nancial donations are safer when send
directly to an NGO registered with Habitat for Humanity.

Historic damaged structures: Repair or Rebuild?

Damaged architecture with cultural signicance should not be pulled down
immediately but reserved until after the urgent rebuilding and human
necessities are taken care of. At a later time with stable leaders, conservation
or demolition can be discussed and decided by the people.
Parliament of Haiti in ruins

Soft storeys

Soft and weak stories in houses, are often used in domestic parking spaces. The
primary cause of collapse is broken structural load paths between the ground
and upper storeys. Lower storeys are particularly prone to collapse, if proper
reinforcements are not installed. Heavy base materials can be used, with lighter
materials higher up the building. Foundations and the lower portion of the
rst oor can be made from a heavy concrete or masonry material. For low to
middle rise un-reinforced masonry (URM) buildings without vertical stiffness
or strength discontinuity, rst story inll walls are expected to be damaged rst,
since they are subjected to the highest sheer forces. In some cases, collapse of
the whole story may occur, if the columns were damaged and reoccupied without a comprehensive survey taking place rst.

Rebuilding the damage and length of time to reoccupancy

Rebuilding in Haiti is difcult to approximate. After the Loma Prieta (1989)
and Northridge (1994) earthquakes, the typical repair of damaged... woodframed residential multi-family residential buildings required two years and
Heavy building collapsed ontop of a soft story in Port-au-Prince

building replacement required almost four years.(8) Reorganising the

rebuilding effort, requires considerable organisation from the top to achieve
success like the Mexico 1985 earthquake (8.1M) where there was a uprising by
Lembrino, spurred the Mexican government, aid groups and activists to build
100,000 housing units and rehabilitate the domestic infrastructure in less than
two years.(9)

Rehabilitation of Existing buildings in Haiti

Rebuilding is often cost prohibitive for many Haitians. Existing infrastructure
can be rehabilitated without comprehensive demolition. New building is
necessary in many cases, where the poor construction let to high out-of-plane
Discontinuous sheer walls are weak in lateral forces.
Drawn by M. Kelly

deection.

8. Estimated Downtime from Data on Residential buildings after the Northridge and
Loma Prieta Earthquakes Earthquake Spectra Volume 26, Issue 4, pp. 951-965
(November 2010) Written by Prof. M.C. Comerio & H.E. Blecher, with PEER
9. David Ovalle writing for the Miami Herald Mexicos earthquake recovery could be a
Occupying the lower soft story oor is very dangerous

model for Haiti 02.17.10

9

Design of masonry blocks - how to avoid Unreinforced Masonry Walls (URM)

The design of a wall in a seismic area requires some connections between
elements, for lateral stability. Loads are transferred between structural elements
which could become displaced by sheer. In concrete blocks the reinforcements
can be concealed inside the concrete cavity.

Roof principles in earthquakes

The design of roofs is important for the safety of occupants. Light roofs on
higher levels are less dangerous in the event of a collapse. Heavy roof materials
should be avoided.

Connections between oor and ceiling

Secure attachment of roofs to walls, and walls to oors successfully transfer
forces between building elements. Reinforcement bar-bending and anchoring
should rmly connect the columns and beams together, especially at the top of
the column and the ring beam. Use steel reinforcement to connect the masonry
wall to the column tie. Strong connections between the structural elements and
rm tectonic attachments are the key to a successful seismic frame.

Pencil drawing by Mark Kelly

Attachment of roof to wall

Lateral forces from a slip-slide earthquake can be efciently tackled by
attaching the roof rmly to the perimeter walls. Horizontal forces are
transferred into the building elements, with connected load paths. Elements
attached: roof and wall. Continuous, properly connected load paths are
essential for good vertical and lateral loads on housing structures. Steel
connections are used between building elements to tie trusses to cavity walls.
Coordination between seismic researchers and workmen to share information
on stable structures and work together to build safely. In Haiti the majority of
the buildings were constructed out of necessity.

Steel bar in concrete, if it is tied together properly can be very effecient at

creating a moment frame. The oor and wall reinforcement should be bonded
together at the same wime for a strong connection.

10

The

The

Careful thought to the plan and layout can improve

earthquake resistance at little or no extra cost.
Elizabeth Hausler, PhD 2006: Build Change Build Earthquake Resistant Houses; change Construction Practice

Selecting a Site

Liquefaction of the soil under the building, is one of the largest contributing factors to building collapse. Liquefaction is caused when the strength or
stiffness of soil is reduced by high water saturation in soil, sand and clay. Poor
drainage and ooding on the soil around a building, often weakens the
Liquefaction

structural capacity of load bearing walls. When selecting a site, avoid weak
soil which is loosely compacted with high sand content and land where the
water table is higher than average. When the house shakes on liqueed soil, the
foundations which are responsible for resisting the ground shaking, cause
settlement of the house, which can result in cracking or collapse. Find a new
site for your new home with solid earth.

Timber is a good material because it is exible and lightweight. Weak soil can
be improved with a cement addition, known as densication which is costly
and material intensive. Distribute the building load evenly and span loose spots
Diagram of Liquefaction by Benjamin Schlue, PhD, Marine Engineering
Geology, University of Bremen

using a reinforced concrete raft foundation to avoid weak isolated pile footings.
The Nigata earthquake in Japan (1964) caused serious collapse because the soil
was weak and sandy.

It is strongly recommended to get a detailed soil investigation, before starting

any building construction. In Haiti, where there are stringent economic
constraints, there are simple tests builders and NGOs can perform prior to
construction.
In Oakland and San Francisco, liquefaction occured in 1989 Lona Prieta E.Q.

1) Dig a hole on the site, large enough for a septic tank to determine the depth
of the water table and the soil type.
2) To check the soil sedimentation to estimate soil content of clay, sand or silt;
simply upturn a lled a bucket of soil and measure the slump. Similar tests
should be carried out on soil in several sites before a decision is made.
Non-structural damage often occurs with liquefaction

3) An expansion test can measure how much the clay shrinks when it dries. To
perform this expansion test, simply collect a container of soil and measure the
volume at the beginning and then re-measure the volume after seven days. If
the soil volume measurements are similar, then the soil is good to build upon.
However if there is a reduced soil volume in the container, the clay moisture in
the soil has evaporated and cracking around the foundations is highly probable
due to moisture expansion.

12

Wood Buildings

Wood buildings are known to perform well during earthquakes. Wood has a
high strength to weight ratio and therefore wood buildings tend to be lighter
than other building types. Lightness is an advantage during an earthquake. Often connections in wood houses are nailed together which allows the building to
ex. Movement allows the building to absorb and dissipating energy during an
earthquake. Some plywood structural panels create sheer walls in combination
with studs and joists to form a diaphragm, which is very effective at resisting
lateral forces and gravity loads.

Ground movement caused the most failure in timber buildings, the following components of wood-frame construction are critical to help resist against
seismic forces:
1) Anchorage to the foundation
2) Strength and ductility of the walls
3) Strength and continuity of the horizontal oors, roof and ceilings
4) Interconnections of all the framing elements

Timber walls should be designed to resist lateral loading in earthquake forces.

Stud walls can be braced with diagonals and board to provide sheer resistance. Plywood laid over the top of stud walls should be thick enough to resist
calculated forces. Ensure there is adequate nailing (at 50mm centres and over
intersections) ti transfer the sheer forces in the sheathing to the roof, oor and
wall framing. The framing members around the perimeter of the diaphragms
should be strong enough to resist calculated tension and compression forces
with base shear anchor bolds into the oor.

To prevent the collapse of timber houses like in Northridge and Loma Prieta,
the Canadian Engineered Wood Association (APA) recommend using base
shear anchor holts and a thick wood board over the timber stud wall to create
a self-bracing shear wall, for lateral and gravity load resistance.

FOOTNOTE
Canadian Wood Council (2003: Ontario; CWC) Wood frame Construction:
Meeting the challenges of Earthquakes. Building Performance Series No. 5
13

Masonry Wall Skirt

Above the foundations of a timber building, the base can be made from
masonry. Up to around 80 cm, bricks can be laid above the foundation for a
solid building base. One advantage of this masonry skirt strategy is to reduce
damp from entering the building and wall construction, where puddles may
otherwise enter the building from capillary action. Extending the foundation
above ground, does not compromise the seismic properties of the lightweight
structure above. It is important to keep the timber structure dry and protect it
from the open wind and rain which may compromise the structural
Masonry wall skirt with timber widows

characteristics. Hybrid construction with wood-masonry skirts, combines the

material advantages of a solid masonry base for the lightweight timber house to
rest upon.

The sturdy timber frame which rests on the masonry wall skirt needs a selection
of good quality wood. The carpenters in Haiti should visit the timber yard to
select straight wood without knots, splits and avoid warped and twisted wood.
The joints between the lengths of wood should be fastened with two pins. Using
a masonry skirt lifts the building off the ground and away from water. Paint the
Cheap hoouse with masonry wall skirt to 80cm

entire frame with preservative before installing walls and windows.

Use bricks, blocks or stone masonry to build a masonry skirt wall. The timber
should be connected to the masonry wall with nails. The walls can be rendered
with plaster (one part plaster and three parts water), and tightly attached to
timber backing boards.

The second photo on your left, shows a hipped roof (a square-based pyramid)
which does not need a gable wall, which can easily be damaged in an
Sturdy wood joints xed with two pins

earthquake.

FOOTNOTE
Canadian Wood Council (2003: Ontario; CWC) Wood frame Construction:
Connection with wood joint

Meeting the challenges of Earthquakes. Building Performance Series No. 5

14

DESIGN: The Plan

Simple building plans, with ample sheer walls to provide strong resistance
against lateral loads behave well in earthquakes. Design of houses should be
kept simple, for three main reasons, it is cheap, standard sized pieces are easier
to nd and housing will be easier to build which means more people will build
permanent houses for themselves and their families. Small and often
inexpensive design adaptations in design, can make a structure resilient. As
Haiti looks at how it may begin rebuilding its towns and cities, concern arises
on how to best design to resist these immanent and inevitable natural disasters.
Simple isometric by M. Kelly showing oor, gable, wall and roof

Plan the conguration to build a house in a common shape, like a square, short
rectangle or circle. In the gable wall avoid using brick, use either timber or
another lightweight material instead. Above openings use a beam or lintel and
reduce openings with regular support. Roughly equal plan dimensions increase
lateral stability. Avoid long narrow structures with a low surface area, and try to
think about where the center of gravity lies and design accordingly.
Bungalows fare better than multi-story dwellings, try to reduce height and
connect the columns together. Ideally the building should behave as one body,
with tectonic elements closely linked together.

Every length of wall more than 4 meters should be a cross wall or brace. It is
recommended to avoid using heavy material and using a simple, square
symmetrical layout. Avoid using long narrow structures, where the length is
longer than three times the width of the building. Walls longer than 4 meters
should be crossbraced with steel reinforcement.

Poor concrete connections behave poorly in Haiti

Continuous long sheer walls connecting exterior faces are better than bent short
walls, with unsupported clear spans. Regular support along long spans adds to
lateral stability in strike-slip earthquakes with bidirectional seiemic activity.

Optimum seismic-resistant oor plans table. (Sheer walls in heavy)

15

Non-Structural Damage and Concrete Frames

After an earthquake, the recovery time is closely linked to the non-structural

damage in housing, shops, transport hubs and ofces. Fittings, ceiling tiles,
bookshelves, glass and nishes are often completely destroyed by the lateral
shaking, even though the concrete structure may not have sustained damage.
There can be considerable expense linked to broken building nishes and for
commercial properties there is also down-time in trading to be accounted for,
when wages and overheads may loom over the owner. In a reconstruction strategy for Haiti, I think we should pause briey to talk about xing of furniture
and non-structural elements which are at high risk, for example bookshelves
and laboratory glass tubes could break.

Museum items and vulnerable objects can be xed to a solid surface to reduce
unnecessary breakages.

Openings around the exterior of houses reduce the overall stability in an

Reinforced Concrete frame in Port-au-Prince suffered joint damage

earthquake. Walls with openings which are not conned masonry reinforced by
cconcrete columns and beams, are very vulnerable. Regular or large openings
make walls much more vulnerable than walls without windows and doors.
m

Reducing weight and improving connections

R

The reasons for failure often include a heavy masonry gable which collapses.
Connections between the column and beam are not strong enough. Avoid using
prefabricated columns which may be strong but cannot connect well to the rest
of the structure. Prefabricated elements are individual rigid components which
often do not connect well ring beams. Beams should be rmly connected to the
main building and tied often, wherever possible.

Wall and roof elements need to be securely attached. Illustrations by Mark Kelly

An intact frame sustained only non-structural damage from good connections

16

Timber Connections

Timber connections and anchoring are very important for seismic resistance
against lateral forces. The choice of timber has a big impact for the quality of
the building construction and must be matched to the function of the timber
building element. Choosing timber effeciently and sized for the right purpose
can save money and make the building much safer. The best timber
characteristics to look out for are wood with no splits or cracks, no knots, no
warped or purved pieces and preferably Timber Grade I or II.

Timber should be weatherproofed to increase the lifespan and structural

performance of the structural members. I recommend two coats of a tested
wood seal.

Minimum standards for Building a Timber House

Wood corner connection showing a dowel pin to secure each intersection

1)

Choose good quality timber

2)

Dimensions of foundation: 25 x 40 x 50 cm

3)

Use preservative paint

4)

Pour concrete on column footing and give anchor

5)

Use anchor on wall masonry

6)

Every timber connection should have a proper joint

7)

Every connection should have a wooden peg or nail

to secure joint

The author building a horizontal seismic wood brace in Northern India, to

prevent against lateral shaking in a conned masonry wall with a square plan
with Tibet Heritage fund NGO, sponsored by the AIA Noel Hill travel award.

1. Simple scarf joint connection used for the purlin, it can only resist compression (pushing) load but cannot resist tension (pulling) load
2. Hooked Scarf Joint is better because it can resist both compression (pushing and tension (pulling) load.
3. Hooked (Half Lap) Scarf joint is also good because it can resist both
compression and tension and it is easy to make.
4. Flared Tennon Butt Joint is common in fascia board because it can hold
compression (pushing) and tension (pulling) loads.
5. Scarfed Butt Joint is also common in fascia boards because it can resist
compression (pushing) and tension (pulling) loads.

8)

Must have diagonal bracing on every corner

9)

Scarf joint for beams

10)

Nail the wire to the frame rmly and stretch tight

11)

Plaster and mortar mix 1:3

12)

Truss Connection

13)

Wind Bracing 40 4 nails Tenon

FOOTNOTES
Earthquake Resistant Design and Construction Guideline, 31st May 2006.
Elizabeth Hausler, PhD 2006: Build Change
17

Foundations

To build foundations correctly to code, Haitian self-builders need to follow

some basic rules. I am writing on the premise that base isolators are too
expensive for the average home, so I am describing a good rigid foundation
with well bonded connections to the rest of the house.

Make the bottom at and level and remove any organics like tree branches from
the foundation trench. Remove loose soil and rainwater. Avoid building below
the water table and keep away from expansive soil

For a stone masonry strip footing the builder should lay the stones at and
ll the gaps completely with mortar (sand and gravel mix). Craftsmanship is
important, so if good masonry workmanship cannot be ensured, consider using
a reinforced concrete strip footing.

The aggregate should not be too ne or too rough, a sand like consistency is
preferred. If the stones are clean, without organic waste in the mixture, the bond
will be improved in the cement.

The rebar steel anchors should be placed in the foundation at intervals of 1.5
meters and at the locations of all columns. It is okay to use recycled rebar,
without too much rust, if the bars are at least 10mm diameter and ribbed, for
better adhesion to the concrete mix. The bend should be at least 10cm from
the end of the reinforcement bar. It is important not to leave the column bars
exposed to the air, where they can corrode and become rusty which can spread
through the column and weaken the structure.

The minimum depth of foundation trench excavation should be 80cm. If weak

soil is common in the area, the foundations should go deeper as the depth
depends on the soil type.

The concrete mix should be lean to make the screed oor (1 cement: 3 sand:
6 gravel). the screed oor will create a solid even surface. The thickness of the
rst layer of screed should be 10cm.

FOOTNOTES
Earthquake Resistant Design and Construction Guideline, 31st May 2006.
Elizabeth Hausler, PhD 2006: Build Change
18

For decades, structures have been built throughout the country

without regard for the simple, often inexpensive design features that
would make them more resilient to these inevitable disasters..
Michelle Flagg Strengthening Foundations: The Sustainable Design of a Youth Center in Haiti

Buildings in Haiti which survived

It is useful to mention buildings which behaved well in Haiti, as well as those

which collapsed. A single story building is safer than a two story buildings.
Higher buildings generally are less stable, due to the higher center of gravity.
The church on the left is a light weight timber structure which survived in good
condition. The red concrete ofce building below is roughly the same height,
but built from heavy rigid materials with less ductile connections, higher joint
stress, redundancy of concrete or poor concrete mixes and maybe poor
quality construction. These factors may have caused the split columns. The
middle building has an overhanging story which is not advised. The rubble you
can see on the street is likely to be from another nearby building, which nobody
is taking responsibility to clean up. Steel reinforced brick buildings have a
higher construction quality, with higher grade materials and knowledgeable
craftsmen. Shown in the fourth photo, this reinforced-brick house sustained
very little damage.

Two story houses should include the following earthquake proof measures

- Build the second story out of timber

-Use conned masonry with strong connections
- Use lightweight inll for the walls, especially the upper sections
- Join all elements of the frame together
- Columns and Sheer walls should tough the ground, to prevent weak storeys
- Masonry inll on reinforced concrete frames can create falling street material
- Parapets above the gutter can fall and hurt people, adequate support is needed
- Avoid URMs (un-reinforced masonry buildings)

Lowering the buildings center of gravity is

important in an earthquake, when base isolation
is too expensive. Taller buildings generally
behave poorly with lateral forces, when structurall
members are subjected to tension and compression.
on.

2 storey building

Simple, symmetrical low square plan buildings

behave well. Mosques are excellent because they
y
are symmetrical and their clearstory are lightweight.
ght.
1 storey building

FOOTNOTES
Earthquake Resistant Design and Construction Guideline, 31st May 2006.
Elizabeth Hausler, PhD 2006: Build Change
20

Case Study : Builders without Borders and Build Change

Building within local resources, technology and means is perhaps the most
challenging aspect of rebuilding Haiti. In brick buildings, use a minor concrete
column on either side of the frame. Make sure the brick wall and column are
connected well to the plinth beam and ring beam. Where possible use a
reinforced concrete lintel beam on top and below the frame, connected to the
columns.
In strawbale houses, timber performs the same role as concrete frame in brick
walls, providing stiffness and connecting all the strawbale elements together.
From an engineering perspective (Henri Mannik P.E.: Builders without Borders;
2010) a plastered strawbale wall is a composite system in which the strawbales
are only one component. The inner strawbale core, the outer stiff plaster with
reinforcing and wall ties all work together as a structural assembly. One that
yields impressive results as a gravity loadbearing and lateral load resisting
system, all from simple and accessible materials such as earth, straw, twine
and wire. A plastered strawbale is both a stressed skin panel and a natural
structural insulated panel. Timber frames are used not to suspend the strawbale
but to form a connected frame tied to the lightweight roof purlins.

Creating a market for rice-straw as a building material in Haiti, would create

jobs and avoid burning the straw every year which is the currently the practice
in Haiti.
Plastered strawbales offer an optimal balance of thermal insulation,
mass and comfort. In the daytime Haitis tropical climate requires little
insulation against heatloss, yet the straw shades the interior and keeps excessive
heat away from the interior. At night the temperature swing can be limited by
strawbale insulation and a light clay-straw layer above the tin ceiling, provides
an insulating barrier against radiant heat from the roof. A plastered strawbale
can be treated and rendered with a clay-cement plaster to be re-resistant
enough to withstand 1-hour to 2-hour re tests at ecobuildnetwork.org.

The purpose of this section, is to suggest innovative materials which may be

climatically appropriate, affordable and available. Permanent housing is a
number one priority in Haiti, to create a new normal way of life because
things will never quite return to the way they were before the earthquake.

FOOTNOTE
A Straw Bale Rebuilding Solution for Haiti; Building Back Better Communities
Under the Auspices of Builders Without Borders. Martin Hammer
21

Permanent housing for Haiti

There is an NGO called Builders without Borders, who drew the designs on
the left for a straw-bail house for Haiti. Straw was chosen because is widely
available and it naturally will be exible in biaxial earthquake forces. The
technology is straightforward enough for a Haitian to construct his own house.
Strawbale construction offers many signicant advantages as a semi-urban
building system in Haiti. Housing needs to protect the building from direct sun
Existing Reinforced Concrete frame in Port-au-Prince suffered joint damage

radiation, avoid creating additional humidity and create natural ventilation for
air movement. The advantages of using stawbale housing in Haiti are:

1) Low Cost. The design drawings on the bottom-left show a 3 meter by 5 meter (interior dimensions) cost $1500 for materials plus 20% for labour. A larger
Straw houses in Haiti will naturally be ductile and exible enough in an E.Q.

house with two bedrooms costs approximately $2400 plus 20% labour. which
is $5USD per sq.ft. or $53USD oer sq.m. The gures are taken from Pakistan ,
were a similar-sized reinforced concrete block building cost approximately two
times more than a strawbale house.

2) Earthquake resistant results have been successful in laboratory testing (12),

with an internal plaster render and wall ties (large steel pins) to connect faces of
the construction closely together.

In Pakistan a new straw house being built

Simple construction techniques and good buildability is important, to create

many simple modular houses to replace the tent camps where people have
been living. Fresh air, clean water and sanitation help considerably in reducing
diseases like Cholera from spreading.

Straw houses in California

FOOTNOTE
Ti Kay Pay: A Straw Bale Rebuilding Solution for Haiti; Building Back Better
Communities. Research refered to at University of Illinois, California State
Polytechnic and University of Nevada.
22

Respecting cultural differences

Let us not forget we should respect the local peoples culture, customs and
traditions. In Creole building design, bright pastel colours are accepted and
identify the place. Home builders will nd their houses work, when they adopt
characteristics which identify the place. Sustainable building in Haiti, will be
kept for generations to come, tradition should not be trivialised. If Haitians
build or paint their houses for themselves, people become encouraged to build
Photo by Hydro Cabos

more and recover faster in the face of adversity. Certain colours and
decorative elements can have specic meanings and signicance. Consciously
and skillfully employed, they can enhance the legibility of the environment
(Martin Hammer; San Francisco: 2010 Writing on Haitian Creole). The optimism of the Haitian people is strength, these types of cultural designs create
encouragement and help the people re-imagining their own cities future.

Individuality and the ability to customise a simple house with coulourful paint,
may give encouragment to continue to rebuild more and spark momentum.

If Haitian people build their own future homes, pride in their familys future can
re-grow and the community can rebuild itself. Habitat for Humanity has
developed a standard house, without local materials which will probably be
there for longer than expected. I advocate using Haitian timber and local
strawbales, to create jobs and use a local material which people can reproduce
themselves at a very low cost.

Cao Hatian Doors, photos by mary Ellen Andrews

FOOTNOTE
Building Back Better Communities
Under the Auspices of Builders Without Borders. Martin Hammer
23

Every dollar spent on mitigation can result in a saving of 4 dollars in

recovery cost.
Henry L. Green, Hon.AIA President writing to Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton
Information from the National Institute of Building Sciences, Washington D.C.

Conclusion

Haitian people face an uncertain future. Permanent housing development should

remain at the top of the agenda, to allow people to settle into a new permanent
way of life. The primary aim is to provide a resilient community, constructed
by the Haitian people using indigenous materials and knowledge dissemination,
so the housing is ultimately sustainable. In an EERI-NSF rapid and research
needs workshop, an interesting obstacle to rebuilding arose: Understanding
the particular motivations behind corruption and developing innovative incentives to prevent it, is another highly important research topic that can help lift
many of the barriers for sustainable rebuilding of Haiti. Haitis built
environment, specically its lack of adequate building materials, practices and
codes to endure severe natural disasters and complacency about earthquakes,
led a perilous chain reaction.

Rebuilding the country and creating jobs to sustain the infrastructure some
major challenges: Haitian leadership to create and implement a regeneration
plan, building houses and clearing the rubble, containing Cholera outbreak,
fresh water delivery, encouraging education and making jobs. The international
aid is temporary, permanent infrastructure needs to begin immediately with
local materials and local labour. NGOs can play excellent roles as building
educators to teach local people good practices in the built environment.

The Haitian people have shown temendous resilience and strength of character,
during the disaster. The aim of this paper has been to raise key building issues
which can increase the safely at little or no extra cost, early in the
reconstruction process.

25

Bibliography
FEMA document Homebuilders Guide to Earthquake Resistant Design and
Construction FEMA232 June 2006 US Dept of Homeland Security; National
Institute of Building Sciences Washington D.C.
Estimated Downtime from Data on Residential buildings after the Northridge
and Loma Prieta Eaarthquakes Earthquake Spectra Volume 26, Issue 4, pp.
951-965 (November 2010) Wtitten by Prof. M.C. Comerio & H.E. Blecher, with
PEER
Masonry Details, FEMA499 Home builders guide to Coastal Construction
August 2005 Technical Fact Sheet No.16
FEMA308 Repair of Earthquake Damaged Concrete and Masonry Wall Buildings Federal Emergency Management Agency May 1999 Applied Technology
Council: California
FEMAP-774 Un-reinforced Masonry Buildings and Earthquakes: Developing
Successful Risk Reduction Programs October 2009
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS AND CURRENT STATUS OF EARTHQUAKE
ENGINEERING IN INDIA Written by Sudhir K JAIN and Navin (2000) C
NIGAM Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, India, Email:skjain@iitk.ac.in
REBUILDING 101 MANUAL Rebuilding Strategies for Haiti March 2010:
Architecture for Humanity
The 2010 Haiti Earthquake: Challenges and Opportunities for a Resilient Sustainable Haiti. Professor Reginald DesRoches, PhD. Georgia Institute of Technology (2010: Georgia)
Earthquake Resistant Design and Construction Guideline, 31st May 2006.
Elizabeth Hausler, PhD 2006: Build Change Build Earthquake Resistant Houses;
change Construction Practice Permanently
Earthquake Resistant Design and Construction Guideline, 31st May 2006.
Elizabeth Hausler, PhD 2006: Build Change Build Earthquake Resistant Houses;
change Construction Practice Permanently
Ti Kay Pay: A Straw Bale Rebuilding Solution for Haiti; Building Back Better
Communities. Under the Auspices of Builders Without Borders. Martin Hammer

26

Bibliography
Haiti Regeneration: Creating an exemplar community of cottages and townhouses, Utilizing Haitian Creole environmental patterns. (Published in July 19th 2010
in San Francisco: Builders without Borders) Alliance of Haitian and International
environmental design professionals led by Frederick Mangones Architect
Henry L. Green, Hon.AIA President Letter to Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton
Information from the National Institute of Building Sciences, Washington D.C.
Meeting minutes from EERI-NSF rapid and research needs workshop;
Sustainability and Capacity Building led by K. Mosalam and A. Taanidis 2010

Fierro, Eduardo and Cynthia Perry. 2010. Preliminary Reconnaissance Report12 January 2010 Haiti Earthquake. Retrieved April 20, 2010
(supersites.unavco.org/Haiti_Reconnaissance.pdf).

UN Peace Operations: A case study of Haiti (New York;2009:UN Press)

Charles T. Call: New York University

CIA. 2010. Haiti. The World Factbook. Retrieved April 19, 2010
(https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ha.html).

27

Damage Assessment Using Laser Scanning

after the January, 12, 2010 Haiti Earthquake
Khalid M. Mosalam,a) M.EERI, Shakhzod M. Takhirov,b) and Mark Kellyc)
This paper focuses on using laser scanners capable of measuring large objects.
High definition laser scans have many advantages and have been successfully
used to assess structural damage in earthquake engineering laboratories. This
paper is the first attempt to demonstrate the use of this technology in the field. On
July, 2010, a reconnaissance team to Port au Prince, Haiti, scanned an array of
structures, mostly buildings, at different states of damage and obtained laser scans
together with conventional and panorama photo imagery, to allow the creation of
a combined database of photo images and laser scans. This unique deployment of
field measurements using laser scanning provided a benchmark for image-based
remote sensing evaluation and future advancement in damage assessment of
structural systems. The techniques of gathering and disseminating critical
information employed in this paper is expected to have a major impact on future
earthquake engineering reconnaissance in the US and worldwide.
INTRODUCTION
Haiti is located off the south-eastern tip of Florida. A very large earthquake hit Haiti on
January 12th 2010, Moment Magnitude Mw = 7.0 (USGS 2010). The epicenter was near the
town of Logne, approximately 25 km (16 miles) west of Port au Prince, Haiti's capital. The
earthquake occurred at 16:53 local time (21:53 UTC) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010 (Millar
2010). In 12 days after the earthquake, there were 52 aftershocks measuring 4.5 or greater
(Red Cross Report 2010). The Haitian people were severely affected with more than 200,000
lives lost. The Haitian authorities said the powerful quake destroyed most of the capital city
of Port au Prince. The Red Cross estimated 3 million people, one-third of Haitis population,
were affected and 1,000,000 people were left homeless (Red Cross Report 2010). Haitians
mainly live in shantytown dwellings, constructed from cheap locally-quarried limestone,
which were badly hit by the quake and this housing was leveled. The Haitian Government
a)

Professor & Vice Chair, 733 Davis Hall, Civil & Env. Eng. Dept., Univ. of Calif., Berkeley, CA 94720-1710
Senior Development Engineer, Pacific Earthquake Eng. Research Center, Univ. of Calif., Berkeley
c)
Graduate Student, Architecture Dept., University of California, Berkeley
b)

estimated 250,000 residences and 30,000 commercial buildings had collapsed or were
severely damaged (Renois 2010). The emergency services were unable to cope in the event
of a major disaster. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, worldwide Haiti
is ranked 149th in 182 countries on the Human Development Index (UNDP 2009).
The cause of the earthquake is based on the strike-slip fault system which has two
branches in Haiti, in relation to the North American plate and the Caribbean tectonic plate.
The strike-slip fault system occurred between the Septentrional fault in the north and the
Enriquillo-Plaintain Garden fault to the south, which had been locked for 250 years and
gathering stress. The rupture was roughly 65 kilometers (40 miles) long with a mean slip of
1.8 meters (5.9 feet) (CIRES 2010).
After the Haiti earthquake on January 12th 2010, a team of engineers from the University
of California, Berkeley, Stanford University, and BFP Engineers, Inc. visited Port au Prince,
Haiti to record the building damage using laser scanning technology. This is the first time this
laser scanning technology has been used for post-earthquake data collection. After the
earthquake several structures were in different states of damage with varying residual
deformation. The team focused on some of these structures to record their residual
deformation using a laser scanner, which estimates position of surface points and allows
creating a three-dimensional (3D) point cloud for subsequent analysis, to calculate these
residual deformations. The ScanStation2 laser scanner can record data to an accuracy of 4.0
mm from up to 100 meters away. The 3D point cloud data has been analyzed in Cyclone
(Leica 2006) and Matlab (MathWorks 2007) followed by mapping into Google Earth (KML
Reference, 2010) where results can be made public and accessible. The reconnaissance team
collected data in a combined database of photos and laser scans. In addition to the laser
scanning tasks, the reconnaissance effort included high resolution image acquisition
including 3D panoramic view of the damage sites. All information is analyzed and organized
in a searchable database and is available to the engineering community on the Internet.
The team traveled with the laser scanning equipment to scan an array of buildings in
different damage states. While collapse is obvious to the naked eye, it is often difficult to
discriminate between lesser damage states. The team scanned the structures in one city block
of Port au Prince previously surveyed by taking aerial photos and by members of the team
who used on-the-ground surveillance immediately after the earthquake. In the course of fivedays of field work, many types of structures, mostly buildings, were scanned, including a

residential building, a hospital, a school, a church, a commercial building used by a bank, a

hotel, a bridge and many others. The total number of scanned objects exceeded 20 with
various damage states. One of the objectives was to demonstrate that the high-definition
laser scanning would be an appropriate way to correlate damage from aerial or land surveys,
using conventional (photography and other visual) methods.
LASER SCANNING OVERVIEW
For the first time, this paper provides original information application, using advanced
high-definition laser scanning (HDS) technology from the reconnaissance effort after the
Haiti Earthquake. This paper focuses on using laser scanners capable of measuring large
objects in space, an important attribute for structural assessment. The use of such HDS has
many advantages and has been successfully applied to assess and document structural
damage in earthquake engineering. Several of these earthquake engineering applications were
conducted in laboratories (Mosalam et al. 2009) and this paper aims at demonstrating the use
of this technology in the field. A 3D point cloud representing the structures surface is
delivered as the final result.
Laser scanning technology is rapidly expanding into many fields and is becoming an
essential tool for accurate non-destructive 3D measurements of structures. This technology
enables users to capture millions of points from the subject structure with high accuracy. This
accuracy depends on the size of the structure, its proximity to the scanner and its type. A
laser scanner can deliver results with an accuracy ranging from 0.05 mm to 4.00 mm. 3D
point cloud representing the structures surface is delivered as the final result. The HDS
technology rapidly expands beyond the limits of its traditional usage (topographical
surveying, reverse engineering, etc.) and finds excellent applications in many other fields.
For instance, scanning surfaces of visible faults in earthquake-prone regions and analysis of
their roughness can lead to new developments in seismology (Sagy et al. 2007). Extensive
studies of heritage buildings are being conducted at many historic places throughout the
world, e.g. (Spring and Wetherelt 2007). The HDS have been extensively used for
documentation and damage assessment of test structures subjected to earthquake loads at the
University of California, Berkeley (Takhirov 2008).
Nowadays, there are several types of laser scanners targeting various applications. The
laser scanning concept of the scanner used in this paper is based on measuring distances

using the travel duration of a short laser pulse from a source back to a receiver. The laser
scanner sends a short duration laser pulse to an object and receives a reflected light. The
measured duration of the light travel is used in the estimation of the coordinates of each
point, relative to the scanner location. Moreover, the recorded intensity of the reflected light
by the scanner can be closely correlated to color of the object. ScanStation2 used in this study
is shown in Figure 1 and has a maximum 270360 field-of-view with a single-point range
and angular accuracies of 4 mm (0.16 in) and 60 micro-radians, respectively. The beam
spot size is only 6 mm (0.24 in) from 0-50 m (0-164 ft) range. With these specifications, the
ScanStation2 delivers survey-grade accuracy while providing a versatile platform for data
capture. A major advantage of ScanStation2 is the leveling feature which provides a reliable
vertical reference axis that is extremely important in structural assessment.

Figure 1. ScanStation2 from Leica Geosystems, Inc. used in this study.

In general, each scanner location generates a database of points called a point cloud. The
point clouds can be generated from many locations around objects. These point clouds can be
stitched together through a process called registration where all common HDS targets
between several scan worlds are matched to each other. HDS targets are necessary for
referencing and stitching scan worlds together to combine them into one database with all the
details of the component point clouds. Correct selection of the target locations is important to
simplify data reduction and to increase accuracy of the combined scans into one registration.
The registration can be referenced to any known global (geo-referencing) or any local
coordinate system convenient for analysis. Cyclone version 5.8 (Leica 2006), a software
developed by Leica Geosystems, Inc. is used in this study for points acquisition, data
reduction and presentation. A complete point cloud of a registration or selections of it can be
exported in many formats for further reduction. In this study, several slices of the point
clouds were exported in ASCII format, reduced and presented in Matlab (MathWorks 2007).

ACCURACY STUDY OF LASER SCANNING

The accuracy study of the laser scanner was conducted in a laboratory environment. A
laser scanner was used in the shaking table experiments of a wood-frame building conducted
at the University of California, Berkeley (Mosalam et al. 2009). A 13.5-ft19.5-ft two-story
wood-frame building representing San Francisco 1940s design of a residential building with
a garage space on the first story (house-over-garage) was tested. The test building was
subjected to scaled ground motion based on Los Gatos record from Loma Prieta 1989
earthquake. The strong motion time history was scaled to match design spectra of a site in
Richmond district of San Francisco. The test results demonstrated the seismic vulnerability of
the test building due to soft story mechanism and significant twisting when shaken in two
horizontal directions. In addition to conventional instrumentation for measuring acceleration
and position of selected points of the test building, HDS technology was employed to assess
global and local anomalies of the building after the shaking table tests. The analysis
conducted in this study showed very good correlation between conventional data recorded
from position transducers and the laser scans. These laser scans expanded limits of
conventional data at discrete points and allowed analyzing the whole building after shaking.
The building was scanned from many locations in before and after conditions. The
point clouds were stitched into two registrations called before and after, respectively.
Since the foundation of the building did not experience any damage or slip with respect to the
shaking table during seismic tests, the local coordinate system for both registrations was
selected on the foundation. Figures 2 and 3 show residual deformation of one of the walls of
the building as a contour plot and as a vertical slice parallel to the wall with the garage door
opening from the before and after scans, respectively. The slice was taken 0.3 m (1 ft)
from the east face of the foundation, into the test building. Clearly Figure 3 shows excellent
correlation between the HDS results and those from conventional measurements as indicated
by the superposed wire potentiometer (WP) readings on the south side of the vertical slice.
In another study, a corner reinforced concrete (RC) column is evaluated using
conventional measurements and HDS. The evaluated specimen is one of eight specimens
tested as part of the NEES Grand Challenge Project on Mitigation of Collapse Risk in Older
Concrete Buildings (PEER 2010). Details of the objectives and results of the first phase of
the experimental program can be found in (Park and Mosalam 2010a, b). The specimen was
replicating a corner column-to-beam joint in a non-ductile RC frame building, Figure 4a. The

specimen was tested under large column axial load and simulated beam shears up to collapse,
Figure 4b. Laser scans of the tested specimen were taken after the test and horizontal slices
for the bottom column right above the bottom 2D clevis and 0.5 m (1.64 ft) higher, Figure 5,
and for the top column right below the top 2D clevis and 0.5 m (1.64 ft) lower, Figure 6,
were analyzed and results were compared with conventional measurements. Drift was
defined as the ratio of the relative horizontal displacement of the columns corner, at the two
horizontal slices to the difference of their elevation, i.e. 0.5 m (1.64 ft), as shown in Figures
5a and 6a (amplified 5 times). For small angles, this drift is close to the inclination of the
columns edge relative to vertical axis measured in radians. To examine the accuracy of the
drift estimation, a digital level was used to measure the same inclination, Figures 5b and 6b,
and perfect match between the digital level readings and the HDS points cloud was obtained.

Z
Y
X

Note: North direction

is along the x-axis
Final deformation after
shaking table test

Final 3D point cloud

Residual out-of-plane deformation of the

longitudinal (north) wall

Figure 2. Out-of-plane deformation of a wood wall from shaking table tests and from HDS.

Figure 3. Residual NS deformation of a vertical slice parallel to the east wall one foot away
from the east face of the test building for the before and after configurations.

(a) Schematic of the test setup

(b) Photograph of specimen after testing
Figure 4. One of the corner beam-column specimens for a study on non-ductile RC frames.

10083.4=6.6o
Drift=6.6/180100
11.5%

(a)
(b)
Figure 5. (a) Plot of drift estimate from two horizontal slices, 0.5 m apart, of HDS of the
bottom portion of the column, (b) Photo of digital level for inclination of bottom column.

10083.8=6.2o
Drift=6.2/180100
10.8%

(a)
(b)
Figure 6. (a) Plot of drift estimate from two horizontal slices, 0.5 m apart, of HDS of the top
portion of the column, (b) Photo of digital level for inclination of top column.
DESCRIPTION OF FIELD WORK AND STUDY CASES
As discussed earlier more than 20 structures were scanned in Haiti. The structures varied
in their damage states. Figures 7 and 8 show images of the main 20 structures considered in
this study. These structures are the ones that had successful and informative laser scanning
information. Also shown in these figures, below each photograph, are the GPS coordinates,
ordered as (west, north), of the location of the scanner. Five of these structures, shown in
Figure 8, are analyzed in details as four study cases (I to IV) where study case III represents
two adjacent buildings in the same city block of Port au Prince.

-72.32044176, 18.53552457

-72.34362064, 18.54741786

-72.34354011, 18.54747617

-72.32881736, 18.53444119

-72.33950604, 18.54007549

-72.34558123, 18.54969582

-72.34470146, 18.54924107

-72.34575219, 18.54977005

-72.34529644, 18.54929674

-72.34488522, 18.54904096

-72.34566362, 18.54968055

-72.34578763, 18.54966409

-72.33825071, 18.54968029
-72.3382724, 18.54957487
-72.33866162, 18.54945608
Figure 7. Fifteen structures with different states of damage successfully scanned.

(a) -72.41656808, 18.54983675 (Case I)

(b) -72.34358178, 18.54743108 (Case II)

(c) -72.34498263, 18.54908690 (Case III)

(d) -72.34362030, 18.54902101 (Case IV)
Figure 8. Five structures considered in this paper for four in-depth study cases.
The goals of the study included: 1) To provide information for the first time on the use of
high definition laser scanning and the merits and difficulties of using this advanced
technology in a reconnaissance effort after a major disaster; 2) To evaluate if the scanning
would be an appropriate way to corroborate damage from aerial surveys; 3) To use this
unique deployment of field measurements to provide an important benchmark for imagebased remote sensing evaluation and future advancement of our capabilities for damage
assessment of structural systems using the collected detailed data in this study; 4) To improve
our preparedness in situations of similar disasters in the US and worldwide.

Study Case I: Bridge located near Logne, Haiti

The reconnaissance team surveyed a bridge located near the epicenter, Figure 8(a), which
was in the vicinity of Logne town, approximately 25 km (16 miles) west of Port au Prince,

Haiti's capital. The laser scan of the bridge has provided interesting information for structural
damage assessment. This study case provides a representative example of the scan work as it
relates to bridge structures. The bridge was scanned from two locations called Location 1 and
Location 2. The global view from Location 1 using coarse scan is shown in Figure 9. The
fine and course laser scans were performed from Location 2 where the fine scan, performed
on a damaged shear key, is shown in Figure 10a. The cross sections of the shear key along
the transverse direction of the bridge and parallel to the shear keys face near its face and at
the mid-plane are shown in Figures 10b and 10c, respectively. The measurements performed
on the zoomed version of the scan section in Figure 10c is shown in Figure 10d indicating
residual deformation of that portion of the key of 9.2 mm.

Figure 9. Course global scan from Location 1 for the bridge in study case I.

9.2mm

(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
Figure 10. (a) Fine local scan from location 2 and photo; (b) Section at face of the shear key;
(c) Section at mid-plane of the shear key; (d) Zoomed in view of the section in part (c).

Study Case II: Asscotia Hotel

The building identified as Asscotia Hotel, Figure 8b, has GPS coordinates -72.343590
west and 18.547742 north. This building is a RC frame with masonry infill located at the
east-north corner of Boulevard Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Rue Pavee (street names are
taken from Google maps). The building was significantly damaged during the earthquake and
at the time of the field work was not occupied. The building was scanned from two positions,

namely from south side and the center of the nearby intersection of Boulevard Jean-Jacques
Dessalines and Rue Pavee. The scans were stitched based on 2 targets with one common
vertical reference axis in both positions. The fully stitched registration is shown in Figure 11.

N
Figure 11. Combined scan of the Asscotia Hotel from two point clouds generated at two
positions (view from west-south).
The local coordinate system of the registration was selected to have the south building
side (see the north (N) direction in Figure 11) aligned with Rue Pavee going from west to
east coinciding with the X-axis of the coordinate system. In this case, the Y-axis closely
matches the direction of the street going from south to north, i.e. Boulevard Jean-Jacques
Dessalines. In two horizontal slices of the point cloud, 1 m (3.28 ft) apart in elevation, the fist
story level was analyzed as discussed in the following paragraph. The first story of the
building represented a soft story, consisting of several columns built around the perimeter of
the building without shear walls. Since the building was scanned from two positions, the
majority of columns were captured from three sides as shown in Figure 11.
All the columns in the horizontal slices were selected to assess residual drift at the first
story of the building. For each column, the drift was estimated by the following procedure.
The points on two adjacent sides of each column slice were fitted by a straight line using the
least squares method. The intersection point was assumed to be at the corner of the column,
in this elevation corresponding to the particular slice in question. This operation was repeated
for all column sections and for the two horizontal slices. The vector connecting the corners of

a particular column sections at the two elevations corresponding to the two horizontal slices
was assumed to represent the residual deflection of that particular column after the
earthquake, as shown in Figure 12. The percentage drift shown was estimated from the ratio
of this residual deflection to the difference in elevation between these two horizontal slices.
The column drift vector is amplified 40 times in this plot. The residual drifts were estimated
at all columns with the results shown in Figure 13 showing significant twisting of the
building as reflected by the 40 times amplified rotated and translated bottom slice with
respect to the top one.

Figure 12. Example of drift calculation for one of the Asscotia Hotels columns (2nd column
on east side counted from the south-west corner); Left: horizontal slices of first story at two
elevations; Right: zoomed view of column (dashed box on the left) with drift vector shown.

Figure 13. Columns drift vectors of the Hotel as they relate to point cloud registration.

Study Case III: Two Adjacent Buildings in a City Block

The map of Port au Prince Downtown was divided into blocks which were investigated
by various teams. One of the blocks called Block 7 was assessed by E. Fierro immediately
after the earthquake. As previously stated, one of the goals of this study was to compare
common methods of surveying based on photographic images to surveying performed by the
laser scanner. There were 17 buildings in Block 7 where damage in this block was
significant. Figure 14 shows the Google Earth map of Block 7, highlighted by a rectangle.
Also Figure 14 shows the results of conventional surveying and structural damage
assessment, perfumed previously by the reconnaissance team member Mr. E. Fierro.

A B
Figure 14. Block 7 investigated earlier by E. Fierro; Left: Google earth image for the
location of the block; Right: damage assessment results from ground survey.
Two buildings in this block are identified as the focus of study case III, Figure 8c, and
they are labeled as A and B in figure 14. According to ground surveying, buildings A and B
suffered from moderate and heavy damages, respectively. Figure 15a shows building B at the
south-west corner of Block 7. It had been damaged heavily during the earthquake and it was
unoccupied at the time of laser scan surveying. It is a two storey building with a soft storey at
the first level. Figure 15b shows drift vectors for each column of the building indicating
values as high as 4.9% which are consistent with the observed heavy damage. On the other
hand, Figure 16a shows building A at the south-west corner of Block 7. It had been damaged
moderately during the earthquake and it was also unoccupied at the time of laser scan
surveying. It is a small two storey RC frame building with unreinforced masonry infill.
Figure 16b shows drift vectors for each corner of the building indicating much lower values
than those of building B which are consistent with the observed moderate damage.

(a)
(b)
Figure 15. Photograph (a) and structural damage assessment results produced from laser
scans (b) of building B identified in Figure 14 at the south-east corner of Block 7.

(a)
(b)
Figure 16. Photograph (a) and structural damage assessment results produced from laser
scans (b) of building A identified in Figure 14 at the south-west corner of Block 7.

Study Case IV: Mon Parfum Building

The same manipulation of point cloud was performed on the point cloud of a building
with round faade located on the next intersection north of the Asscotia Hotel. For the
purpose of this paper, the building is referred to as the Mon Parfum Building, which is the
name of the business displayed on the building. The GPS coordinates of the building are
presented in Figure 8d. The coordinate system of the scan was transformed in such a way that
the east side of the building was aligned with Boulevard Jean-Jacques Dessalines going from
south to north and coinciding with X-axis of the coordinate system. Similar to the Asscotia

Hotel case, the Y-axis of the coordinate system closely matches the direction of the street
going from east to west, i.e. Rue Des Miracles. The first story of the building represented a
soft story consisting of many columns on the perimeter of the building without shear walls.
The building was scanned from one position only that explains the limitation that the
majority of columns were captured from two adjacent sides only as shown in Figure 17. The
figure shows two horizontal slices of the point cloud, 1 meter apart in elevation, at the fist
story level that was analyzed in the same manner as described above for study case II.
Clearly significant damage took place in this building where some columns reached as large
values of drift ratio as 9.9% which can be related to localized damage in that column.
Bottom Slice
Top Slice
Rotated&Translated Bottom

15

North-South Coordinate (m)

3.4%
10
5.0%

4.5%

4.7%
0

1.2%
4.9%

4.3%

9.9%

-5
0

10
15
East-West Coordinate (m)

20

25

Figure 17. Residual drift calculated for all columns in study case IV.

Work in Progress
The reconnaissance team was able to acquire enormous amount of information, e.g. the
registration of the Asscotia Hotel alone consisted of 9 billion points. The detailed data
reduction requires some time. Table 1 is a representative example of work in progress. The
translational and rotational motions in the two buildings in study cases II and IV are
compared in the table. The computation of these components demonstrate the unique
capabilities in manipulating 3D point clouds from scanning group of buildings to understand
the global effect of earthquake shaking, i.e. on a group of buildings not just a single building.
The rotations and translations for all buildings captured during the field work are planned to
be summarized in a form similar to that table and this data will be overlaid over Haiti map in
Google Earth to capture global directivity of the strong motion.

Table 1. Rotation and translation of the bottom slice with respect to the top slice.
Study
Case
II
IV

Rotation
[radians]
0.0013
0.0015

X-translation
[mm]
-14.4
-14.7

Y-Translation
[mm]
-27.5
46.0

Drift translation
vector [%]
3.1
4.8

Drift angle to
X [degrees]
207.60
162.25

CONCLUDING REMARKS
From the presented research in this paper, the following concluding remarks can be made:
1) The laser scanning and other conventional data collected from the earthquake in Haiti can
improve our preparedness in situations of similar disasters in the US and worldwide. It is
anticipated that techniques employed in this study in gathering and disseminating critical
information will have a major impact on future reconnaissance efforts.
2) A laser scanner used in the study delivers accuracy of individual point acquisition of 4.0
mm. This accuracy can be significantly increased by best fitting a point cloud to a surface
it is representing. In-house study at the University of California showed that the error of
tracking points of a surface can be reduced in this case to less than 1 mm.
3) The laser scans used in the scope of this paper showed good correlation of the quantitative
damage assessment based on the point clouds and that from qualitative visual damage
assessment or using conventional quantitative reconnaissance approaches.
4) Main limitations of the laser scanning are: a) it can only acquire visible surfaces due to the
nature of the laser technology, and b) it is relatively slow to use in real time structural
testing or rapid reconnaissance, which is a limitation that will most likely be resolved in
the future due to development of laser technology to increase speed of point acquisition.
5) The conventional and panoramic photographic images and the laser scans incorporated
into Google Earth allow prompt sharing the damage assessment data on the Internet
amongst the engineering community, emergency services and other quick response
agencies. With programming scripts in place, the reduction of laser scan data can be
accomplished within days and uploaded onto a server to be accessed on the Internet. By
means of the interactive panorama, users can look around the camera location and zoom
into building details. The laser scans can be conveniently viewed in a browser with options
to make any measurements and notes to be shared with others.
ACKNOLEDGEMENTS
The authors acknowledge the financial support, Award # 1034808, from the National Science
Foundation through the RAPID Program. Thanks are due to Mr. E. Fierro and Prof. E.

Miranda for being members of the reconnaissance team. The following PEER/nees@berkeley
summer interns: Victoria Servin, Clay Sorensen, and Sean Wade, contributed to the pre- and
post-filed work using the laser scanners. Their help is gratefully acknowledged.
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