This country is prone to earthquakes.
Yogyakarta (ANTARA) - Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) Minister Basuki Hadimuljono urged researchers at universities across Indonesia to develop several earthquake engineering innovations to support the establishment of earthquake-resistant houses, buildings, and infrastructure.

While delivering his remarks virtually at the 5th International Conference on Earthquake Engineering (ICEEDMS) held by the Faculty of Engineering of Gadjah Mada University (UGM), Yogyakarta Province, on Wednesday, Hadimuljono emphasized that those innovations were needed since Indonesia was a country located in a disaster-prone area.

"This country is prone to earthquakes. The government has prepared earthquake-resistant building and infrastructure designs according to the disaster mitigation concept," he remarked, as quoted from UGM's official site.

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The minister noted that the design of earthquake-resistant buildings and infrastructure continues to develop, for which synergy between the government and researchers at various universities is deemed necessary.

"I think that there should be harmony and synergy between earthquake engineering researchers, industry players, and the government to bolster earthquake mitigation attempts, both in Indonesia and in other countries," the minister emphasized.

To mitigate the damage due to earthquakes, so far, the PUPR Ministry has implemented earthquake-resistant design in various housing and infrastructure development projects, he stated.

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In fact, he noted that various dam and bridge development projects in Indonesia have applied earthquake-resistant constructions.

"(The earthquake engineering is applied) ranging from the designs of bridges, dams, to offshore infrastructure. We always evaluate seismic performance (of the infrastructure) and implement earthquake-resistant designs for the rehabilitation of building structures," he stated.

On the same occasion, one of the keynote speakers of the event, Professor Jonathan Bray from the University of California, the United States, said that the level of damage caused to buildings during an earthquake was influenced by the stiffness of the surface soil material, the condition of hard and soft rocks, as well as the depth of bedrocks.


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Translator: Luqman Hakim, Uyu Liman
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
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