Rapid Visual Screening of Assam-type Government schools in Jorhat township area

The research paper comprises of seismic vulnerability study of Government schools in Jorhat township based on Rapid Visual Screening using Level I procedure. Detailed seismic vulnerability evaluation is a technically complex and expensive procedure and can only be performed on a limited number of buildings. It is therefore very important to use simpler procedures that can help to rapidly evaluate the vulnerability profile of different types of buildings. As per the classification of IS 1893:2002, the important lifeline buildings are schools, hospitals, fire stations, communication buildings, public buildings of importance, airports and runways etc. In our study, we prioritized the various school buildings, specifically the Assam-type schools in Jorhat township area. The Rapid Visual Survey of the schools has been carried out as per the guidelines of IS 1893:2002 and National Policy for seismic vulnerability assessment of buildings, approved by Government of India. In order to carry out the RVS, various information like age of the building, compressive strength of walls and floor, etc were collected. The details collected during the RVS was compiled, based on which vulnerability assessment of the buildings has been done by adopting a suitable scoring system as per EMS-98 approved by IS 1893: 2002 (Part 1). Building with higher performance score perform better compared to lower performance score.