SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF

EARTHQUAKE AND IMPACT ON

BUILT ENVIRONMENT

Major Impacts
The major social and economic consequences of earthquakes
result from damage to elements of the built environment that
are essential to the operation of the economic activities in the
impacted region. Some economic sectors are by their nature
more vulnerable than others. Some sectors will even find an
increase in their activity because of demands placed on them
by the disaster.
1)Water supply severe problems due to failure of the water
supply and distribution network and storage reservoirs.
2)Physical Damage Damage occurs to human settlements,
buildings, structures and infrastructure
3)Casualties The casualty rate is often high, especially
when earthquakes occur in areas
4)Electricity and Communication all links affected. Tower
collapse, transponders collapse, transformers collapse.
5)Public health multiple fracture injuries and number of
severely and moderately injured is the most widespread
problem, breakdown in sanitary conditions pose a threat and
fear of epidemic due to large deaths The most widespread
medical problems are fracture injuries.
6)Transport network severely affected due to failure of
roads and bridges, turns in railway track alignment , failure of
runway.
7)Food Supplies- Food distribution and marketing systems
may be disrupted.

Other Impacts
Businesses.
The earthquakes have impacted businesses in the region in a
number of ways. First, damage to physical capital (mainly
buildings) has reduced the productive capacity of numerous
companies. Second, the damage to infrastructure such as roads
and utilities has reduced the ability of businesses to carry out
their operations. Finally some businesses have faced a change
in demand.

Population
Population changes post-disaster have important implications
for the extent of post-disaster rebuilding and economic
recovery.

Economic and social impact

It is possible to classify the impacts of an earthquake, by taking
the following factors into account:
short-term (immediate) impacts
long-term impacts
social impacts (the impact on people)
economic impacts (the impact on the wealth of an area)
environmental impacts (the impact on the landscape)

1) Short-term (immediate) impacts:

a)Social impacts : People may be killed or injured. Homes

may be destroyed .Transport and communication links may
be disrupted. Water and Drainage pipes will be leaked and
contaminated.

b)Economic impacts: Shops and business may be destroyed .

Looting may take place. The damage to transport and
communication links can make trade difficult.
c)Environmental impacts: The built landscape may be
destroyed. Fires can spread due to gas pipe explosions. Fires
can damage areas of woodland. Landslides may
occur. Tsunamis may cause flooding.

2) Long-term impacts:
a)Social impacts : Disease may spread. People may have to
be re-housed, sometimes in refugee camps.
b)Economic impacts: The cost of rebuilding settlement is
high. Investment in the area may be focused only on repairing
the damage caused by the earthquake. Income could be lost.
c)Environmental impacts: Important natural and human
landmarks may be lost.

Effects are often classified as primary and secondary

impacts.
Primary effects occur as a direct result of the ground shaking,
eg buildings collapsing.

Secondary effects occur as a result of the primary effects, eg

tsunamis or fires due to ruptured gas mains.

IMPACT ON BUILDINGS
The direct shaking effects as damage or collapse of buildings,
bridges, elevated roads, railways, water towers, water
treatment facilities, utility lines, pipelines, electrical generating
facilities and transformer stations, are not the only hazard
associated with earthquakes, other secondary effects, that are
caused by earthquakes, most often a result of strong shaking,
such as landslides, soil liquefaction, fires, floods etc. Failure of
the soil beneath building is also a major course of damage.
Several important characteristics that can affect a building
during earthquakes are:
1) Acceleration : The acceleration, or the rate of change of
the velocity of the waves set-ting the building in motion,
determines the percentage of the building mass or weight
that must be dealt with as a horizontal force
Acceleration is measured in terms of the acceleration due to
gravity or g. A building in an earthquake experiences a fraction
of a second of g forces in one direction before they abruptly
change direction.
Poorly constructed buildings begin to suffer damage at about
10 percent g (or 0.1g). In a moderate earthquake, the waves of
vibration may last for a few seconds, and accelerations may be
approximately 0.2g

2) Amplification: Earthquake shaking is initiated by a fault

slippage in the underlying rock. As the shaking propagates
to the surface, it may be amplified, depending on the
intensity of shaking, the nature of the rock and, above all,
the surface soil type and depth.

Because of the possibility of considerable shaking amplification

related to the nature of the ground, seismic codes have some
very specific requirements that relate to the characteristics of
the site. These require the structure to be designed for higher
force levels if it is located on poor soil. Specially designed
foundations may also be necessary
3) Period: is the time in seconds (or fractions of a second)
that is needed to complete one cycle of a seismic wave. It
determines whether the waves are quick and abrupt or
slow and rolling. This phenomenon is particularly
important for determining building seismic forces.
Natural period or fundamental period is the rate at which
they will move back and forth if they are given a horizontal
push. Natural periods vary from about 0.05 seconds for a piece
of equipment, such as a filing cabinet, to about 0.1 seconds for
a one-story building.
The buildings period may also be changed by earthquake
damage. When a reinforced concrete structure experiences
severe ground shaking, it begins to crack: this has the effect of
increasing the structures period of vibration: the structure is
softening. This may result in the structures period

approaching that of the ground and experiencing resonance,

which may prove fatal to an already weakened structure.
4) Resonance: When a vibrating or swinging object is given
further pushes that are also at its natural period, its
vibrations increase dramatically in response to even rather
small pushes and, in fact, its accelerations may increase
as much as four or five times. This phenomenon is called
resonance.
Resonance causes the structure to encounter accelerations of
perhaps 1g when the ground is only vibrating with
accelerations of 0.2g. Because of this, buildings suffer the
greatest damage from ground motion at a frequency close or
equal to their own natural frequency.

5) Damping: If a structure is made to vibrate, the amplitude

of the vibration will decay over time and eventually cease.
Damping is a measure of this decay in amplitude, and it is
due to internal friction and absorbed energy.
The nature of the structure and its connections affects the
damping; a heavy concrete structure will provide more
damping than a light steel frame. Architectural features such as
partitions and exterior faade construction contribute to the
damping.
6) Ductility: The gap between design capacity (the
theoretical ability of a building to withstand calculated
forces) and possible actual forces is, finally, largely dealt
with by relying on the material property of ductility.
This is the property of certain materials (steel in particular) to
fail only after considerable inelastic deformation has taken

place, meaning that the material does not return to its original
shape after distortion. This deformation, or distortion,
dissipates the energy of the earthquake.
7) Strength: is necessary to ensure that a structure can
support imposed loads without exceeding certain stress
values. Stress refers to the internal forces within a
material or member that is created as the structural
member resists the applied load.
8) Stiffness: is measured by deflection, the extent to which
a structural member, such as a floor, roof, or wall
structure, bends when loaded. De-flection is generally
expressed as a fraction of length of the member or
assembly.

EARTHQUAKE AND
DISASTER
MANAGEMENT
ASSIGNMENT -1
SOCIAL
AND ECONOMICAL
CONSEQUENCES
OF

EARTHQUAKE
AND
IMPACT ON
BUILT

ENVIRONMENT

ITS

INDEX
MAJOR
IMPACTS
..01
OTHER
IMPACTS
02
SHORT-TERM
IMPACTS.02-03
LONG-TERM
IMPACTS..03
IMPACTS ON BUILT
ENVIRONMENT04-06