THE INTERNATIONAL NETWORK FOR THE DESIGN OF EARTHQUAKE RESILIENT CITIES (INDERC) WAS FOUNDED

As a convener of the Special Session: “The role of architecture and urban planning in the earthquake-resilience of cities: Encouraging cross-disciplinary engagement” that was held on September 27, 2012, at the Centro de Congressos in Lisbon, I would like to share also from my own personal blog the work we developed many months before the event, it culminate there, in Portugal.

Now we have founded "THE INTERNATIONAL NETWORK FOR THE DESIGN OF EARTHQUAKE RESILIENT CITIES (INDERC)" our main objective is the creation of this International Network in order to give support to the urgent need of communication, professional exchange, and cooperation, between those professionals who are interested in examining and applying earthquake-resilient design, and the consideration of earthquake hazards generally, in the fields of architecture, urban design, urban planning, geology, and landscape architecture.

As far as we can affirm, a natural disaster is the result of a vast ecological breakdown in the relationship between humans and their environment through violent imbalances of one or more of the four elements, fire, water, air, and earth. A natural disaster is always a serious and sudden event on such a scale that the stricken community needs extraordinary efforts to cope with it, often with outside help or interventional aid. After the study of Emilia Romagna earthquake and resilience, I found the amazing example of Father Ivan Martini. He was especially sensitive with poor people, taking care of their education. But Emilia Romagna, as other parts of Europe, suffered from a seismic amnesia for the last 450 years. Last year, Lorca in Spain woke up after 130 years of a similar seismic amnesia. Sofía, a few weeks ago, suffered also from a seismic shock. How many areas in Europe are still living in a dream?

A MOMENT OF THE SPECIAL SESSION IN THE 15WCEE IN LISBON, SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

The Special Session in the 15WCEE on “The role of architecture and urban planning in the earthquake-resilience of cities: Encouraging cross-disciplinary engagement” was held on September 27, 2012, at the Centro de Congressos in Lisbon, with the purpose of: 

- Hosting a panel of presenters who talked on the aspects of the stated topic. 

- Providing an open discussion forum on these topics for those in attendance. 

- Helping to establishing a network of interested individuals and organizations who could continue to discuss these topics and share information. 

This Special Session was organized by Teresa Guevara-Perez (Venezuela), Alice Tavares-Costa (Portugal), Luke Allen (New Zealand), Antonio Aretxabala-Díez (Spain) and Adriana Guisasola (Argentina) as follows: 

· An Introduction by Teresa Guevara-Perez 

· Presentation of panel members: 

Mário Lopes, Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), Lisbon (Portugal). 

Patrick Murphy, Director of Architecture in Broadway Malyan's, Madrid (Spain). 

Frederick Krimgold, Director of The Disaster Risk Reduction Program of The Advanced Research Institute of Virginia Tech, Blacksburg (USA). 

Andrew Charleson, Director of The Earthquake Hazard Centre, Wellington (New Zealand), Director of The International Association of Earthquake Engineering (IAEE) and the Editor-In-Chief of The World Housing Encyclopedia. 

· Discussion on the main topics 

· Presentation of the “Lisbon Manifesto” and foundation of the International Network for the Design of Earthquake Resilient Cities (INRDC) in English; and in Spanish: Red Internacional para el Diseño de Ciudades Sísmicamente Resilientes (RIDCSR). 

More than 74 professionals from the following countries participated: Algeria (1), Argentina (1), Bulgaria (1), Canada (1), Chile (3), Costa Rica (1), France (1), Greece (1), India (1), Iran (3), Israel (1), Italy (6), Japan (9), Malta (1), Nepal (1), New Zealand (1), Norway (1), Portugal (8), Rep. of Korea (1), Rep. of Macedonia (2), Rep. of San Marino (2), Romania (2), Spain (3), Switzerland (2),Thailand (2), Turkey (2), UK (6), USA (9) and Vietnam (1).

THE MEMBERS OF THE PANEL, AND TERESA GUEVARA-PÉREZ PRESENTING "THE 2012 INDERC LISBON MANIFESTO"

Participants belong to the following different organizations: 

- Algeria 

- Université des Sciences et de la Technologie Mohamed Boudiaf (USTO MB)

- Argentina 

- Instituto Regional de Planeamiento y Habitat. Facultad de Arquitectura, Urbanismo y Diseño de la Universidad Nacional de San Juan (IRPHa) 

- France 

- Egis International 

- India 

- Measi Academy of Architecture 

- Iran 

- International Institute of Earthquake Engineering & Seismology (IIEES) 

- Shahrood University of Technology 

- Israel 

- Ben Gurion University (BGU) 

- Italy 

- Agenzia Mazionale per le nuove tecnologie, l’energia e lo sviluppo economico sostenibile (ENEA) 

- European School in Reduction of Seismic Risk (Rose School) 

- Politecnico di Milano 

- University of Chieti-Pescara 

- Japan 

- Hokkaido University 

- Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) 

- Kanagawa University 

- Osaka University 

- Port and Airport Research Institute (PARI) 

- Wakayama University 

- Nepal 

- National Society for Earthquake Technology (NSET) 

- New Zealand 

- Tokin and Taylor. Environmental and Engineering Consultants 

- Portugal 

- Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa (ANPC) 

- Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto (FEUP) 

- Instituto Superior Técnico de Lisboa (IST) 

- Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil de Lisboa (LNEC) 

- University of Aveiro 

- Republic of Korea 

- Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) 

- Republic of Macedonia 

- Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology (IZIIS) 

- University St. Cyril and Methodius, Skopje 

- Republic of San Marino 

- Universita di San Marino 

- Romania 

- University of Architecture and Urbanism “Ion Mincu” Bucharest 

- Institutul National de Certare-Dezvoltare in Constructil, Urbanism si Dezvoltare Territoriala Durabila (Urban-INCERC) 

- Spain 

- Institut Geològic de Catalunya (IGC) 

- University of Navarra 

- Switzerland 

- Résonance Ingénieurs Conseils SA 

- Thailand 

- Chualong Korn University 

- Panya Project Organization 

- Turkey 

- Istanbul Technology University 

- United Kingdom 

- Edmund Booth Consulting Engineer 

- University College London (UCL) 

- University of Bath 

- University of Cambridge 

- USA 

- Arup 

- Civil & Environmental Engineering Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh 

- Earthquake Enginering Research Institute (EERI) 

- GeoHazards International (GHI) 

- Stanford University 

- World Bank Group 

-AND MORE...

- Private companies of building engineering or architecture or civil engineering designers 

- Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Greece, Malta, Norway, Republic of Macedonia and Vietnam. 

Such a wide diversity of professionals with different nationalities and representing a wide variety of organizations shows the high importance of this topic and of the objectives expressed through the Special Session blog. 

The presentation of the “Lisbon 2012 INDERC Manifesto” identifying the main problems involving the cross disciplinary engagement of professionals on the design of earthquake resilient cities, as well as the main objectives and following actions, was one of the relevant moments of the Special Session.

The 2012 Lisbon INDERC Manifesto

International Network for Design of Earthquake-Resilient Cities (INDERC)

Red Internacional para el Diseño de Ciudades Sísmicamente Resilientes (RIDCSIR)

We, professionals (architects, geologists, urban planners, structural, civil, geotechnical social engineers, etc.) engaged in making cities resilient to earthquakes.

1. Having participated in the Special Session “The role of architecture and urban planning in the earthquake resilience of cities” of the 15th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering.

2. Recognizing that:

· The design of cities has a critical effect on their ability to absorb, respond to and recover from the effects of earthquakes. 

· This goes beyond the structural strength of buildings, the physical resilience of lifelines and critical infrastructure, and geotechnical engineering.

· The earthquake resilience of cities includes the design and layout of cities and their components, the consideration of earthquake hazards in this design, and their relationship to how communities and authorities alike can respond to and recover from earthquakes.

· There is a need of communication professional exchange and cooperation between those professionals who are interested in examining and applying earthquake-resilient design and the consideration of earthquake hazards generally, in the fields of architecture, urban design, urban planning, and landscape architecture.

· It is important that a multidisciplinary approach should be taken to the gathering and implementation of knowledge on this subject. Means to foster communication and collaboration; between the fields of engineering, design and planning, emergency management, and policy and government, will be formed and promoted.

Propose:

The creation of the International Network for Design of Earthquake-Resilient Cities is to:

- Provide a hub for multidisciplinary knowledge exchange about design for earthquake-resilience of cities through an open network of individuals and organisations.

- Encourage communication and collaboration between disciplines related with the seismic resilience of cities: structural engineering, geotechnical engineering, seismology, lifelines engineering, emergency management, social sciences, architecture, urban planning and landscape architecture, and others; and policy-makers and government authorities. 

- Encourage engagement with all disciplines concerned with the aim of earthquake-resilient cities.

- Identify areas for study and development within the fields of architecture, urban design, urban planning, and landscape architecture that consider urban resilience from the effects of earthquakes as a part of best-practice design.

- Promote educational initiatives such as cross-disciplinary courses in schools of architecture, urban planning and structural engineering, including the influence of urban planning and architectural configurations on seismic resilience of cities.

- Assist in the advancement of resilient design principles in city planning policy and building regulations, through the collaboration between engineering and design disciplines and policy makers.

INITIAL MOMENTS OF THE SPECIAL SESSION "THE ROLE OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN PLANNING IN EARTHQUAKE-RESILIENCE OF CITIES"  INTO THE 15WCEE. SEPTEMBER 27, 2012 IN LISBON, PORTUGAL