beirut disaster risk resilience future concrete 2014 · for disaster reduction (un-isdr) the...

Beirut Disaster Risk Resilience

FUTURE CONCRETE 2014 Conference Organized by ACTS

The Royal Hotel in Dbayye , Lebanon, June 19, 2014

Professor Bilal Hamad

Mayor of Beirut

A natural disaster is the occurrence of an abnormal or

infrequent hazard that impacts geographical regions causing

substantial damage, possible casualties, and leaving the

affected communities unable to function normally. From an

economic perspective, a disaster implies some combination of

losses in terms of human, physical, and financial capital, and

reduction in socio-economic activity.

Prof. B. Hamad, June 19, 2014

Natural Disasters

Natural disasters include Earthquakes, landslides,

volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, tropical cyclones, and

floods.

Given the industry concentration in cities and the

additional cost of reconstruction after disasters, reduction

of vulnerability to disasters in metropolitan areas and

megacities is a critical challenge facing development.

It is expected that in 2050, the global cost of natural

disasters will be around 300 Billion Dollars annually!

Natural Disasters

Most of the population growth in the next 30 or 40 years

will be concentrated in cities and towns almost doubling

urban population. More than 90% of this urban population

growth will be in developing countries like ours.

It is therefore a must to address urban vulnerability to

disasters and start working on a disaster management plan.

Vulnerability in Metropolitan Areas

Beirut Earthquake Hazard

Lebanon is located along the 1000 km long Dead Sea Transform Fault System, also known as the Levant Fracture, extending from the seafloor spreading in Red Sea to the Taurus mountains in southern Turkey. Within Lebanon, the Levant fracture splits into five main branches: the Roum, Yammouneh, Seghaya, Rachaiya and Hasbaya faults. Throughout its history, Lebanon has been hit by several earthquakes including major ones. Four earthquakes stand out in the history of seismic activities in Lebanon: the earthquakes of 551, 1202, 1759 (two events) and 1837. The magnitudes of these earthquakes were estimated, based on historical accounts, to be in excess of 7.0, and caused widespread destruction in most of Lebanon and neighboring countries.


In recent times, the last sizable inland earthquake that struck Lebanon was the double shock of March 16, 1956. The epicenter was estimated close to the northern tip of the Roum fault and the magnitude was measured at 5.8. This earthquake left 136 dead, 6000 homes destroyed and about 17000 heavily damaged. More recently, an earthquake of magnitude 5.3 struck Lebanon on March 21, 1997. The epicenter was almost at the same location (Roum fault). This earthquake caused slight damage (wall cracking) of a few old bearing wall buildings, and resulted in a few cases of nonstructural damage at the upper stories of reinforced concrete buildings. No loss of human lives was reported.

The earthquake generating process is not understood well

enough to predict the exact time of earthquake occurrence.

Therefore, Beirut and Lebanon must be prepared for an

earthquake to occur at any time. The satisfactory

performance of a large number of reinforced concrete

structures subjected to severe earthquakes in different areas

of the world, has demonstrated that it is possible to design

such structures to successfully withstand earthquakes of

major intensity.


Beirut is currently home to about one-third the Lebanese population, and is also the main contributor to the country's GDP. It involves large investments from both the public and private sectors, while hosting most of the country's governmental sectors.

The cost of not investing in disaster risk reduction for the city of Beirut would therefore be tremendous, both in terms of human and economic losses, for Beirut and for the country as a whole. The occurrence of a major destructive earthquake would have deteriorating effects on the country's political and economic situation.

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General Safety Decrees in Lebanon

Decree 11266 was issued on November 11, 1997 requiring design of buildings for a ground acceleration of 0.2g. However, this decree did not include a clear execution mechanism and was never applied. Decree 14293 was issued on March 11, 2005 requiring design of buildings for a ground acceleration of 0.2g. The decree stated that the execution of the decree was the responsibility of the builders (owner, consultants, technical controller, contractor, etc), and required the checking of technical control offices (this was not implemented because no accreditation mechanism was adopted).

Decree 7964 was issued on April 19, 2012 modifying the previous decree by changing the required ground acceleration to 0.25g and requiring the approval of technical control offices where a clear accreditation mechanism was indicated.


In 2010, Professors Hamad, Harajli and Sadek of AUB were commissioned by Solidere to conduct a study for establishing Seismic Design Criteria for the Beirut Central District (BCD). Based on the results of this study, the following conclusions were drawn:

The ranges of ground accelerations on rock for the Solidere area in Beirut vary between 0.26g and 0.28g for a 10% probability of exceedance in 50 years, and between 0.31g to 0.33g for a 10% probability of exceedance in 100 years.

Consequently, it was highly recommended that all structures and infrastructure facilities in the BCD to be analyzed and designed using seismic Zone 3 (Z=0.3) of UBC 97.

Making Cities Resilient Campaign United Nations International Strategy

for Disaster Reduction (UN-ISDR)

The campaign was launched in May 2010 at the Mayors

Adaptation Forum in Bonn. The campaign addresses

issues of local governance and urban risk. The campaign

demonstrates local leadership and raises awareness of

how our efforts to reduce disaster risk are making our

cities safer and more resilient.

Making Cities Resilient Campaign United Nations International Strategy

for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR)

A resilient city is characterized by its capacity to

withstand or absorb the impact of a hazard through

resistance or adaptation, which enable it to maintain

certain basic functions and structures during a crisis, and

bounce back or recover from an event (Twigg, 2007;

UNISDR).

Initiatives of the Municipality of Beirut

The Municipality of Beirut has been participating in various national

and global DRM initiatives for several years, notably, by being a member of the Steering Committee of the UN-ISDR’s Making City Resilient Campaign for urban DRR. Representatives of the Beirut Municipality participated in a number of regional and international workshops, seminar and platforms for disaster risk.

Through this multitude of involvements and learning experiences,

the Municipality has developed a vision for a resilient Beirut and understood the importance of a competent risk management system and resources for the City and the Country.

The city of Beirut collaborated with the Disaster Risk Management

Unit established at the Office of the Prime Minister and joined the UNISDR "Making cities Resilient" campaign.

Though several measures that would help enhancing Beirut City readiness in facing disaster risk are beyond the municipality framework and responsibility (e.g. maintaining critical infrastructure, education programs, response & reconstruction, etc...), an action plan was set by the City Council to promote the relevance & importance of adopting a systematic approach to reduce Disaster risk.

What is the Roadmap of Beirut City Council?!

The City Council is working on the development of “Beirut

Urban Resilience Master Plan” with the assistance of a group

of international experts from a consortium consisting of

Earthquakes and Megacities Initiative (EMI), Global

Earthquake Model (GEM) Foundation, Kandilli Observatory

and Earthquake Research Institute (KOERI), and ETH Zurich.

Beirut City Council Action Plan

The core elements of the “Beirut Urban Resilience Master Plan” include:

DRM Database, Geographic Information System and Data Sharing Technology

Hazard, Vulnerability and Risk Assessments (HVRA) to assess Earthquake and Tsunami Risks. This includes assessment of socio-economic vulnerability.

Legal and Institutional Arrangements (LIA) for DRM

Land Use Planning (LUP) and Construction Control

Emergency/Disaster Management (EM)

Training and Capacity Building (TCB)

Information, Awareness and Communication (IAC)


The premises of collaboration and participation are core to

the development of the Beirut URMP. While a strong team of

foreign experts can provide methodology and guidance, the

plan has to be developed, validated, owned and

implemented by the Lebanese authorities and institutions. It

requires the engagement of the policy makers, the

cooperation of the national institutions, the participation of

the local experts and the contributions of the local

professionals and practitioners.


Lessons learnt from previous experiences

Increase awareness within threatened population to

advocate for enforcing DRR measures

Indicate the business or financial case of investing in DRR

to encourage the government to invest in prevention as

well as in response

Beirut City Council Action Plan Measures that can accelerate and scale up

political attention

Installation of micropliles and pile caps

Upgrading of Existing Buildings

Case of Palace of Justice, Beirut

Installation of column jackets



Installation of shear walls



Installation of raft foundation and shear walls


Case of Ministry of Justice, Beirut

Thank You

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