Bauwerksschäden infolge Erdbebens

Damage suffered by Buildings in the February 22, 2011, M 6.3 Earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand.

On February 22, 2011 the city of Christchurch in New Zealand was struck by an unexpectedly strong earthquake, causing 181 casualties and yet unknown socio-economic losses. More than 50 % of the buildings in the CBD were severely damaged, 25 to 30 % beyond repair. From March 25 to April 2 the author had the opportunity to join a reconnaissance team of the American Precast Concrete Institute (PCI) in order to inspect the damage that buildings and bridges suffered. Because the standard of earthquake resistant design is very high in New Zealand, and because the corresponding New Zealand design codes have been the basis for seismic design codes world wide since the early 1980's, it was particularly interesting to study the performance of modern buildings designed using capacity design principles. The paper describes the situation during the stay in Christchurch with respect to safety issues, the civil defence operations and the procedure followed by local authorities to evaluate the safety of damaged buildings. Also, the peculiarities of the February 22, 2011 earthquake and some of the significant examples of damage suffered by multi-storey buildings despite of modern design principles are discussed. Looking at two modern buildings that escaped the February 22 earthquake with almost no damage, a brief outlook is finally given on new earthquake resistant design concepts that will significantly reduce the expected economic losses.