Observation and Assessment of Failure Reasons of Earthquake Damage to Buildings

Because many people are killed by the collapse of buildings in great earthquakes such as the Chi-Chi earthquake in Taiwan, a very important issue in reducing the total death toll in earthquakes is building safety. The period of these collected earthquakes is from 1906 to 1999 and the areas cover all over the world such as the United States, Turkey, Japan, Taiwan, China, etc. The failure reasons of earthquakes damage to buildings have been broadly classified according to five characteristics: 1) Failure on zoning; 2) Failure on design (building code conformance); 3) Failure on design (building code nonconformance); 4) Failure on superior; and 5) Other reasons. By way of this observation and the further statistical analysis, the failure reasons of buildings from the past earthquakes can be assessed and applied to reduce casualties and damage in future events.