Int'l Earthquake Rehabilitation Conference from 18th
By Ali Imran

ISLAMABAD—Prof. Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman, Federal Minister and Chairman Higher Education Commission will be the Chief Guest at the inaugural session of the International Earthquake Rehabilitation Conference scheduled to be held on 18 & 19 November, 2005 at HEC Auditorium, Islamabad. All the arrangements regarding the conference have been finalised and seismic experts from abroad have been arrived Pakistan to attend the conference.
The conference has jointly been organized by Higher Education Commission (HEC) and NWFP University of Engineering & Technology (UET) Peshawar.
The theme of the conference is "Seismology, Structure s & Codes". The conference will address technical issues including seismic hazards assessment, developing building codes and disaster preparedness/ management and will cover the four areas i.e. seismic hazard assessment, seismic vulnerability of structure, building codes and disaster management.
About 10 seismic experts including Dr. Claudius Strobbia and Dr. Andrea Penna from European Centre for Training and Research in Earthquake Engineering Italy, Prof. Dr. Miha from Earthquake Engineering Institute, Liubliana, Slovenia, Prof. Dr. Mihail Garevski from Institute of Earthquake, Engineering and Seismology, Macedonia, Engr. Saif Hussain from Earthquake Engineering Research Institute USA, Prof. Dr. Mustafa Erdik and Dr. Nuray Aydinoglu from Department of Earthquake, Engineering Bogazici University, Turkey, Dr. Bijan Khazai from Earthquake Engineering Research Institute USA and Prof. Dr. Zoran Milutinovic from Institute of Earthquake, Engineering and Seismology, Macedonia have confirmed their participation in the conference. They will share their experience, while NWFP UET earthquake engineers will present technical assessment report of their survey on the affected regions. The conference will come out with recommendations on construction of buildings and infrastructure, which are expected to help in developing the reconstruction strategy at national level. This conference also coincides with the UN Donors' conference scheduled for 19th Nov, 2005 in highlighting technical issues, it will further help to raise the confidence level of donors by noticing international experts, universities and academia involved in the reconstruction phase.
Researchers, professionals and building code regulators from the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, (EERI), which is the recognized national authoritative source for earthquake risk reduction in USA, will also attend the conference.