Indian Housing Encyclopedia
भारतीय आवास सारसंग्रह

Features

As per 2011 census, India is home for about 1.2 billion people. This suggests that about 300 million houses are necessary to house them. And, current estimate of the housing shortage in India is about 25 million. Over the last six decades, there has been a great shift of population from rural to urban areas. Presently with 4% annual increase, urban population constitutes 37%, thus increasing the population densities in urban areas. The number and proportion of cities with a population of one million plus has grown significantly in recent decades. From 12 in 1981 with 26.8% share of the total population, the number of million-plus cities has increased to 55 in 2011 with 37% share of total population. This uneven distribution is posing three major challenges, i.e., safety, sustainability and affordability. In this lecture, focus will be on two aspects of housing, i.e., sustainability (including earthquake safety of housing in India) and affordability. In India, numerous housing typologies are practiced. Further, each of these typologies has many sub-typologies. In the early years after Independence, artisans were easily available with hands-on experience of having constructed houses of traditional typologies. They had skills and know-how on traditional technologies of house construction with different materials, e.g., burnt clay brick walls in mud/lime mortar, clay tile roofing on wooden rafters, and wooden doors and windows. These technologies were cost effective and were especially suited to regional atmospheric conditions. These houses stood for decades, and were environment and energy friendly. But, over the last two decades, many new materials and building technologies were introduced in urban areas, which found their way in rural areas. These technologies were not suitable to both urban and rural areas for resisting the prevalent hazards. In many instances, advanced technologies were employed in rural areas with little or no engineering inputs. Most critical aspect of housing is that all rural housing and some urban housing is self built by the citizens.
According to current Seismic Zone Map, around 60% of India's land area is prone to moderate to severe earthquakes; about 1 billion population lives in these areas. In last 2 decades in India, over 95% of life loss in the 9 damaging earthquakes is attributed to improper design and construction of houses. All three factors that influence earthquake risk of houses (hazard, vulnerability and exposure) are above danger levels in many districts of India. Gigantic effort is required to mitigate the prevalent earthquake risk. The lecture will present steps needed to be taken to move forward to reduce this phenomenal earthquake risk to housing in India.
About World Habitat Day: With the human population of the world growing at ever increasing rates and space at a premium, the United Nations created Habitat Day to promote awareness of the importance of ensuring that everybody has access to adequate shelter and accommodation. The United Nations designated the first Monday in October every year as World Habitat Day "to reflect on the state of human settlements and the basic right to adequate shelter for all". The Day is also intended "to remind the world of its collective responsibility for the future of the human habitat".

Who Are We

Earthquake problems are not new to our country. Several earthquakes in the last two decades caused enormous loss of life and damage to property. These events are ravaging nations leaving behind countless victims. Pre-disaster planning i.e., mitigation and preparedness can have a good impact on minimizing the post-disaster response i.e., emergency, rescue and rehabilitation. This also reduces tragedy and suffering to a great extent. One main reason for the casualties is collapse of buildings. The EERC at IIIT-H was established to address this issue, in addition to reducing damage to property during earthquakes. Major research areas of focus include 1) Seismo-tectonic modeling of Indian plate, 2) Fault motion analysis & wave propagation, 3) Site amplification & microzonation studies, 4) Nonlinear behavior of structures, 5) Seismic assessment of buildings & heritage structures and 6) Post earthquake studies.
In addition to these, EERC has been working towards earthquake awareness and preparedness of schools and communities, and capacity building of technical personnel in government and private organizations. This is done through lectures for administrators and school children, short-term courses for practicing architects, engineers and faculty members on regular basis.

Our Vision