| Summary: | Earthquakes, such as the ones capable of affecting the Lower Mainland of British
Columbia, can have a devastating effect on the environment that people live and work
in. The purpose of this thesis is to examine methods of dealing with the hazards and
problems created by existing, often historically significant, unreinforced buildings in
earthquake-prone areas. Gaining an understanding of the complexity of this problem
and the issues involved in establishing hazard mitigation policies gives insight into the
policy-making process. The research indicates that a number of internal and external
factors affect the formulation, adoption, and implementation of hazard mitigation
policies. Despite limited awareness of the problem, low political salience of the issue,
and limited resources in most communities, there are many steps that can be taken that
will reduce the public's exposure to the risks created by unreinforced buildings and
strengthen historically significant buildings that hold value, socially, economically, and
culturally. Establishing more extensive mitigative measures, such as implementing a
seismic retrofit policy, requires a decision-making process that must involve the people
who live and work within that community. Each community, through a process of
consultation with the stakeholders, needs to decide if it is in their interest to pursue
hazard mitigation strategies to reduce the seismic risk. There is a need to integrate
hazard mitigation strategies into the daily decision-making process of politicians and
planners. The thesis concludes with some points for stakeholders to consider in
designing policy to reduce the earthquake hazard that all the communities in the Lower
Mainland of British Columbia face. === Applied Science, Faculty of === Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of === Graduate
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