Background papers and supplementary technical information

Population growth and the built environment are the primary root causes of morbidity and mortality associated with earthquakes. Earthquakes generally do not cause death and injury, but rather it is the buildings in which people are located and the contents therein that are directly responsible for human mortality and morbidity. Protective action messaging is intended to provide members of the public with information that can be recalled and acted on during earthquake shaking to reduce the chance of death and injury. In order to design appropriate guidance for developing protective action messages for earthquakes, it is important to understand their human impact­that is, how people are injured and killed during earthquake shaking. The purpose of this background paper is to describe the epidemiology of deaths and injuries during earthquakes. The paper will address the major causes of death and injury from earthquakes, including what the research indicates about injuries to building occupants who walk or run, the likelihood of death or injury from earthquakes, the likelihood of death or injury from earthquake-related building collapse, the likelihood of death or injury from substandard building evacuation routes during earthquakes, and other sudden onset threats, such as tsunami or fire. The health effects of earthquakes can be categorized in a variety of ways. Combs, Quenemoen, Parrish, and Davis (1999) developed a typology, which has been adopted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), for categorizing the health effects attributable to earthquakes and other disasters based on two parameters: (1) the time the death or injury occurs relative to the event, and (2) whether the event is directly or indirectly related to the disaster. Deaths and injuries that are directly related are those that are caused by the physical forces of the event, whereas indirectly related deaths and injuries are, "those caused by unsafe or unhealthy conditions that occur because of the anticipation, or actual occurrence, of the disaster" (Combs et al., 1999, p. 1125). This paper will focus primarily on human deaths and injuries occurring during earthquakes that are directly related to the event.

RADIUS: risk isessment tools for dagnosis of urban areas against seismic disasters

Urban seismic risk is rapidly increasing, particularly in developing countries, where a number of mega-cities are growing.Almost half of the world population lives in cities, where all kinds of human activities are concentrated. Thus, cities are more and more vulnerable to disasters, particularly to earthquakes, which can strike any city suddenly without warning. Once an earthquake takes place in a large city,the damage can be tremendous both in human and economic terms. Even an intermediate earthquake can cause destructive damage to a city as in the cases of the 1995 earthquake in Kobe. Japan and the 1999 earthquake in Kocaeli,Turkey. There is a tendency to think that disaster prevention would cost much more than relief activities. However, the reality is the reverse. Our society has been spending a lot of resources for response activities after disasters; these resources could have been drastically reduced if some had been spent for disaster prevention.There is also a tendency to look at disasters mainly from a humanitarian angle, bringing us into the position of giving priority to the response to disasters. However, relief activities can never save human lives that have already been lost. Response activities can never help immediately resume functions of an urban infrastructure that have already been destroyed. The bottom line is that buildings should not kill people by collapsing and infrastructure should not halt social and economic activities of the city for a long time. It is essential particularly for seismic risk reduction to concentrate our efforts on prevention and preparedness.The secretariat of the lnternational Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR 1990-2000), United Nations, Geneva, therefore, launched the RADIUS (Risk AssessmentTools for Diagnosis of Urban Areas against Seismic Disasters) initiative in 1996, with financial assistance from the Government of Japan. It aimed to promote worldwide activities for reduction of seismic disasters in urban areas, particularly in developing countries.