After Disaster: the role of surveying in the assessment of building structural integrity

Abstract

Disasters, whether natural (such as earthquakes, typhoons, etc) or man-made (such as war bombardment, terrorist bomb attacks, etc) always leave building infrastructure in their wake destroyed or destabilized to a certain degree. The cost of subsequent recovery efforts can be minimized by rehabilitating as much as possible what is destabilized rather than rebuilding afresh, provided that the destabilized buildings still conform to the structural specifications in force. Surveying has an important role to play in the geometrical evaluation of such buildings before they are either condemned to demolition or recommended for rehabilitation. This paper describes the role that surveying played in evaluating Cooperative House, one of the taller buildings in Nairobi, Kenya, for rehabilitation following severe damage to it by a terrorist bomb blast at the neighbouring US embassy in 1998.