THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN

STRUCTURAL, NON-
STRUCTURAL AND
FUNCTIONAL VULNERABILITY

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 WHAT IS STRUCTURAL
VULNERABILTY?

 This category of vulnerability pertains to the

structural elements of the buildings, e.g.,
load bearing walls, columns, beams, floor
and roof.

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 CAUSATIVE FACTORS
 Location of the Structure
Location determines the type and extent of the
expected hazard (severity of ground shaking)
liquefaction, earthquake-induced landslide or
tsunami run off). A building located in soft soil,
or over liquefiable sand stratum, is likely to be
more vulnerable than that located on firmer
foundation soil strata

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 WHAT IS NON-STRUCTURAL
VULNERABILITY?
 "Nonstructural" usually refers to things that
are designed by someone other than the
structural engineer; however, nonstructural
walls are required to have some strength. For
example, interior non-bearing partitions are
generally required to be designed to resist a
minimum design lateral force. This is
intended to provide some resistance to
seismic forces perpendicular to the wall and
to ensure a minimum stiffness to the walls.

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  Non-structural elements of a building include
ceilings, windows, doors, non-load-bearing
partition walls, and electrical, mechanical,
plumbing equipment and installations, and
other contents. A building can remain
standing after a disaster but still be
unserviceable due to non-structural damage.
Moreover, the non-structural elements could
also lead to structural damage to the building
and cause physical injury to the occupants.

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  The cost of the damage to non-structural
elements in residential buildings generally
averages about 30% of the total loss. In offices
and critical facilities, such cost may be
considerable higher than that of the structural
elements. This is especially true for hospitals
where 85% to 90% of the value of the installation
is not in the support column, floors and beams,
but in the architectural design, mechanical and
electrical systems and in the equipment
contained in the building (Dr. Reinaldo Flores, in
introduction to the newlyprepared draft “Protocol
for assessment of the Health Facilities in
Responding to Emergencies: Making a Difference
to Vulnerability,
WHO, 1999, Geneva).

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 WHAT IS FUNCTIONAL
VULNERABILITY?
 Functional vulnerability needs to be
considered and eliminated for institutions,
especially the critical facilities such as
hospitals, emergency operation centers,
communication centers etc., to ensure that
the services provided by the facilities would
keep on running to meet the demands of the
community at the time when these are most
needed. The following section discusses
Functional Vulnerability in case of hospitals.

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  While assessing functional vulnerability,
consideration is made of:
1)location, accessibility, and distribution
of the services within the system,
2) individual services, both medical
(equipment and supplies) and non-medical
(utilities, transportation and communication),
that are vital to the continuous operation,
and
3) public services and safety measures
available inside the hospital.

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