Panel Discussion: Earthquake Engineering

The discussion was initially kicked off by panel chair, Andrew Hodgkinson, Director with event sponsor Hewson Consulting Engineers. Drawing on Hewson's experience in delivering projects in earthquake prone areas, Andrew highlighted the devastating impact of recent earthquakes, and the importance of earthquake prevention through seismic design.

Josh Macabuag, Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) Engineer at SARAID and UCL EPICentre member, works in Urban Search and Rescue teams made up of specialist engineers, highly trained sniffer dogs and local specialists. Drawing on his experiences following the 2015 earthquake in Nepal, Josh discussed the engineer’s role in, and the complexities of locating casualties in collapsed buildings, conducting building risk assessments and carrying out entombed causality recovery operations.

Katherine Coates, Associate Director and Earthquake Engineer at Arup, concluded our overview of the earthquake engineering disaster cycle by exploring issues within seismic design. Katherine discussed how earthquakes differ from other disaster events and how earthquake ramifications and consequences have differed depending on a country’s earthquake awareness and economic state. Katherine further discussed the importance of local communities’ role in the process of change in seismic design.

Thanks to all those who attended on the evening, and to Hewson Consulting Engineers for sponsoring the event. If you were unable to attend, there is no need to worry! Recordings of the entire event can be found here.

If you are interested in hearing about future RedR events, please contact our Membership team.