Disaster resilient vernacular housing technology in Nepal

Geoenvironmental Disasters, December 2016, Volume 3, Issue 1, doi:10.1186/s40677-016-0036-y:

This paper outlines the disaster resilient vernacular housing technologies in two of the physiographic regions of Nepal. The vernacular houses are analyzed in terms of their performance and shortcomings during earthquake and flood disasters and found to be technologically resilient in many aspects of impending disasters in Nepal distributed within the physiographic regions. Using the comparative case study approach, field visits and non-structured interviews with local people, the resilient features in terms of construction technology of vernacular houses are identified in this study and the preliminary findings are highlighted as observed during the field visits without numerical modeling and analysis. The seismic performance of Rajbanshi, Gurung and Magar houses in Nepal during 1934, 1988 and 2015 earthquakes is presented in order to justify the performance of these particular housing stocks.