Seeking Low-Cost Seismic Protection for Urban Masonry in an Unstable Terrain

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ABSTRACT
Earthquakes pose a significant threat to housing in developing countries. The
citizens of these countries often lack the financial means to sufficiently protect their homes
against seismic actions. In accordance with the eleventh UN Sustainable Development
Goal (SDG), steps need to be taken to protect these vulnerable populations from the
looming possibility of a severe earthquake. Specifically, the geographic location of Peru
designates it as an especially earthquake-prone country, and many of its citizens cannot
afford seismic reinforcement for their homes. Middle-class, urban residents, such as
those in Lima, Peru often reside in informally constructed confined masonry houses
which, in the case of a severe earthquake, would likely suffer significant damage or even
collapse. For this reason, the seismic protection market is increasingly narrowing its focus
to low-cost solutions.
This report summarizes the existing low-cost propositions and discusses to what
extent they would provide a feasible option for the aforementioned target population in
Peru. Finding that even these “low-cost” solutions are out of reach for most of the middleclass
residents of Lima, this report makes an alternate proposition. Rocking isolation
offers great potential as an innovative and economical seismic protection alternative, but
it has yet to be implemented as low-cost housing reinforcement. This emerging system
of seismic protection could fill a gap in the market as it may provide a sufficiently low-cost
accessible manner of protecting confined masonry homes.
MARKET ANALYSIS OF LOW-COST SEISMIC PROTECTION
BORTON, SAM