Our Message

The reconstruction process initiated in the early 1990's gave the Lebanese institutions and the Lebanese civil society the opportunity to undertake the challenges of dealing with reducing the vulnerability of the new constructions to earthquakes.

The observation of how seismic designs have been implemented since the early 1990's shows that the adequacy and applicability of seismic safety standards was either misunderstood or not systematically applied in construction practice, and demonstrates that this opportunity has not been seized by the institutions (governmental and non-governmental) and by the parties directly involved in the construction process, putting a large inventory of buildings at risk from earthquakes.

And the bare view in the Beirut area of newly constructed buildings or buildings under construction adjoining existing constructions with staggered floor levels configurations, reveals the absence of a gap between the adjacent structures, illustrating an example where the basic principles of Earthquake Engineering have been violated, leading to the most notable and typical failures observed during earthquakes.

The site is intended to improve the understanding of earthquake effects in Lebanon so that the mistakes of the past would not be repeated in the future. It aims first to improve the adequacy and efficiency of seismic resistant designs of the ongoing and upcoming constructions, and second, to help identify the deficiencies that may exist in the major newly constructed or existing buildings to allow their owners to consider an assessment of the seismic resistance of their buildings, and if need be, to undertake the necessary remedial measures to ensure their stability following an earthquake.