NSEMO: Rapid Assessment Programme

In our modern society, structures are of great importance. Buildings protect us from the environment and provide us with ready access to infrastructure such as water and electricity. Because of our dependence on structures, it is important to be able to evaluate them in the event that they are damaged. In the North Shore of Vancouver, this is especially true.

The North shore of Vancouver is in an active seismic zone and is likely to be hit by large earthquakes. While it is not possible to prevent these natural disasters, it is viable to mitigate their effects. In order to reduce the aftermath of earthquakes or other disasters, it is important for North Shore communities to be able to quickly gauge damage done to their buildings.

To combat the risks associated with the area, the North Shore Emergency Management Office (NSEMO) is planning to organize a Rapid Damage Assessment (RDA) program. NSEMO is a multi-municipality organization that is dedicated to creating “a disaster resilient North Shore”. They specialize in educating the public and private sectors regarding methods of disaster response. In addition to education, NSEMO also helps to plan, coordinate, and manage response efforts in the event of a natural disaster.

We will be working closely with NSEMO to aid in the development their RDA program. This program will be used to evaluate buildings after natural disasters, and will aid the general population in determining whether existing structures are safe to re-occupy or utilize. During the development of this program, we will be examining existing programs from the world, as well as NSEMO’s existing RDA training. Taking these factors into consideration, we will develop a strategy for the implementation of the program. This strategy will detail both how the program could be used, as well as how information could be collected, applied and shared.

Our team is composed of six UBC second year Civil engineering students; Christian Slotboom, Talen Springer, Vickramjit Poonia, Sarah Thompson, Erick Cheng, and Alexandr Shklyar. We have a collective interest in structural, geotechnical and transportation aspects of civil engineering. As a team we look forward to working with NSEMO, and contributing to communities of the North shore with our RDA program.