Helping Papua New Guinea build earthquake resilient buildings and bridges

The understanding of earthquake hazards in Papua New Guinea has greatly improved through collaboration between Geoscience Australia and the Port Moresby Geophysical Observatory. This revealed that building design standards from the early 1980s were inadequate. Funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Geoscience Australia has assisted with the development of new standards for buildings and bridges that now align with international best practice. Training on these documents was provided to local building professionals, resulting in thirteen professional development lectures. Assistance was also given to amend building legislation to enforce compliance with the updated standards. This program helps Papua New Guinea build resilient infrastructure and to better understand priorities for mitigating existing vulnerable community assets. Mark Edwards is a Director in the Community Safety Branch at Geoscience Australia. He leads a multi-disciplinary team collaboratively developing engineering and economic vulnerability models. He is an engineer who initially specialised in earthquake engineering with 13 years of industry experience followed by 28 years in research with a scope that has widened from earthquake vulnerability to multi-hazard risk. He participates in the development of Australian building design standards and leads the collaborative development of an evidence base to inform decision makers on strategies for mitigating natural hazard risk in the built environment, including that posed by earthquake hazard in Australia and PNG.