The Full-Scale Laboratory: The Practice of Post-Earthquake Reconnaissance Missions and Their Contribution to Earthquake Engineering: The Third Nicholas Ambraseys Lecture

Abstract

This paper aims to review the nature and practice of earthquake reconnaissance missions since the earliest examples to today's practice, and to try to show some of the ways in which the practice of earthquake engineering today has benefitted from field observations. To give some historical background, the nature of some of the earliest recorded field missions are reviewed, notably that of Mallet following the 1857 Neapolitan earthquake; the achievements of the UNESCO-supported missions of the period 1963-1980 are considered; and the nature and contributions made by several national earthquake reconnaissance teams (EERI based in the United States, EEFIT based in the UK, and more briefly the Japanese Society for Civil Engineering, the German Earthquake Task Force, and AFPS based in France) are reviewed. The paper then attempts to summarise what have been the most important contributions from the field observations to several aspects of earthquake engineering, particularly to understanding the performance of buildings, both engineered and non-engineered, including historical structures, to geotechnical effects, to gaining understanding of the social and economic consequences of earthquakes, and to loss estimation from future scenario events. The uses and limitations of remote sensing technologies to assess damage caused by an earthquake are considered. Finally, possible changes in earthquake field missions to meet anticipated future challenges and opportunities are discussed. © The Author(s) 2014.