An-Najah Staff

This study aims at achieving some familiarity with the range of Palestinian engineers’ awareness of the dangers of earthquakes and the extent of using means of reducing such dangers when designing buildings and structures. Seismic designs can be achieved through reducing the vulnerability of buildings to earthquakes and, therefore, working with concerned institutions to lay out plans to develop the potentials of engineers and to enact legislations and proper mechanisms of implementing them. The regulations and their implementation policies will be congruent with international requirements, particularly those published within the frame work of Hugo for the 2005-2015 decade. A special questionnaire was designed for this study to obtain the required data from engineers. The questionnaire included questions about the educational backgrounds of engineers, the demographic features, in addition to questions related to the engineers’ knowledge and awareness of the means that reduce the dangers of earthquakes and his/her commitment and application of such means when designing, supervising and executing building projects. The preliminary study shows that the majority of engineers believe that Palestine is subject to earthquakes in the future. More than half of the engineers said that they did not study seismic design during their programs of university study. A small percentage of engineers said they participated in workshops in the domain of seismology. Generally, the majority of respondents said that there is a pressing need to hold seminars, lectures and workshops that address seismic designs in buildings. Less than one fifth of the engineers said that they, their firms or their ministries had received the seismic map of Palestine and the majority of them said that they had not used the seismic map which was issued by The Center of Earth Sciences and Seismology at An-Najah National University. The study also shows that less than one fifth of respondents know that the Committee of Engineering Firms issued regulations regarding the need for commitment to seismic designs. Conversely, we find that more than three thirds of the respondents show that engineers and engineering firms must be obliged to design seismic resistant buildings; such designs must be supervised and followed up by concerned legal parties. The study also showed that nearly half of respondents do not know and have not dealt with the minimum requirements of seismic resistant buildings.