Design regulations#

China#

TODO

Hong Kong#

TODO

Japan#

TODO

Macao#

TODO

North Korea#

There is no evidence of any deliberate seismic design regulations in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). Furthermore, there is concern regarding the construction quality of buildings in the country as a 23-story apartment collapsed in Pyongyang while under construction in 2014, killing hundreds who had already inhabited the structure.

South Korea#

Seismic design regulations were introduced in stages in South Korea (Kim and Bae 2016):

  • 1988 Seismic design required for buildings > 6 storeys and >100k m2 due to damage from 1978 Hong-Sung earthquake

  • 1995 Seismic design required for buildings > 6 storeys and >10k m2

  • 2005 Seismic design required for buildings > 3 storeys and >1k m2

  • 2015 Seismic design required for buildings > 3 storeys and >0.5k m2

However, code compliance is only about 33% nationally. The code compliance rate varies subnationally (Kim and Bae 2016):

  • Sejong (50.8%)

  • Busan (25.8%)

  • Seoul (27.2%)

  • Daegu (27.2%)

  • Incheon (28.5%)

According to the Korean Building Code (2016), the earthquake inverse coeffient ranges from 0.14g to 0.22g. Following the 2016 Gyeongju (MW5.4) earthquake, some improvements to the building code were recommended, including making seismic design mandatory for all buildings and subdividing seismic design standards by soil classification (Kim and Bae 2016). The 2017 Pohang (MW5.4) earthquake the following year incurred an estimated $50M in direct damage and completely destroyed 331 houses (Lee 2020).

Taiwan#

TODO

References#

Kim, Ye-seong and Jae-hyun Bae. Current status of seismic design of buildings in Korea and improvement tasks (2016). In Korean. Available at: https://www.nars.go.kr/report/view.do?cmsCode=CM0018&brdSeq=19502

Lee, Cheol-Ho. “Current Seismic Design Practice in Korea and Engineering Implications of Recent M5.8 Gyeong-Ju Earthquake”. In: Introduction to Earthquake Engineering and Dynamics of Building Structures 1. (2020). Available at: https://ocw.snu.ac.kr/sites/default/files/NOTE/Chapter%200_%20Introduction%20to%20the%20course.pdf