SECTION III: PLANNING
A summary view of the rapid visual assessment of a school
building with three blocks – Unit 1, 2 and 3. Using a series
of screens to compare the unit to photos of different building
typologies and characteristics, the team has categorised the
units, considering global building behaviour, material quality,
horizontal and vertical behaviour, building mass and lateral
resistance. The tool also asks teams to assess non-structural
and functional issues. Following a rapid visual assessment,
VISUS engineering experts review field assessments and the
accompanying photographs to ensure accuracy.
Designed in Italy, VISUS focuses on structural typologies
common in southern Europe. Applying this technology to
other contexts requires adaptation. The tool needs to be
expanded to include traditional building materials like adobe.
It also needs to respond to a broader range of hazards
to be applicable in other contexts. Currently, the team is
conducting other pilot applications in Laos and Indonesia.
This requires adapting the tool to entirely new building types
and hazards – including floods, tsunamis and high winds.
Challenges to this approach
• Retrofitting programs can improve the hazard resistance
of existing unsafe school buildings.
In the pilot stages, the tablet was not fully functional in the
field. Rather than allowing the users to assess the safety of
the facility as issues were discovered, the tablet-application
forced the user into a rigid linear progression of the five
sections of the VISUS method. Realising this problem, teams
quickly began recording the information on paper and
enter the data once they returned to university. The pictorial
comparisons provided in the application were still essential,
but the tablet application needed modification to be fully
functional in the field.
Rapid visual assessment is only the first step. The work in
El Salvador identified school buildings that were likely to
be the weakest, and because the VISUS tool was used,
it provided initial estimates for retrofitting or replacing
them. Yet even though the results of the pilot study are
promising, the long-term impacts to Salvadoran schools are
still unknown. The MoE and other actors still need to fund
retrofitting and replacement. Engineers still need to complete
detailed assessments, including sampling materials from the
schools and testing their strength, before creating retrofit or
replacement designs. And of course, the work then needs to
be carried out.
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Key takeaways
• When resources are limited, rapid visual assessment tools
help quickly identify the weakest schools and the schools
with the most vulnerable students.
• Local engineers may have little formal training in methods
for assessing existing structures for vulnerability to
hazards.
• Partnering assessment experts with local universities can
build the capacity of engineering students, faculty and
government officials.