NRA Experience Paper on Retrofitting of Private Housing Post 2015 Gorkha Earthquake

In Nepal, there is currently a stock of around 6 million houses across the whole country and 2.5 million houses in the 32 districts affected by the 2015 earthquake. About 800,000 houses are categorized as reconstruction beneficiaries whereas approximately 70,000 are categorized as retrofitting beneficiaries. Analysis suggests that there remain almost 3.5 million houses nationwide and up to 1.1 million houses within earthquake-affected districts that require seismic retrofitting in some form.

Retrofitting is the judicious modification of the strength, stiffness and ductility of structural members or of the structural system to improve the structure's performance in future earthquakes. Retrofitting generally includes increasing the strength or ductility of individual members or introducing new structural elements to significantly increase the lateral force resistance of the structure. There are several approaches and techniques for the retrofitting of existing buildings currently in application all over the world. However, in low strength masonry buildings, especially in stone and mud masonry due to limited implementation examples, repair and retrofitting is viewed as an unfeasible option by our communities. This is why many earthquake-affected house owners have opted towards demolition of their damaged houses for reconstruction rather than retrofitting. In fact, retrofitting presents an ideal means for the conservation of traditional architectural heritage and provides the required space for beneficiaries to maintain their traditional agrarian lifestyle.