Non-structural earthquake vulnerability assessment of major hospital buildings in Nepal

The non-structural assessment of critical public facilities such as hospital buildings is very essential for earthquake disaster adaptation in earthquake prone regions. In Nepal, a devastating earthquake is inevitable in the long term and likely in the near future. So a non-structural earthquake vulnerability assessment study was carried out in the selected main hospitals of Nepal. This paper presents the findings of the assessment work. The results show an alarming situation and demand an immediate action in most of the hospital buildings so as to achieve a standard and acceptable level of safety. The study also recommends a gradual approach of increasing the safety level considering the socio-economic condition of the country and the fact that medium-level earthquakes are more frequent than the severe ones. Moreover, the non-structural component assessment study largely helped to convince the government officials and hospital authorities on the affordability and possibility of constructing earthquake-resistant non-structural components in the hospitals of developing countries such as Nepal, employing a slight improvement in the already employed methods of construction.