A team of Miyamoto engineers led by Dr. Kit Miyamoto himself helped the Government of Mongolia begin to assess the seismic safety of schools in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar. Mongolia knew its aging schools are not likely to withstand catastrophic earthquakes, and large faults in the region are increasingly active. Join Kit on a video tour of this fascinating project and learn how Mongolia is facing this disaster and preparing for it. Is there hope for schools in Mongolia and other countries around the world where seismic risk is high? Watch the video and find out.
Update: The World Bank tasked Miyamoto International with performing a preliminary assessment of the seismic risk to public school buildings in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Recent research had identified several active faults near Ulaanbaatar capable of producing large earthquakes and the government wanted to be proactive in mitigating against earthquake disaster, particularly in schools. Existing school buildings are in poor repair, with 30 percent being over 40 years old. The oldest 75 percent have little or no seismic design consideration and seismic safety is a real concern. Once the preliminary assessment was complete, Miyamoto performed a Multi-Hazard Vulnerability Assessment for the Prioritization of Public School Buildings. The final report provided an assessment of the cost of retrofitting priority school buildings identified in Ulaanbaatar. Taking into consideration the findings of our assessments, Miyamoto developed guidelines for seismic retrofitting of the public schools and kindergartens in Ulaanbaatar City.