KOTA KINABALU: Earthquake building designs have to be implemented in earthquake red zone areas in Sabah.
Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) Natural Disaster Research Centre (NDRC) main researcher fellow, Ts. Dr Noor Sheena Herayani Harith stressed that districts in Sabah that are earthquake prone such as Ranau, Lahad Datu and Kunak, need such building designs.
“The exposure in suitable building designs at these earthquake hot spots to avoid loss of lives, in addition to inculcating training to prepare the public for the disaster.
“Earthquakes by itself is not dangerous, but the rubbles from building structures will impact and threaten people’s safety and lives,” said Dr Noor Sheena when delivering a talk at the Sabah State Disaster Committee Secretariat Strengthening Programme (JPBN) 2022 recently. She is also the head of the NDRC Earthquake group.
The talk entitled “The Science of Earthquake in Malaysia: Status and Challenges” is organised by the Sabah Malaysian Civil Defense Force (APM).
A total of 40 officers from APM, which is the secretariat for JPBN and committee of the district disaster management in Sabah, attended the event.
Dr Noor Sheena, who is also UMS Engineering Faculty’s senior lecturer also shared the Malaysia Seismic Danger Map.
The map is based on the Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) value in the Malaysian Standard MS En 1998-1: 2015 National Annex 2017 by Malaysia’s Standard Department.
“The Seismic Danger Map is a product of joint research of specialists from several departments, private agencies, nongovernment organisations and universities in Malaysia whereby one of them is a specialist researcher in the field of earthquakes from NDRC, UMS,” she said.
Meanwhile, UMS NDRC director Professor Madya Ts. Gs. Dr Carolyn Melissa Payus informed that researches linked to the behavior and mitigation of earthquakes are one of the research focuses at NDRC, in addition to tsunami, landslides, floods, climate change, drought, beach and river erosion.
“Established since 2006, this centre acts as a focal point for all research in UMS linked to natural disasters.
“NDRC’s involvement in the talk such as this is hoped to be able to give beneficial input in terms of early preparations to the JPBN Secretariat and JPBD, APM Sabah, and also provide opportunities to research specialists to share their research to stakeholders in the management of natural disaster in Malaysia.
“This is in line with the NDRC establishment which is to generate new knowledge connected to the behavior, mechanism, impact and mitigation of natural disaster toward the management of natural disaster that is more effective and holistic in the country,” she said.
