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Application of The Recommendations of The Caterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission To The Design
Application of The Recommendations of The Caterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission To The Design
Application of The Recommendations of The Caterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission To The Design
INTRODUCTION
In response to the Canterbury earthquake sequence that began on 4 September 2010 and
caused significant death and injury on 22 February 2011, the Cabinet of New Zealand estab-
lished a Royal Commission of Inquiry on 14 March 2011. The Commission was established
to report on the causes of building failure as a result of the earthquakes as well as the legal and
best-practice requirements for buildings in New Zealand Central Business Districts (CERC
2012). The Commission comprised three commissioners, several staff attorneys (Counsel
Assisting), and considerable administrative support provided by the New Zealand Depart-
ment of Internal Affairs (DIA 2001). The inquiry began in April 2011 and was completed in
November 2012.
a)
Structural Engineer, Rutherford + Chekene, San Francisco, CA
b)
Research Structural Engineer, U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, CO
c)
Staff Structural Engineer, California Seismic Safety Commission, Sacramento, CA
427
Earthquake Spectra, Volume 30, No. 1, pages 427–450, February 2014; © 2014, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute
428 HOLMES ET AL.
COMPARISON OF CONDITIONS
Commissions of Inquiry in New Zealand are authorized under the Commissions of
Inquiry Act of 1908 when situations are so unusual that no other approaches will do,
such as those in which there is considerable public anxiety about the matter; a major
lapse in Government performance appears to be involved; circumstances giving rise to
the inquiry are unique with few or no precedents; the issue cannot be dealt with through
the normal machinery of Government nor through the criminal or civil courts.
Past subjects of commission inquiry have ranged from genetic modification (2000) to
police conduct (2004) to the Pike River Coal Mine Tragedy (2010). The commissions
have broad power to obtain data and expert opinion, including subpoena power. However,
a Royal Commission is not able to determine legal rights and liabilities. Further, findings and
recommendations are not binding upon any party, including the government.
APPLICATION OF THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE CANTERBURY EARTHQUAKES ROYAL COMMISSION 429
of reinforced concrete for seismic effects were also developed in the United States in this
period with the concept of ductile concrete introduced by Blume et al. (1961) and promul-
gated in the 1971 ACI 318 design provisions for concrete. In New Zealand, the highly influ-
ential Reinforced Concrete Structures by Park and Paulay (1975) was published in 1975 and
has also been widely used in the United States. The Christchurch experience in the
Canterbury swarm of earthquakes should therefore be considered very relevant to conditions
in many parts of the United States.
Although the end result with respect to the construction of new buildings is most often
similar between the two countries, New Zealand’s nationally applicable Building Act and the
central authority of the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment to be the govern-
ment’s policy agency for building regulations enables efficient national implementation of
changes in building policies in New Zealand. Whereas each state, local government—or, in
some cases, both—must adopt such changes in the United States. Among the significant
results of this national control in New Zealand are the provisions covering “earthquake-
prone” buildings (i.e., prone to significant damage), discussed below.
The genesis for the current provisions covering earthquake-prone buildings is found in
the Municipal Corporations Amendment Act of 1968, in which the concept of dangerous
buildings was expanded to include unreinforced masonry or unreinforced concrete buildings
that were found to constitute a danger to persons if their ultimate load capacity would be
exceeded by a postulated moderate earthquake ground motion—at the time, defined as
one that subjected a building to seismic forces one half as great as those specified for
new buildings. This enabled mitigation of the risks of such buildings by local authorities
similar to processes to mitigate risk from dangerous buildings already in the code. Residential
buildings were included only if they were two or more stories and contained three or
more units.
Building codes in New Zealand continued to evolve with the Building Act 1991. The
Act established the Building Industry Authority (predecessor to the Department of Build-
ings and Housing) as nationwide regulator for the building control system. The provisions
for earthquake prone buildings were similar to those introduced in 1968. The Building Act
1991 also changed the format of the building code to be parallel with developing interna-
tional standards for performance-based design (Meacham 2010). Finally, The Building Act
2004 expanded the definition of earthquake-prone to include all building types and materi-
als and reduced the definition of a moderate earthquake to one that generates forces 33% of
those specified for new buildings (often abbreviated by 33%NBS). Most importantly, each
territorial authority (local building regulator) was required to develop and adopt a policy
concerning earthquake-prone buildings in their jurisdiction. Typically, this included devel-
oping an understanding of the structural types, materials, and occupancies of the potentially
earthquake-prone buildings in their jurisdictions. In some cases, authorities in regions such
as Wellington with high seismicity also adopted time periods for mandatory retrofit of these
buildings.
The earthquake-prone policies of New Zealand have no parallel in the United States, not
only because there is no “national” building code in the United States, but also because no
state has adopted seismic hazard mitigation policies covering all privately owned, older,
potentially seismically hazardous buildings. Perhaps the most comparable state law to the
earthquake-prone policies is California’s Unreinforced Masonry Building Law (State of
California 1986), which required local authorities in the high seismic zones of California
to identify and adopt mitigation policies for unreinforced masonry buildings in their jurisdic-
tion. A few local jurisdictions have, on their own, adopted policies targeting other potentially
hazardous building types such as concrete tilt-ups, non-ductile concrete, or soft/weak story
buildings, but nowhere in the United States are there policies as all-encompassing as
New Zealand’s earthquake-prone provisions.
432 HOLMES ET AL.
A more complete description of building codes in New Zealand and the United States,
along with many other countries can be found in Meacham (2010).
of liability; matters for which the Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery and the
Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority are responsible, such as design, planning, or
options for rebuilding the Christchurch CBD; and the role and response of persons acting
under the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act 2002, generally providing emergency
and some recovery services. Therefore, although the results of the inquiry include arguably
the best publicly available data ever assembled concerning the performance of a specific
building inventory in known ground motions, the documents developed by the Commission
do not represent lessons learned in all fields of interest in earthquake reconnaissance such as
performance of bridges, ports, and infrastructure, emergency response, social sciences, and
recovery.
All investigative reports, invited subject matter papers, peer reviews, and other written
submissions are on the Commission’s website (http://canterbury.royalcommission.govt.nz/)
and will be permanently available online in archives. Most of this material was presented and
enriched in public hearings from October 2011 to September 2012, all of which is available
on the Internet by transcript and through hundreds of hours of video recordings (http://
canterbury.royalcommission.govt.nz/Hearings-Schedule).
Summary results of the Commission’s inquiry are presented in seven volumes, the orga-
nization of which was dictated by the sequence of hearings and availability of data. The
original completion date of 11 April 2012 was later extended to allow a partial delivery
by 29 June 2012, and a final completion no later than 30 November 2012. The first part
consisted of Volumes 1–3 and was submitted 29 June. Volume 4 was a second submission
on 8 October, and the final submission, Volumes 5–7, was submitted 29 November 2012.
The content of the seven volumes is summarized in Table 1.
Although formal Commission recommendations are sequentially numbered and appear
throughout the text of the volumes in the context of discussion, the recommendations are
repeated in summary form in Volumes 1, 4, and 5. The 189 formal recommendations
vary from proposed changes to specific clauses in various New Zealand design standards
to sweeping national requirements that all earthquake-prone buildings be strengthened within
7 to 15 years for URM buildings and non-URM buildings, respectively. Additional recom-
mendations made by others in various submittals to the Commission are often highlighted in
the main body of the reports and these are not numbered, tracked, and not necessarily repre-
sented in formal Commission recommendations. These recommendations are not considered
herein.
(ASCE 7 2010). The Royal Commission has concluded that confidence is justified in the
current processes by which earthquake hazard in New Zealand is assessed and translated
into the provisions of the relevant Standards used for the purposes of building design
(CERC 2012, Vol. 1, p. 6). However, with respect to the inputs to the seismic hazard mod-
els, the Royal Commission recommends that research continue into the location of active
faults near population centers in New Zealand (CR 1). The continuation of such research is
also needed in the United States, as evidenced by the ongoing efforts of, for example, the
Working Group on California Earthquake Probabilities (http://www.WGCEP.org) and
the Working Group on Utah Earthquake Probabilities (Wong et al. 2011). Besides identify-
ing locations of active faults, these projects aim to quantify rates at which earthquakes
occur on faults and probability distributions for their magnitude. The same is needed in
New Zealand. Continued research on the other primary input to the seismic hazard models,
so-called ground motion prediction equations (e.g., Bozorgnia et al. 2012), is also needed in
both countries.
The Royal Commission also recommends (CR 37) that the magnitude weighting that is
applied in the New Zealand seismic hazard models be researched further in order to provide a
weighting factor for structural design that has a more rational theoretical basis (like those for
liquefaction and rockfall). The magnitude weighting factors are used to reflect the influence
of ground motion duration (which is correlated with magnitude) on the extents of damage that
occur in earthquakes. For the design response spectra in NZS 1170 (NZS 2004) at periods
less than 0.5 seconds, the factor is greater/less than unity for (moment) magnitudes greater/
less than 7.5. For the “rezoned” design spectra for Christchurch (discussed below), however,
the factor is applied at all periods, which the Royal Commission agrees is logical (CERC
2012, Vol. 1, p. 46). Magnitude weighting is not applied in the U.S. seismic hazard models
developed by the USGS, but doing so should be a topic of further research, as the Royal
Commission has recommended for New Zealand.
Four recommendations on the topic of vertical ground motions are made by the Royal
Commission: (i) to review the provisions of NZS 1170 related to vertical ground motions
(CR 2), (ii) to revise the shape of the design response spectrum for vertical ground
motions (CR 33), (iii) to consider the seismic design implications of vertical ground motions,
and iv) to identify locations where high vertical ground motions may be expected (CR 34).
Vertical ground motions recorded during the February Canterbury earthquake were
extremely high, reaching peak accelerations of 2.2 g, greater than the corresponding hori-
zontal accelerations (CERC 2012, Vol. 1, pp. 34–35). NZS 1170 determines a vertical design
spectrum by simply reducing the corresponding horizontal spectrum by a factor of 0.7,
although its commentary notes that at locations where the hazard is dominated by a fault
closer than 10 km, it is more appropriate to not reduce the horizontal spectrum at periods
less than 0.3 seconds. Based on some of the vertical spectra observed in the Canterbury
earthquakes, the Royal Commission states that vertical design spectra determined according
to NZS 1170 are too high in the long period range and may be too low in the short period
range for structures located close to some faults (CERC 2012, Vol. 2, p. 226). In the United
States, ASCE 7-10 (ASCE 2010) determines vertical seismic load effects via a single
constant fraction of the horizontal short-period spectral response acceleration. The
NEHRP Recommended Seismic Provisions (BSSC 2009), however, determine a vertical
design spectrum via a period-dependent ratio of vertical to horizontal spectral response
436 HOLMES ET AL.
acceleration based on studies by Bozorgnia and Campbell (Bozorgnia 2004) and others. The
vertical-to-horizontal ratio also considers sensitivity to earthquake distance (also a concern of
the Royal Commission), as well as to magnitude and site class. Nevertheless, this determina-
tion of vertical design spectra was not included in ASCE 7-10, at least in part because the
seismic design implications had not yet been developed. Thus, the Royal Commission recom-
mendation to consider the seismic design implications of vertical ground motions should also
be applied by building code committees in the United States, perhaps more so for retrofit and
post-earthquake repair of potentially brittle existing buildings because columns may be more
prone to failure in response to vertical motions than in new buildings. Furthermore, the cur-
rent provisions of ASCE 41-13 (ASCE 2013) related to vertical ground motions should be
reviewed, as the Royal Commission recommends for NZS 1170. More research on the effects
of vertical ground motions, particularly for brittle building components with high gravity
loading, may be needed.
On the subject of horizontal design response spectra, the Royal Commission recommends
(CR 32) that the spectral shape factors in NZS 1170 be revised for the deep alluvial soils
under Christchurch. For the horizontal spectra observed in the Canterbury earthquakes, the
current factors appear to overestimate in the short period range, and underestimate in the 2.0
to 4.0 seconds range (CERC 2012, Vol. 2, p. 226). Analogous recommendations could apply
in the United States. For example, the design spectra in ASCE 7-10 could be revised for
Seattle, WA, based on Frankel et al. (2007), who show that locations in the basin generally
exhibit higher seismic hazard than those outside the basin for periods around 1.0 second.
Such “urban” seismic hazard models have been developed, are underway, or are planned
for other cities as well (e.g., Memphis, TN; Salt Lake City, UT; and Los Angeles, CA).
As more such models are developed, revisions of design spectra in ASCE 7 should be
considered.
Also in CR 32, the Royal Commission recommends that the likely change in spectral
shape with earthquakes on more distant faults also needs to be considered. Consideration
of the differences between spectral shapes for earthquakes on nearby versus more distant
faults is also an issue in the United States. The design spectra from ASCE 7-10 are
often blends of spectral shapes for nearby earthquakes at shorter periods with those for
more distant earthquakes at longer periods. The spectral shape of the design spectrum is,
therefore, often conceptually inappropriate for modal response spectrum or response history
analyses (e.g., Reiter 1990). For this reason, so-called conditional mean spectra (Baker 2011)
are being proposed for the response history analysis provisions of the NEHRP Provisions
(BSSC 2014) and the next edition of ASCE 7.
Although they do not make a specific recommendation regarding post-earthquake
“rezoning”—that is, revising the seismic hazard factor, Z, in NZS 1170—after the
Canterbury earthquakes, the Royal Commission considers it important that the seismic
hazard factor assigned to a region should provide an accurate reflection of the area’s
earthquake hazard (CERC 2012, Vol. 2, p. 208). After the Canterbury earthquakes, the Z
factor for Christchurch was raised from 0.22 to 0.3 to reflect the potential for aftershocks
and triggered earthquakes (of comparable size to the Canterbury earthquakes) in the region
for a number of decades (Gerstenberger et al. 2011). Whether analogous increases in design
response spectra should be made after large earthquakes in the United States should be
APPLICATION OF THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE CANTERBURY EARTHQUAKES ROYAL COMMISSION 437
discussed by the USGS and U.S. building code committees, not to mention representatives of
local jurisdictions. Time-dependent increases or decreases in design spectra based on the
amount of time since the most recent earthquake on highly active faults has been broadly
discussed (e.g., Wesson 2006), but increases for aftershocks and triggered earthquakes have
not been. The United States should consider establishing a process to help local and state
jurisdictions make informed decisions about seismic design criteria for the recovery phase
that include consideration of aftershock potential.
Motivated by the increase in the NZS 1170 seismic hazard factor for Christchurch after
the Canterbury earthquakes, the Royal Commission considered the cost implications of
increasing the hazard factor on the design of new buildings (CERC 2012, Vol. 2, Section 7).
Such cost implications also need to be quantified in the United States, particularly in the New
Madrid Seismic Zone region where concern about the cost implications has prevented adop-
tion of the design response spectra in ASCE 7-10 by some local governments. A NEHRP
Consultants Joint Venture project entitled “Cost-Benefit Analysis of Codes and Standards for
Earthquake-Resistant Construction in Selected U.S. Regions (Task Order 16)” is underway.
Similar research is needed on the cost implications and benefits (e.g., future repair costs
prevented) for retrofit and post-earthquake repair of existing buildings. In Christchurch,
the increase in the seismic hazard factor has resulted in a corresponding increase in the num-
ber of buildings identified as earthquake-prone, per the “33%NBS” definition previously
described. The extent of retrofit, when required, is also significantly affected by the seismic
loading used.
GEOTECHNICAL CONSIDERATIONS
The geotechnical conditions in the Christchurch CBD were variable and often poor.
There was considerable damage due solely to liquefaction and differential settlement.
The Commission recommended that thorough and detailed geotechnical investigations
be carried out at each building site and guidelines be developed to assure more uniform
standards for such investigations (CR 3–4). Further it was recommended that the local jur-
isdiction keep copies of all site assessments and maintain a public database describing sub-
surface conditions (CR 5–6). In the United States, geotechnical reports are required by code
to be submitted to the governing jurisdiction for most building structures. However, the
reports are seldom reviewed, nor are the data extracted into a separate database. In jurisdic-
tions with poor or seismically sensitive soils, such a public database would be very valu-
able. The Commission also recommends further research into the performance of
foundations in the Christchurch CBD in the Canterbury swarm of events to better inform
future practice (CR 9). Ground motions from earthquakes create the best test of design
practices, so this recommendation will definitely be applicable for future U.S. earthquakes.
Although the Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance organization (GEER; http://
www.geerassociation.org) often performs such studies in a practical case study format,
resources are always limited, and these efforts could be expanded. Similarly, more systema-
tic, multidisciplinary investigations into all aspects of building performance and societal
response that historically have been coordinated by the Earthquake Engineering Research
Institute in the United States are clearly essential to effectively identify lessons from these
events.
438 HOLMES ET AL.
FOUNDATIONS
In light of extensive damage caused by differential settlement, the Commission recom-
mends more careful consideration of foundation design parameters in the serviceability limit
state (SLS), particularly in poor soils, limiting settlements to assure building performance
consistent with the intent of the SLS (CR 10–11). As previously mentioned, the United States
does not currently include a SLS, although overall code performance is being reviewed in the
2015 NEHRP Provisions (BSSC 2015) update cycle, and serviceability requirements are
being considered for some buildings.
For designs at the ULS, the Commission recommends careful consideration of deforma-
tions, including overstrength load cases. In addition, it is recommended that factors currently
used for the load and resistance factor design (LRFD) of foundations for seismic actions be
reassessed (CR 14–20). U.S. code committees have debated incorporation of both over-
strength factors and LRFD methods for foundation design for some time. Although incor-
poration of overstrength loads is logical, there is little field data indicating that this is a life
safety issue for U.S. buildings and the potential costs of such requirements have been a con-
cern. New Zealand experience should be studied when considering incorporation of both
overstrength and LRFD design into U.S. Codes.
Lastly, material that the Commission collected indicated a lack of consensus
guidelines for soil improvement and installation of deep foundations in New Zealand.
Recommendations were made that such guidelines be developed (CR 21–31). There
are few non-proprietary guidelines covering these subjects available in the United States,
other than textbooks. The California Geological Survey has issued SP 117a, Guidelines
for Evaluating and Mitigating Seismic Hazards (CGS 2008), as part of the Seismic
Hazards Mapping Act Program. Other non-proprietary guidance to design professionals
confronted with building code requirements for mitigation of site seismic hazards is
not known. However, rules to determine effects on new structures during design for
site settlements from liquefaction or soil failure have been developed in Vancouver,
B.C. (Task Force 2007), ASCE 41 (ASCE 2013), and are proposed for the 2015
NEHRP Provisions (BSSC 2015).
For a more detailed analysis of the performance of sites with improved ground in these
earthquakes, see Wotherspoon et al. (2014) in this issue.
An example of a U.S. guideline for deep foundations is a Federal Highway Administra-
tion document on continuous flight auger piles (Geosyntec Consultants 2007). In general, in
the United States, there is far less non-proprietary consensus–based guidance available for
geotechnical issues than for other aspects of building design (structural, mechanical, fire
safety, etc.). The need for such standardization is unclear and, unfortunately, probably cannot
be determined until strong ground motion occurs over a large urban area and performance
resulting from the current state of practice can be gauged.
recommended change in the concrete standard to prevent buckling in axially loaded walls
(CR 44, primarily due to the primary failure mode of the Hotel Grand Chancellor) to a broad
five-point recommendation for improvement in the processes of assessment of seismic
performance in buildings (CR 109, primarily from the various investigations into the collapse
of the CTV building). Due to the parallels in codes, standards, and practices between
New Zealand and the United States previously discussed, all of these are relevant in the
United States and should be reviewed in detail by appropriate code development committees.
However, the applicability, as measured by the need for improvement in U.S. codes or prac-
tice specific to each recommendation, varies considerably. For example, the issues of tor-
sional irregularity (CR 35), and design of diaphragms (CR 36), are already clearly considered
in U.S. codes and practice. However, the effectiveness of these provisions need further study.
In fact, diaphragms are under study as part of the development of the 2015 NEHRP Provi-
sions (BSSC 2015). On the other hand, the following topic areas are highlighted (in no par-
ticular order) as having a high potential to be improved in U.S. practice, either by research in
the topic area, or changes to codes or standards:
• The need to identify the sites and types of structures where vertical ground motions
could have a significant effect on overall structural performance and to develop
simplified methods to account for such motions (CR 34).
• Several recommendations relate to the elongation implied by material strains and/or
assurance that the yielding of reinforcement can extend beyond the immediate vici-
nity of a single primary crack (the source of possible bar fracture) (CR 41, 42, 46,
47, 48, 49, 57, 59, 109). This recommendation is in response to observations in
several buildings with concrete shear walls that had hairline cracks where subse-
quent removal of concrete uncovered fractured reinforcing steel.
• Elements of buildings susceptible to damage or failure from drift, most importantly
but not limited to gravity load carrying systems and stairs, should be evaluated for
stability at realistic drift levels, including the potential of drifts exceeding those
specified in the code (CR 58, 60, 62, 63, 109,110).
• Acceptability criteria should be developed for the various configurations of lightly
reinforced concrete fills over precast concrete elements used as diaphragms in older
concrete buildings (CR 61).
• Although the Commission’s Terms of Reference emphasized concerns from injury
and loss of life, nonstructural damage in the CBD was extensive in the February
event and largely overlooked, due to the many buildings with significant structural
damage. Despite strong code provisions in the United States to protect nonstructural
elements, implementation is not thorough or consistent (Masek 2009). Methods to
improve implementation should be pursued by design professionals, government,
and the construction industry (CR 64, 65, 70).
• Twenty-foot cantilevers on one face of 25 floors of the Hotel Grand Chancellor
created a significant gravity-driven lateral force on the building. Asymmetrical slop-
ing columns could create the same effect. It is not apparent that this interaction of
gravity and seismic lateral load was a significant contributor to the damage in HGC
but such systems will exacerbate transient drift and increase the potential for resi-
dual drift due to ratcheting. Code provisions for such situations have been consid-
ered in Canada (Dupius 2013). These conditions may become more common as
440 HOLMES ET AL.
architects seek new forms for their buildings, and code provisions should be con-
sidered for the United States. (CR 56).
Commission Recommendation 109, resulting primarily from the investigation into the
collapse of the CTV Building, is multifaceted and particularly important. It includes recom-
mendations that building evaluators more clearly recognize (i) the critical capacity of the
structure to resist gravity loads while being laterally displaced, (ii) the importance of a com-
plete load path without weak or brittle components, and (iii) the inability of sophisticated
analysis to predict exact damage patterns and failure modes. These recommendations are
applicable worldwide.
(DOGAMI 2007). Utah’s legislature has urged the state’s Seismic Safety Commission to
begin to inventory the state’s URM buildings, estimated to exceed 185,000 in number
(FEMA 2009). Since collecting an inventory of vulnerable buildings is often recommended
as a first and required step for mitigation, this recommendation is applicable to most of the
highly seismic regions in the United States. Considering the potential life safety risks from
typical URM damage at moderate ground motion levels, as demonstrated in the September
Darfield earthquake and elsewhere, similar, but perhaps more focused, inventories should be
collected in moderate seismic zones of the United States.
evaluation and retrofit provisions including minimum material testing, inspection and plan
review requirements (ICC 2012a, ICC 2012b). The 2015 IEBC will likely reference a
recently merged standard titled Seismic Evaluation and Retrofit of Existing Buildings
(ASCE 2013). These codes primarily target seismically vulnerable buildings through
major alterations that can trigger seismic evaluations and retrofits. As a result a considerable
but unknown number of voluntary retrofits or those triggered by alterations have been com-
pleted throughout the western United States. Since 1992, California has adopted retrofit reg-
ulations applicable statewide specifically for bearing-wall URM buildings (ICC 2013). Years
when other state and local governments began to enforce standard and consistent regula-
tions vary.
So while seismic evaluation and retrofit standards that may be triggered upon major
alterations or repairs have been available in the United States, only six cities in California
have enacted programs to require or encourage evaluations and retrofits for older buildings
other than URMs (CalEMA 2010). In addition, hospitals and public schools in California
have been required to undergo evaluations and, if warranted, to also require retrofits or repla-
cements (CSSC 2004, OSHPD 2012). Oregon and, more recently, Utah have been under-
taking inventories and evaluations of critical government buildings including schools in high
seismic regions (Oregon 2012, Utah 2011). Throughout the western United States, a small
percentage of non-URM older buildings have been evaluated and retrofitted, predominantly
by institutional owners that have long-term interests in their buildings. Although a national
U.S. law to mitigate seismically hazardous buildings of all types is not possible, and state
laws that affect the general inventory are unlikely, the Commission recommendation to
extend mitigation of hazardous buildings beyond URMs is applicable to many jurisdictions
in the United States, particularly for targeted building types like non-ductile concrete.
The Royal Commission recommends that communication to the public about earthquake-
prone buildings be improved (CR 102 to 105) by establishing a uniform building seismic
performance grading system (CR 72) and by clarifying expected performance of new build-
ings, older buildings and retrofit older buildings (CR 76). In the United States, a building
grading system has been drafted but not yet implemented (SEAONC 2012, USRC 2013).
Remaining issues include means to engage real estate market influences to accomplish the
purpose of placing a monetary value on seismic performance and assuring quality control for
rating assignments. However, widespread lack of public awareness in the United States about
the risks posed by the older building stock in earthquakes is still apparent and has not been
adequately addressed (FEMA 1998).
The Royal Commission recommends that laws be enacted to require a strict duty for
building owners, design professionals, and regulators to disclose risks posed by seismically
damaged buildings to inform building occupants and the general public (CR 93 to 95). In
addition, engineers should be required to report structures that present health and safety risks
to authorities even if not damaged (CR 183). The target of CR 183 appears to be earthquake-
prone buildings with critical structural weaknesses, presumably seismic. It is expected that, in
the United States, these two situations would be quite different. In California, due to an
Attorney General’s Opinion written in 1985 (AG 1985), an engineer retained to investigate
a building’s integrity, who determines that there is an imminent risk of serious injury and who
is advised by the owner that no disclosure or remedial action is intended, has a duty to warn
APPLICATION OF THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE CANTERBURY EARTHQUAKES ROYAL COMMISSION 443
occupants or building officials. Although never tested in court, the use of the word
“imminent” is widely interpreted as relatively immediate (such as from gravity loading pre-
sent or expected, or from an expected aftershock) and not from damage from an earthquake
with a completely unknown occurrence time. It is expected that in the post-earthquake situa-
tion, a voluntary review by an engineer that revealed damage would result in “tagging” the
building and notification of the local jurisdiction. Although not clearly stipulated, profes-
sional societies have generally suggested that the duty to warn occupants and building offi-
cials does not extend to voluntary seismic evaluations not related to post-earthquake damage,
on the basis that such a duty would stifle such evaluations and do more harm than good.
However, appropriate professional behavior in the two different situations is not widely
understood, nor published, nor is it required to be taught to candidates who seek engineering
and architecture licenses. At the least, these recommendations related to duty-to-warn would
indicate a need to clarify professional responsibility in the United States.
The Royal Commission also recommends that demolitions, barricades, emergency sta-
bilizations and other emergency protective works for reducing the risks of severely damaged,
earthquake-prone buildings should no longer require building permits (called “consents” in
New Zealand; CR 100). In addition, efforts by preservationists to delay demolitions, concerns
about the environmental impacts of asbestos releases during demolitions, and other regula-
tory impediments in the United States have also caused major delays and invariably exposed
the public to significant risks (Arnold 1998, Mesothelioma Center 2013). U.S. codes do grant
regulators considerable discretion for reducing or eliminating imminent risks; however, once
urgent situations have been addressed, historic preservation, intransigence by owners, and the
lack of funds for repairs have significantly delayed recovery efforts. In addition, the lack of
comprehensive and uniformly applicable post-earthquake repair regulations has slowed
recovery in the United States by rendering options for repair versus strengthening versus
demolition ambiguous and uncertain. The International Existing Building Code contains pro-
visions that delineate when strengthening is required in addition to repair for buildings with
various level of damage (ICC 2012a). Uncertainty in identification of circumstances that
would require strengthening of damaged buildings led San Francisco recently to adopt
more comprehensive post-earthquake repair provisions in 2012 (SF 2012).
The Royal Commission recommends that New Zealand work with the international
building safety evaluation community to refine consensus on international safety assessment
practices (CR 143). They also recommend that:
• Guidelines be developed for those entering damaged buildings (CR 124 to 126).
• The threat of aftershocks should be considered in safety assessments (CR 116, 117).
• Indicator buildings be used to speed decisions about the need for re-evaluations by
formalizing the sampling of previously evaluated buildings after subsequent earth-
quakes (CR 138).
• The color of the green placards should be changed to white because the green color
reinforces a commonly held misconception that buildings are not collapse risks and
need not be evaluated further (CR 143).
• Plan-based assessments and other, more-detailed engineering evaluations appear to
be warranted for earthquake-prone buildings even when tagged green (CR 151).
Like New Zealand, the United States uses a post-earthquake safety evaluation system
based primarily on guidelines developed by the Applied Technology Council and published
in the ATC 20 series (ATC 2005). In 2011, discussions started between representatives from
New Zealand and ATC that will result in a report on the Christchurch sequence by ATC.
ATC is also making plans to develop an update of ATC 20 considering the Christchurch
experience. See Galloway et al. (2014) in this issue for a full discussion of these issues.
However, regarding application of the specific Commission recommendations above, it
should be noted:
• ATC already has a document regarding entering damaged buildings (ATC 1996).
This document should be reviewed and updated for use in the United States.
• Aftershocks are already major considerations in the ATC 20 system. For both
practical and technical reasons, the current recommendations assume aftershock
shaking equal to the largest, prior damaging event. In the United States, considera-
tion of more intense shaking, as occurred in Christchurch, will be difficult for the
rapid or detailed tagging evaluations, but could be considered for later engineering
evaluations.
• Requirement for engineering evaluation of buildings already tagged green is unli-
kely to become policy in the United States due to practicality and cost. However,
local jurisdictions with active seismic mitigation programs and inventories of poten-
tially hazardous buildings may chose to use the occurrence of an earthquake to
achieve accelerated mitigation by requiring evaluation and even retrofit of selected
buildings. However, some policy makers have expressed concern that such pro-
grams may slow or inhibit recovery (ATC 2010).
Decisions about barricading and stabilizing damaged buildings drew the attention of the
Royal Commission. In one case, unstabilized, damaged storefront walls on a row of URM
buildings fell beyond barricades, killing 12 in the public right of way. The Royal Commis-
sion recommends that more comprehensive policies for erecting and maintaining barricades
and cordons be established (CR 156–159). After past earthquakes in the United States, bar-
ricading and stabilization to ensure the public’s safety has often been inadequate and poorly
maintained. In January 2012, CalEMA issued revised training curricula for its Safety Assess-
ment Program Coordinators that more rigorously address barricading practices for damaged
APPLICATION OF THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE CANTERBURY EARTHQUAKES ROYAL COMMISSION 445
CONCLUSIONS
Recommendations of the Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission of Inquiry have
been reviewed for applicability in the United States in the topic areas of seismology and
hazard mapping, geotechnical, foundations, structural design and evaluation standards, inno-
vative technology, vulnerable older buildings, post-earthquake safety evaluations, qualifica-
tion of building structural designers, and management of the risk of liquefaction. Based on
current legislation, policies, and procedures in the United States, many of the recommenda-
tions are applicable and the report represents an extraordinary “learning from earthquakes”
document from the Canterbury swarm in the subject areas covered (primarily related to per-
formance of buildings). Various recommendations can be directed toward U.S. federal, state,
and local governments in both the areas of code enforcement and emergency management,
consensus-building code writing groups, and professional practitioners in several disciplines.
Implementation of any of the recommendations will therefore have to be piecemeal, by the
agencies or organizations affected. It is recommended that individuals interested in imple-
menting recommendations review the full Commission report text regarding the individual
recommendations to better understand the circumstances that led to them.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to recognize and thank the Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Com-
missioners Honorable Justice Mark Cooper (Chairperson), Sir Ronald Carter, and Adjunct
Associate Professor Richard Fenwick, as well as their staff for their extraordinary efforts.
They will clearly benefit the advancement of earthquake risk management in the United
States.
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(Received 6 March 2013; accepted 30 November 2013)