Seismic risk management of non-engineered buildings.

Earthquakes have long been feared as one of nature's most terrifying and devastating events. Although seismic codes clearly exist in countries with a high seismic risk to save lives and human suffering, earthquakes still continue to cause tragic events with high death tolls, particularly due to the collapse of widespread non-engineered buildings with non-seismic resistance in developing countries such as Indonesia. The implementation of seismic codes in non-engineered construction is the key to ensuring earthquake safety. In fact, such implementation is not simple, because it comprises all forms of cross disciplinary and cross sectoral linkages at different levels of understanding, commitment, and skill. This fact suggests that a widely agreed framework can help to harmonise the various perspectives. Hence, this research is aimed at developing an integrated framework for guiding and monitoring seismic risk reduction of non-engineered buildings in Indonesia via a risk management method.Primarily, the proposed framework for the study has drawn heavily on wider literature, the three existing frameworks around the world, and on the contribution of various stakeholders who participated in the study. A postal questionnaire survey, selected interviews, and workshop event constituted the primary data collection methods. As a robust framework needed to be achieved, the following two workshop events, which were conducted in Yogyakarta City and Bengkulu City in Indonesia, were carried out for practicality, validity, and moderation or any identifiable improvement requirements. The data collected was analysed with the assistance of SPSS and NVivo software programmes.This research found that the content of the proposed framework comprises 63 pairs of characteristic-indicators complemented by (a) three important factors of effective seismic risk management of non-engineered buildings, (b) three guiding principles for sustainable dissemination to the grass root communities and (c) a map of agents of change. Among the 63 pairs, there are 19 technical interventions and 44 non-technical interventions. These findings contribute to the wider knowledge in the domain of the seismic risk management of non-engineered buildings, in order to: (a) provide a basis for effective political advocacy, (b) reflect the multidimensional and inter-disciplinary nature of seismic risk reduction, (c) assist a wide range of users in determining roles, responsibilities, and accountabilities, and (d) provide the basis for setting goals and targets.