[J09-6] Geodesy and seismology general contributions VI

[J09-6-04] Gorkha, Nepal Earthquake 2015 – Causes, Consequences, Socio- Economic Impacts, Lessons Learned and Way Forward

^○Meen Bahadur Poudyal Chhetri (Tribhuvan University, Institute of Crisis Management Studies, Kathmandu, Nepal)

Nepal is prone to various types of disasters such as: earthquakes, floods, landslides, fires, epidemics, avalanches, windstorms, hailstorms, lightning, glacier lake outburst floods, droughts and extreme weather events. Among all these disasters – earthquake is the most scary and damaging. The effects of a disaster, whether natural or human induced, are often far reaching. In addition to the natural factors, the losses from disasters are increasing due to the human activities and absence of proactive legislation. Fundamentally, the weak structures have been found as the major cause of infrastructure collapse in earthquakes. This emphasizes the need for strict compliance of town planning bye-laws and earthquake resistant building codes. Thus, proactive disaster management legislation focusing on disaster preparedness is necessary. This paper analyses the critical gaps responsible for emphasizing the seismic risk and of factors that would contribute towards seismic risk reduction to enable various stakeholders to address the critical areas for improving seismic safety in Nepal and other earthquake prone countries. Additionally, this paper aims to pinpoint the deficiencies in disaster management system in Nepal with reference to the devastating earthquake of 25 April 2015 and suggest appropriate policy and advanced technical measures.