''Las normas de construcción sismorresistente no salvan vidas por sí solas: deben acompañarse de planificación urbanística y pedagogía''
''Seismic-resistant construction standards alone do not save lives: they must be accompanied by urban planning and education''.
Antonio Aretxabala, from the University of Navarra, analyzed complementary methods to predict earthquakes: gas emission, animal behavior and programs of study of sediments.
"Recent experiences of earthquakes, such as the one that occurred on Wednesday 20 kilometers from Van (Turkey), have shown us that seismic-resistant construction standards alone do not save lives, nor mitigate disasters: they have to be accompanied by other measures such as urban planning and pedagogy." This was stated today by Antonio Aretxabala, geologist of the School of Architecture of the University of Navarra, on the occasion of his lecture 'Spain, a seismic country: architectural consequences of the latest earthquakes', held at the Pamplona Planetarium, as part of the Science, Innovation and Technology Weeks of campus.
As an example, the professor from laboratory of Building at School of Architecture mentioned the case of Istanbul, where a major earthquake is expected in the next 20 to 30 years and preventive measures have already begun to be implemented. "It is a megalopolis of 12 million inhabitants where 60% of the buildings are vulnerable from the point of view of earthquake resistance. Technical codes are not enough; the territory must be planned according to the activity expected from active faults. The whole community is involved in this: municipalities, government, NGOs...", he explained.
"Here there is no awareness of living in a seismic country".
In contrast, he commented that in Spain "we are not aware of living in a seismic country. When the Lorca earthquake occurred, people ran out of the buildings, instead of staying under cover." However, he insisted that these days a change has begun to be perceived:"The children of El Hierro are receiving training on how to behave in the event of an earthquake, in the same way as is done in countries with high seismic activity such as Japan, Colombia or the USA".
Antonio Aretxabala spoke of the need to deepen the research of various complementary methods for earthquake prediction, such as gas emission and paleoseismology, which consists of studying sediment layers to analyze earthquake disturbances and detect periods with stronger movements. He also indicated that animal behavior is being studied in China:"Some species detect earthquakes well in advance, such as cows and elephants. Companion animals anticipate them a few minutes before they happen".
Antonio Aretxabala and Cristina Sanz, also a professor at School of Architecture, participated this summer in the congress international Workshop of Civil Engineering and Urban Planning (WCEUP). After the publication of the conference proceedings, the organizing committee has recommended the discussion paper presented by them to an international journal of international scientific architecture. They have also recently published the first article of research on the Lorca earthquake in the International Journal of Environmental Protection, as a result of their participation this summer in congress.