NEHRP Clearinghouse
- Title
- Earthquake Ordinances for the City of Los Angeles, California. A Brief Case Study.
- File
- PB280763.pdf
- Author(s)
- Solomon, K. A.; Okrent, D.; Rubin, M.
- Source
- National Science Foundation, Washington, D.C. Applied Science and Research Applications., October 1977, 62 p.
- Identifying Number(s)
- UCLA-ENG-7765
- Abstract
- The City Council of Los Angeles must develop and enact building ordinances which are designed to protect the safety of thousands of people against earthquake risk. The Los Angeles Building Department has identified 300 'high risk' buildings, and has said that there may be as many as an additional 14,000 within the city, all of which were constructed prior to the 1933 earthquake code standards. The objective of this paper is to illustrate some of the difficulties in dealing with decisions involving the building code revisions designed to protect against earthquake hazards. Discussed are: (1) the history of earthquakes in the Los Angeles area; (2) recent proposed earthquake ordinances; (3) public sentiment regarding earthquake ordinances (as depicted in newspaper editorials); and (4) comparisons of earthquakes risk for unimproved and improved pre-1933 structures. An appendix contains a brief UCLA report on the situation, as perceived in April 1976, and a copy of a briefing given to Governor Brown by the U.S. Geological Survey in March 1976.
- Keywords
- Earthquake resistant structures; Predictions; California; Risk analysis; Seismic risk; Ordinances; Hazards; Los Angeles (California); Building codes; Earthquakes