Asian Journal of Environment and Disaster Management 2011 3 3

doi: 10.3850/S1793924011000964

Understanding Seismic Risk Recognition and Intention for Safety Measures of Residents in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Faiz Shah^a and Osamu Murao^b Department of Risk Engineering, University of Tsukuba, 1–1–1 Tennodai, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken 305–8577, Japan. ^amdfaizshah@yahoo.com ^bmurao@risk.tsukuba.ac.jp

ABSTRACT

Dhaka is vulnerable to earthquakes. Experts suspect that if a large earthquake happens in Dhaka, there will be a major human tragedy due to the structural failure of many buildings. But building are constructed in an unregulated manner and without following proper construction methods. Therefore, the objective of this study is to analyze seismic risk recognition of the resident of Dhaka and explore their intention for residential safety measures. To achieve the objective, a questionnaire survey was conducted among 720 resident of the city, and this became the major source of data for this paper. The survey results shows that (i) 91.9% respondents recognize occurrence of a large earthquake in Dhaka in very near future, and (ii) 36.7% respondents suspicious about complete destruction of their buildings in that earthquake. The study found a gap between the knowledge and implementation of the building construction code. Some interviews were conducted on this issue and the study found that resident’s knowledge on building code is essential in order to reduce the level of structural vulnerability of residential buildings. This study recommends to increase earthquake and building code related awareness and preparedness activities among the resident of Dhaka City.

Keywords: Risk recognition, Questionnaire survey, Own building damage, Intention for safety measures, BNBC, Dhaka.

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