CIFAL Newcastle - Compliance to Safe Building Codes for Disaster Resilience in South Asia
In Bangladesh and Nepal the bulk of buildings (>80%) are constructed informally. Even in the formal sector there is limited adherence to building codes. Whilst building codes exist, they are not well-integrated into building and planning regulations, and there are additional enforcement and compliance challenges. Beyond these factors, affordability is a key constraint for people who build informally and there is need for a ‘grey’ building code.
If ‘safe building codes’ are followed a level of disaster resilience can be achieved. We have heard the truism “Earthquakes don’t kill people, buildings do” and in the case of Bangladesh and Nepal, it is true that the high mortality rate from disasters is human-induced – e.g. Rana Plaza in Bangladesh.
Increased institutional and community awareness of building safety is an opportunity for voluntary compliance to safe building codes. There is already a gradual paradigm shift and so, it is a relevant time for this project.
The workshop is part of a series aiming to generate consensus on the opportunities and challenges of compliance to safe building codes in South Asia – the cases of Bangladesh and Nepal.
The workshops will be exploring the role that safe building codes play in assuring resilience in the face of the frequent disasters that affect these countries and to understand how these codes might be more widely adopted to reduce disaster risks.
At the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:
- Summarise the results of the global literature review on building codes and disaster resilience;
- Identify opportunities and challenges of compliance to safe building codes through both case studies from Bangladesh and Nepal;
- Summarise the review of state building codes for disaster resilience in Bangladesh;
- Contribute to open discussion on opportunities and challenges;
- Recognise and employ the principles for effective team management through continued project planning.
The workshop provides presentation of key results of a global literature review on building codes and disaster resilience; key results from field investigations on building codes and disaster resilience in Nepal and Bangladesh as well as keynote presentations on the state of building codes for disaster resilience in Bangladesh as well as fire accidents, building collapse and rescue operations in Bangladesh.
As the workshop aims to develop skills, emphasis will be placed on short presentations that will be combined with a series of keynote presentations; case studies; interactive discussion as well as field visits.
This workshop targets Persons involved in building codes implementation and research consisting of key collaborators and research assistants from the APN project partners.
Participants successfully completing all course requirements will receive a Certificate of Course Completion.